Barron Trump, the youngest of Donald Trump’s children, is embarking on one of the first big adventures of adulthood this fall: He’s leaving home for college.
The 18-year-old, who recently graduated from Florida’s prestigious Oxbridge Academy, will study in New York, his father revealed this week. The exact university is not yet known, but NYU, Columbia and Cornell are among the possible candidates.
Barron will join a generation of young adults who are going to school carrying the weight of their parents’ presidential legacy on their shoulders, with Secret Service agents watching their every move.
Former Secret Service agent Paul Eckloff, who protected George W Bush, Barack Obama and Trump and their families, explains the difficult nature of protecting young people: Independent.
The goal of Secret Service agents, he said, is to “provide the strongest possible security environment while minimizing the disruption to the college experience as much as possible.”
Eckloff is no stranger to the ins and outs of presidential children, having worked with the Bush twins Sasha and Malia Obama, all of Trump’s children and many of Trump’s grandchildren. Every child and grandchild of a sitting president receives Secret Service protection, Eckloff said.
While no details are guaranteed for children of former presidents once they turn 16, Barron is currently under protection, the Secret Service confirmed in a statement Independent.
Eckloff explains Independent Barron will be attending college at a time when social media poses a greater threat than ever to both his safety and privacy, he said.
How agents protect young adults in the age of social media
It’s part of the new security reality that people can take video of a president’s child and then share it with the world on TikTok or Instagram.
“The Secret Service needs to watch [social media]”Let’s say a president’s child is at a party and someone tweets their picture. Now, their location is posted on social media and they could become a target. That could put everyone at risk,” Eckloff said.
This is true for the children of both current and former presidents. In 2017, Harvard University students went into a social media frenzy when Malia Obama, the Obamas’ eldest daughter, arrived on campus.
Social media users quickly shared photos of the then-19-year-old girl being carried away, sharing her location and movements with the world.
“The overall threat environment we face in the 21st century is greater than ever,” Eckloff said. “People’s locations and activities are more public, and social media is more reactive.”
Not only does this put students at risk, it can also subject them to heightened levels of scrutiny.
Malia Obama made headlines after she was photographed smoking a cigarette at the Lollapalooza festival in Chicago in 2016. (Malia wore a Harvard cap, the logo of her future university, and a T-shirt with a homemade “smoking kills” slogan at the next festival.)
Meanwhile, her younger sister Sasha Obama, who was just 15 at the time, was photographed working as a waitress during the summer on Martha’s Vineyard.
This problem predates even the advent of social media. When Chelsea Clinton, President Bill Clinton’s daughter, started at Stanford University in 1997, then-First Lady Hillary Clinton Los Angeles Times He asked that the 17-year-old’s privacy be respected.
“I can’t imagine having any of these special experiences that are part of the process of finding myself interrupted by the bright lights of cameras. And it’s not because of anything I did or didn’t do, it’s because of my parents’ profession,” Clinton wrote.
Presidential children typically maintain a high level of privacy while in K-12 schools. This is because many of them attend prestigious, expensive private schools and are surrounded by others who understand the need for privacy, especially online.
“They’re used to rich kids,” Eckloff explained. “So people tend to be more cautious about protecting their anonymity.”
College means thousands of students and large campuses to visit, and if the college is in a metropolitan area like New York, there is also greater access to the masses.
How do Secret Service agents navigate campus life?
Secret Service protection for presidential children must be much more discreet than it is for the commander in chief. Agents wear plain clothes and rely on remote technology, such as cameras and alarms, to protect the student.
“Protective surveillance is part of it, meaning you’re nearby, watching and waiting to respond,” Eckloff explained.
A college campus is an unpredictable environment – especially when they are in densely populated urban areas. Protecting students also becomes more complicated when they go out with friends or start dating someone.
For this reason, Secret Service agents must be adaptable and “prepared to fail,” Eckloff explained.
“Planning to fail is where the Secret Service wins,” he said. “They have contingency plans in place when things go wrong.”
Dorm living is a prime example of this. Agents are often in the dorm building with students. However, they cannot prepare for every possible scenario or fully secure the building where hundreds of students are also studying, underage drinking, and normal college chaos are taking place.
“They need to be innovative in how they get protection,” Eckloff said. “You can’t secure the entire country, it’s not realistic.”
Secret Service agents ultimately want to protect the student while disrupting his life as little as possible, Eckloff explained.
“A lot of kids are experiencing independent life for the first time, and having the Secret Service can get in the way of that,” he continued. “They’re sensitive to that, but they have a job, and that’s very important.”
“I think you’d rather have your college experience affected a little than be kidnapped.”