Barron Trump More The Norm Than The Exception In Last Round Of Hoopla Over ‘Where’s Barron?’
The White House Christmas card was missing Barron Trump and it didn’t take long for the buzz to start on Twitter. Donald and Melania Trump were front and center on that card, but that doesn’t complete the family portrait for all who live within the walls of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with the Trump name.
Donald and Melania Trump are pictured holding hands in front of the White House doors with the presidential seal high above their heads. They are flanked on either side with a flag and a Christmas tree, but there was no Barron.
This prompted folks to hop online with hopes of solving the mystery as to where the First Son was during this very special portrait shoot. Folks on Twitter asked, “Don’t they have a son?” They also made the observation of “Odd that Barron isn’t in the photo, no?”
According to what the Mercury News reported, the answer to that question is “no” if you compare Barron to the other children of past presidents who moved into the White House. Barron is more the norm, not the exception when it comes to the past Presidents’ children showing up on a Christmas Card.
AOL Politics reported that people had all sorts of things to say on Twitter regarding Barron not showing up on this card. One Twitter user asked, “Barron didn’t make the cut,” which was followed by tweets like, “Trump’s e-card seems to be missing what most First Families have. The Family. Have they lost Barron?” Some came right out and asked if the “Trumps forgot about their son?”
Some folks online compared Trump’s Christmas card the last Christmas card offered up by the Obama family before they left the White House. Their last Christmas card included the Obama girls. Instead of being flanked by flags and Christmas trees, Michele and Barack Obama were flanked by their daughters. But that was only one of the eight Christmas holidays that the Obama family spent in the White House.
Mercury News suggests that despite the sinister reasons that some people may have attached to Barron’s absence from this Christmas card portrait, there was nothing sinister about his absence. While many suggested that Barron’s absence was “odd,” it really wasn’t. The lack of the presidents’ offspring appearing on the Christmas card does have some roots in White House history.
For starters, many of the presidents have opted for a scene out of the White House void of any people at all for a setting on their Christmas card. Not all presidents and first ladies have appeared on their Christmas cards. Through the years many of the cards were void of people altogether.
While the Obama’s final Christmas card had the entire family included, their previous Christmas cards were paintings of their dog Bo in a snowy White House scene and another year saw Bo curled up in front of the fire. George and Laura Bush’s White House Christmas card from 2005 is seen below.
The Bushes and the Clintons tended to go with White House scenes for their cards. The one year that Bill and Hillary Clinton graced a Christmas card with a photo, Chelsea was nowhere to be found and at that time she was only 13.
John and Jackie Kennedy also left little John John and Caroline Kennedy off their White House Christmas card. The presidential offspring are not traditionally found on a Christmas card. According to Mercury News, you would need to go back to the “Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s card from 1936 to see images of a president and a First Lady surrounded by their offspring.” On that card, it appears that Roosevelt couple not only has all their five surviving children with them but their numerous grandchildren as well.
