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New York University freshman Barron Trump may have to face several professors who signed an open letter ahead of the 2020 presidential election, warning that his father poses a “threat” to the U.S.
After leaving Trump Tower accompanied by a Secret Service convoy, Barron rang in his first day of college on Wednesday with a visit to the dean’s office before attending his first class at Stern School of Business, a source told the New York Post.
JP Eggers, who became Stern’s interim dean on July 1, was among 20 educators at NYU Stern who signed the October 2020 open letter to “sound the alarm” about the perils of a Donald Trump presidency to business leaders. The letter ultimately garnered more than 1,000 signatures from staff at top business schools across the US.
Professor Deepak Malhotra of Harvard University, who authored the letter, claimed that Trump “denigrates science, peddles in lies, incites violence, attempts to delegitimize the press, politicizes everything from the justice department to the CDC to the postal service, and seeks to undermine the integrity of American elections”.
“It is time for business leaders to declare publicly what so many have been saying privately: that President Trump is unfit to lead and is a threat to the Republic,” he urged.
It is not clear where Eggers’s political support lies ahead of the 2024 election in November. The Independent has contacted Eggers and the New York University’s Stern School of Business for comment.
Barron graduated from West Palm Beach, Florida’s Oxbridge Academy in May. After being “accepted to a lot of colleges,” Donald Trump confirmed last week that his youngest son would be attending the prestigious New York institution, where annual tuition starts at about $62,700 per year.
“He’s a very high aptitude child, but he’s no longer a child. He’s just passed into something beyond child-dom. He’s doing great,” he told the Daily Mail.
The towering teen, who is billed at 6ft 7in, is expected to live off campus in Trump Tower, demanding a daily commute to campus.
The presence of the former president’s son at the college will pose a unique security challenge to the Secret Service, former agent Paul Eckloff told The Independent last month.
While aiming to provide Barron with an authentic university experience, agents are obliged to ensure the political scion’s safety.
“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,” Eckloff said.
