Chelsea Clinton Defended Barron Trump Again & It's So Heart-Warming
Every year, the bulk of the tweets reacting to a State of the Union address fall into either of two categories: analysis about the speech and jokes about the speech. This year was no different, but there was one notable exception. Chelsea Clinton's tweet about Barron Trump wasn't about laughs at all.
On Tuesday night, Jan. 30, the former first daughter shared a message in defense of both President Donald Trump's youngest son and a young, special guest of First Lady Melania Trump, 12-year-old Preston Sharp.
The message from Clinton came as she was responding to a (now deleted) tweet from comedian Zack Bornstein, which joked about Sharp being "recasted" as Barron Trump.
Clinton tweeted, "Whatever our politics, I hope we can agree to both leave 11-year old private citizen Barron Trump alone and celebrate 12-year old Preston Sharp for his work to honor the graves of every military veteran."
The 37-year-old Clinton then shared a link that details the work Sharp does, which earned him an invite to the State of the Union.
Who is Preston Sharp?
Preston Sharp was one of the 24 guests sitting in the first lady's box on Tuesday night. Each of those guests had a story the White House highlighted in the days before the State of the Union. Sharp's story was all about service for fallen soldiers.
In 2015, while visiting his grandfather's grave, Sharp noticed that other veterans did not have Americans flags or flowers placed at their grave sites, the White House says. Since then, he created the Flag and Flower challenge, helping arrange for over 40,000 flags and flowers to be placed on soldiers' graves.
The reward for his work was a seat right next to First Lady Trump at the chamber of the House of Representatives for Tuesday night's State of the Union speech. Then came a shoutout from President Trump during the address.
"Young patriots like Preston teach all of us about our civic duty as Americans," the president said. "Preston’s reverence for those who have served our nation reminds us why we salute our flag, why we put our hands on our hearts for the pledge of allegiance, and why we proudly stand for the national anthem."
Chelsea Clinton Stepping In
Tuesday night wasn't the first time Chelsea Clinton tweeted in defense of Barron Trump.
In August, when The Daily Caller, a news site, published a since-deleted article asserting that the young Trump doesn't dress appropriately for the the son of a president, Clinton spoke up then, too.
First, she addressed the writer of the piece. "Dear Matty-Barron is A KID. No child should be talked about in the below manner-in real life or online. And for an adult to do so? For shame," Clinton tweeted. She then added in a separate post, "It's high time the media & everyone leave Barron Trump alone & let him have the private childhood he deserves."
Her tweet attracted the attention of Melania Trump, who eventually replied to Clinton, thanking the daughter of President Trump's former political rival. "Thank you @ChelseaClinton - so important to support all of our children in being themselves! #StopChildhoodBullying," the first lady tweeted.
The subject of childhood bullying has long been a favorite subject of the first lady, who'd identified the cause as her focus even before the president was elected.
"Our culture has gotten too mean and too rough, especially to children and teenagers," Melania Trump said during a speech just days before the 2016 election. "We have to find a better way to talk to each other, to disagree with each other, to respect each other. We must find better ways to honor and support the basic goodness of our children, especially in social media. It will be one of the main focuses of my work if I'm privileged enough to become your first lady."
Barron Trump was not present at the State of the Union address, his father's first as president.
Disclosure: Chelsea Clinton's husband Marc Mezvinsky joined Social Capital, an investor in Bustle Digital Group, in mid 2017 and joined the Board of Bustle Digital Group in early 2018.
