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Barron Trump, the youngest of Donald Trump’s children, is embarking on one of the first big adventures of adulthood this fall: going to college.
The 18-year-old, having just graduated from Florida’s prestigious Oxbridge Academy, attended his first day at New York University this week.
Barron will now join a long line of young adults to attend school with the weight of their parents’ presidential legacies on their shoulders — and Secret Service agents watching their every move.
Paul Eckloff, a former Secret Service agent who protected George W Bush, Barack Obama and Trump, along with their families, explained the tricky nature of covering teens to The Independent.
He said the goal of Secret Service agents is “to impair the college experience as little as possible while providing the strongest security environment that you can.”
Eckloff is no stranger to the ins and outs of presidential children, having worked with the Bush twins, Sasha and Malia Obama, all of the Trump children and many of the Trump grandchildren. Every child and grandchild of a current president receives Secret Service protection, Eckloff explained.
While the children of former presidents aren’t guaranteed a detail after they turn 16, Barron currently receives protection, the Secret Service confirmed in a statement to The Independent.
Eckloff tells The Independent that Barron will be going to NYU when social media poses a greater threat than ever – both to his safety and his privacy.
How do agents protect young adults in the age of social media?
People recording a video of a presidential child and then posting it on TikTok or Instagram for the world to see is part of the new reality for security.
“The Secret Service has to monitor [social media],” Eckloff said. “Let’s say that a president’s child is at a party and someone tweets out their picture. Now, their location is broadcast on social media, and they could become a target. That can endanger everybody.”
This is true for children of current and former presidents alike. In 2017, Harvard University students launched into a social media frenzy when Malia Obama – the oldest Obama daughter – arrived on campus.
Social media users were quick to share photos of the then-19-year-old moving in, sharing her location and movements with the wider world.
“The general threat environment that we face in the 21st century is greater than it has ever been,” Eckloff said. “People’s location and activities tend to be more publicly known, and social media is more reactive.”
Not only can this endanger the students, it can also open them up to high levels of scrutiny.
In 2016, Malia Obama appeared all over the tabloids after she was photographed smoking at Chicago’s Lollapalooza festival. (In her next festival appearance, Malia wore a Harvard hat, her future college, and a t-shirt with a homemade “smoking kills” slogan).
Meanwhile, her younger sister Sasha Obama, then just 15 years old, was being photographed at her summer job waiting tables in Martha’s Vineyard.
This issue dates back even before the advent of social media. When President Bill Clinton’s daughter Chelsea Clinton started at Stanford University in 1997, then-First Lady Hillary Clinton wrote a public address in the Los Angeles Times asking for people to respect the 17-year-old’s privacy.
"I can’t imagine having any of those private experiences, all part of finding myself, being interrupted by the bright lights of cameras—and not because of anything I was or did but because of my parents’ occupations," Clinton wrote.
Presidential children typically maintain a high level of privacy while they’re still in K-12 school. That’s because many of them attend prestigious, expensive private schools – and are surrounded by others who understand the need for privacy, especially on the internet.
“They’re used to wealthy kids,” Eckloff explained. “So there tends to be more discretion for protecting people’s anonymity.”
College involves thousands more students and huge campuses to navigate — plus just more access to the masses if the university is in a metropolis like New York City.
How do Secret Service agents navigate campus life?
Secret Service protection for presidential children must be far more discreet than for the Commander-in-Chief. Agents dress in plain clothes and rely on remote technology – such as cameras and alarms – to protect the student.
“Protective surveillance is a part of it, which means you’re close and watching and waiting to respond,” Eckloff explained.
A college campus is an unpredictable environment – especially when they’re in busy urban areas, like NYU is. Students’ protection also becomes more complicated as they go out with friends or start dating someone.
That’s why Secret Service agents must be adaptable and “plan to fail,” Eckloff explained.
“Planning to fail is where the Secret Service wins,” he said. “They have contingency plans in place for when things break down.”
Dorm living is a prime example. Agents are typically always inside the dorm building with students. However, they can’t prepare for every possible scenario or completely secure the buildings that could house hundreds of students who are also studying, underage drinking and causing normal college chaos.
“They have to be innovative in how they achieve the protection,” Eckloff said. “You can’t secure the entire dorm, it’s just not realistic.”
Ultimately, Eckloff explained, Secret Service agents want to protect the student with as little disruption to their life as possible.
“Many kids are experiencing an independent life for the first time, and having Secret Service can hamper that,” he continued. “They’re sensitive to it, but they have a job, and it’s critically important.”
“I think you’d rather have your college experience impacted a little than be kidnapped.”
