Melania’s office walks back plans for Barron Trump to be delegate at Republican convention

Donald Trump’s son Barron Trump will not be attending the Republican convention as an at-large delegate, his mother’s office announced in a statement.

“While Barron is honored to have been chosen as a delegate by the Florida Republican Party, he regretfully declines to participate due to prior commitments,” a statement from former First Lady Melania Trump’s office said according to USA Today.

No further details were given on why he would miss the Republican convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which starts on 15 July.

Mr Trump’s youngest son, who is an 18-year-old high school senior, had been chosen to serve as a Florida delegate nominating his father as the Republican presidential candidate alongside his siblings at the event.

Barron, who will graduate from high school next week, would have served as one of Florida’s 41 at-large delegates, according to state party chairman Evan Powers at the convention in Milwaukee between 15 and 18 July.

“He’s pretty young, I will say. He’s 17,” Mr Trump said in an interview with Telemundo 51 Miami, getting his son’s age wrong. “But if they can do that, I’m all for it.”

The teenager has been largely kept out of the realm of politics. He was set to join Mr Trump’s two other sons Donald Trump Jr, 46, and Eric Trump, 40, along with his youngest daughter Tiffany Trump, 30, who also make up part of the Florida delegation.

Trump’s eldest daughter Ivanka Trump, 42, who served as an advisor to her father during his term as US president, has said she will not be part of his 2024 bid to return to the White House.

Barron hit headlines at the start of his father’s historic criminal trial last month in which the former president is accused of making hush money payments to Stormy Daniels to suppress stories about an alleged affair. Trump denies both the affair and the charges against him.

After careful consideration, Judge Juan Merchan ruled that there would be no court session on 17 May after the former president demanded that he should be able to attend Barron’s graduation ceremony.

However, Trump is now also planning to headline a political fundraiser on the day he demanded a break at the New York courthouse to attend the Lincoln Reagan Dinner, the Minnesota Republican Party announced.

“We are thrilled to welcome President Trump back to Minnesota,” state GOP chairman David Hann said in a statement. “I can think of no one more fitting to join us this year than President Trump.”