Barron Trump Comparison May Offer President Elect Much Food For Thought [Opinion]


Barron Trump is allowed to finish out his school year with his friends beside him and with the same teachers navigating his education, but what about the kids of the nation’s ambassadors? While Barron will remain at his Manhattan school when his father moves to Washington, the children of the politically appointed ambassadors across the globe will be pulled out of their classrooms. Unlike Barron Trump, these kids have no choice in the matter as their ambassador parent has been told to vacate their post.

Donald Trump has sent word to the politically appointed ambassadors across the globe that they need to vacate their posts before inauguration day. Barron Trump’s name popped up in a letter requesting that the future president allows the ambassadors more time to move. A recent letter to the editor of a small news outlet addresses Donald Trump’s decision, and it makes one strong case for the ambassadors and their families using Barron Trump as an example.

The letter isn’t one that bashes the president-elect. There’s nothing contained within its lines that remotely bears any resemblance to the writer attempting to berate Trump’s decision on the abrupt move for the many ambassadors. Barron’s name is used appropriately, and the writing shows nothing but respect for both the future president and Barron Trump.

Despite the letter being void of any type of mudslinging that would work at enticing people its way, it still makes a good read by presenting a point that Donald Trump might not have considered. More than likely because the letter is very respectful to both Donald and Barron Trump, it will never make headline news. With the writer of this letter using Barron as an example, this might just paint the decision on the ambassadors’ move in a different light for Donald Trump. That is if he ever gets a gander at it.

Donald Trump honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2007 [Image by Damian Dovarganes/AP Images]

The letter attempts to put the shoe on the other foot for Trump when it comes to Donald and Melania Trump’s own feelings about Barron finishing out the school year with his class. A man named Carl Howard penned this letter to the Lafayette Journal & Courier. He starts out by saying “moving isn’t easy for kids.” He goes on to compare Barron’s plight to the plight of the children of the ambassadors being uprooted.

Donald Trump made the decision to wipe the slate clean of all politically appointed ambassadors as part of his plan to get rid of the cronyism in Washington. As Fox News reports, “Political appointees for ambassadorships under any administration are often well-connected donors or other officials who do not come from the career foreign service side.” Back in 2008, Obama sent Bush-appointed ambassadors sailing, so the concept of getting rid of ambassadors is not new.

Receiving a backlash for anyone Trump considers as an appointee is also not new. So, Trump is getting no slack for both emptying out the ambassadors’ posts and attempting to fill it with someone new, as seen in the sarcastic tweet below. This was the backlash seen after Nigel Farage was mentioned as a possible ambassador. He has his plate full for sure, but so do the ambassadors ready to pack up their families.

There is no debate over the ousting of these ambassadors as this is to be expected with the changing of the guard in Washington. The problem lies with the abrupt departure Trump has orchestrated for the ambassadors and their families. He has given them until January 2o, the day Trump will be inaugurated, to have their bags packed and be gone. In the meantime, Trump is already feeling even more friction on his possible choice of replacements as seen in the tweet below.

Past incoming administrations have allowed for grace periods, and some ambassadors and their families were allowed to stay longer. If a blanket grace period wasn’t put into place for all ambassadors, at least some were allowed to stay longer on a case by case basis by the different incoming presidents. Trump has made it very clear that there are no exceptions, and there will be no grace period past inauguration day. This is where Howard’s letter comes in. He doesn’t attempt to appeal to the president-elect in this case. No, Howard appeals to Trump’s role as Barron Trump’s father with this letter.

Howard makes his appeal to Barron’s father to allow the ambassadors “the same grace and understanding that we, the American people, have shown to our new first lady and their child.” The case in point for Howard, as he goes on to write in this well-constructed letter, is that of the ambassador to Costa Rica, Stafford Fitzgerald Haney. This ambassador has four children in school and a wife who is battling breast cancer.

What Howard conveys is how hard it is to move, especially on such short notice. Then he adds in the factors of four school-age kids and their mother who is sick. This is seen as an almost impossible feat for the father and husband, Ambassador Haney. Surely, an extended grace period is in order in this case, which is a question weaved into Howard’s facts as he presents them to Barron Trump’s father in his letter.

It is not known if Howard has any ties to any of the ambassadors or if he is just a citizen who sees this as a problem and was compelled to address this with Donald Trump via an open letter to the editor of a small news site. Whatever his situation, Howard made a very good case to take these families into consideration, just as Barron Trump’s needs were taken into consideration.

[Featured Image by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images]

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