President Donald Trump said that his youngest son, 19-year-old Barron, was “very hurt” by the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.“He was very hurt when he saw this, but I mean, everybody was,” Trump said on September 12 during an interview with Fox & Friends.
Kirk, 31, a close Trump ally and co-founder of the student organization Turning Point USA, was fatally shot on September 10 while engaging with college students at Utah Valley University. Authorities later arrested Tyler Robinson in connection with the killing in Orem, Utah.Trump recalled that Barron had wanted to meet Kirk.“Barron came to me and he said, ‘Dad, I’d like to meet somebody that you know — Charlie Kirk,” Trump said. “I thought he was going to say, I want to meet King Charles or something.”The president arranged a lunch meeting between the two, as reported by USA Today. “He came back. He said, ‘That guy’s great, Dad,’” Trump added. “Charlie had a magic over the kids, and large numbers of them, and very diverse—Black, white. I mean, everybody, the young women and boys, and I’ve never seen anything like it.”Barron had recently completed his freshman year at New York University’s Stern School of Business in Manhattan. He has now moved to the White House and enrolled at NYU’s Washington DC, campus. The US President has credited Barron with helping him connect with young voters who played a key role in his return to the White House. First lady Melania Trump has also acknowledged her son’s role in engaging young voters.Trump said his youngest son encouraged him to engage with popular podcasters such as Joe Rogan and Adin Ross and to increase his presence on social media platforms like TikTok, prompting him to call Barron the “king of the internet.”“He was very vocal. He brought in so many young people,” Melania Trump said after a month after Trump’s victory. “He knows his generation because nowadays the young generation, they don’t sit in front of TV anymore.”Earlier this year, Will Donahue, president of the College Republicans of America, described Barron Trump as the “future of the conservative movement.”
