by Barron Trump, the youngest of Donald Trump’s children, is embarking on one of the first big adventures of adulthood this fall: moving away to college.
The 18-year-old, who has just graduated from the famous Oxbridge Academy of Florida, will study in New York, his father revealed this week. The exact university is still unknown but NYU, Columbia and Cornell are possible contenders.
Barron will now join a long line of young adults to attend school with the weight of their parents’ presidential legacy on their shoulders—with 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 difficult nature of covering teenagers. The Independent.
He said the goal of Secret Service agents is to “do as little harm as possible to the college experience while providing the strongest possible security environment.”
Eckloff is no stranger to presidential children, having worked with the Bush twins, Sasha and Malia Obama, all of Trump’s children and many of Trump’s grandchildren. All children and grandchildren of a sitting president receive Secret Service protection, Eckloff explained.
Although the children of former presidents are not guaranteed after they turn 16, Barron is currently protected, the Secret Service confirmed in a statement to The Independent.
Eckloff tells The Independent that Barron will be going to college when social media – to his safety and his privacy – is more of a threat than ever.
How do agents protect young adults in the age of social media?
People are recording a video of a presidential baby and then posting it on TikTok or Instagram for the world to see as part of the new security reality.
“The Secret Service has to monitor [social media],” Eckloff said. “Let’s say there’s a president’s kid at a party and someone tweets out his picture. Now, their location has been broadcast on social media, and they could be a target. That can put everyone at risk.”
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 eldest 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 world.
“The general threat environment we face in the 21st century is greater than ever before,” Eckloff said. “People’s location and activities tend to be more publicly known, and social media is more reactive.”
Not only can this put students at risk, it can open them up to high levels of scrutiny.
In 2016, Malia Obama was all over the tabloids after she was photographed smoking at Chicago’s Lollapalooza festival. (When she will be at the next festival, Malia wore a Harvard hat, her future college, and a t-shirt with a local slogan “tobacco kills”).
Meanwhile, her younger sister Sasha Obama, who was only 15 years old at the time, was being raised waiting tables at her summer job on Martha’s Vineyard.
This question goes back even before the advent of social media. When President Bill Clinton’s daughter Chelsea Clinton started at Stanford University in 1997, First Lady Hillary Clinton wrote a public address in Los Angeles Times asking people to respect the privacy of the 17 year old.
“I can’t imagine any of those private experiences, all part of finding myself, being interrupted by the bright lights of the cameras – and not because of anything I was or did but because on my parents’ careers,” Clinton wrote.
Presidential children typically maintain a high level of privacy while 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 rich kids,” Eckloff explained. “So there’s usually more discretion to protect people’s anonymity.”
College means thousands of other students and huge campuses to navigate—as well as greater access to the masses if the university is in a city like New York City.
How do Secret Service agents navigate campus life?
Secret Service protection for presidential children must be far more discreet than that of the Commander-in-Chief. Agents dress in plain clothes and rely on remote technology – such as cameras and alarms – to protect the student.
“It’s part of defensive surveillance, which means you’re close and watching and waiting to react,” Eckloff explained.
A college campus is an unpredictable environment – especially when they are in busy urban areas. Protecting students also becomes more complicated when they go out with friends or start dating someone.
That’s why Secret Service agents must be adaptable and “plan for failure,” Eckloff explained.
“Planning to fail is winning for the Secret Service,” he said. “They have contingency plans in place for when things break down.”
Dorm living is a great example. Agents are usually always inside the dorm building with students. However, they cannot prepare for every possible situation or fully secure the buildings that could house hundreds of students who are also studying, drinking under age and causing normal college chaos.
“They have to be innovative in how they achieve the protection,” Eckloff said. “You can’t secure the whole dorm, it’s not realistic.”
Ultimately, Eckloff explained, Secret Service agents want to protect the student with as little disruption to his life as possible.
“A lot of kids are living independent lives for the first time, and the Secret Service can get in the way of that,” he continued. “They’re sensitive to it, but they have a job, and it’s vital.”
“I think it would be better for you to have a small impact on your college experience than to be kidnapped.”
