TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — It will soon be Barron Trump’s time to step into the political spotlight.
Trump, former President Donald Trump’s youngest child, who will graduate from high school next week and has largely been kept out of the political spotlight, was picked by the Republican Party of Florida on Wednesday night as one of the state’s at-large delegates to the Republican National Convention, according to a list of delegates obtained by NBC News.
“We have a great delegation of grassroots leaders, elected officials and even Trump family members,” Florida GOP chairman Evan Power said. “Florida is continuing to have a great convention team, but more importantly we are preparing to win Florida and win it big.”
Trump’s position as a delegate will be his highest-profile political role thus far.
In a family full of politically involved children, Barron Trump, who turned 18 in March, has retained much more of a private life than his older brothers, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., both of whom will also be Florida at-large RNC delegates, along with Trump’s daughter Tiffany.
He was pulled into political headlines last month at the start of his father’s New York criminal trial related to hush money payments to an adult film star ahead of the 2016 election.
The former president’s attorneys argued that he should be allowed a break from trial to attend Barron Trump’s May 17 high school graduation, which Judge Juan Merchan agreed to allow.
A Trump campaign spokesman did not reply to a request for comment.
The Trump family will have an outsize impact on Florida’s RNC delegation.
Eric Trump, the delegation’s chairman, joined Power, the state GOP chairman, on a phone call with party leaders Wednesday night.
Donald Trump has won the state twice, including by more than 3 percentage points during his 2020 failed re-election bid, and the state party has largely lined up behind his presidential bid this year even before he has been formally nominated.
The party was put in a difficult position this cycle with Gov. Ron DeSantis also running for the GOP presidential nomination, but even with their home-state governor in the race, Florida party officials signaled they would back Trump.
In September, party leaders voted to remove a loyalty pledge requirement that would have required GOP presidential candidates to support the eventual Republican nominee to be on the state’s March 19 primary ballot. The proposal was supported by Trump but openly opposed by DeSantis’ campaign.
Beyond Trump family members, the Florida GOP approved several of the former president’s top supporters as RNC at-large delegates.
Others include Kimberly Guilfoyle, Donald Trump Jr.’s fiancée; Michael Boulous, Tiffany Trump’s husband; former state Attorney General Pam Bondi, a longtime Trump ally who has run pro-Trump super PACs; longtime Trump adviser Sergio Gor; former Marvel Entertainment Chairman Ike Perlmutter, a prominent Trump donor; and a series of state-level Republican politicians who took the risk of endorsing Trump over DeSantis.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
