Happy Birthday to Barron Trump, son of Donald, who turned 18 years old on Wednesday. In some ways, Barron is now an adult and can enjoy the privileges that go with coming of age.
This delighted the national media. Former NBC executive Mike Sington tweeted out (and then deleted), “Barron Trump turns 18 today. He’s fair game now.”
Given that half the media is praying that his father is assassinated and the other half hopes he just drops dead, Mr. Sington’s got some ‘splainin’ to do.
“I posted he was ‘fair game’ now, meaning, as an adult, he’s ‘fair game’ for criticism from the press,” he told Newsweek. “Someone pointed out to me ‘fair game’ could mean fair game to be harmed. I don’t wish physical harm on anyone, so I took it down. I listen to the comments and criticism I receive.”
I’m sure Mr. Potatoe Head doesn’t “wish physical harm on anyone.” But if it happens? Hey! Fair game, right?
It’s not the first time Sington has shown a weird affinity for the younger Trump.
This guy clearly has a weird obsession https://t.co/6p8DLp2yAd
— Billy Gribbin (@BillyGribbin) March 20, 2024
Sington nearly swooned over then 13-year-old Barron saying, “He could be a model!”
What it I told you this former NBC News hack didn’t mean it the way you thought, but that his real meaning was even worse? pic.twitter.com/rOhBnLDDEg
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) March 20, 2024
Sington has frequently posted photos of Barron, according to the Daily Caller. Perhaps when Sington said that Barron is “fair game,” he was talking about dating him.
This wasn’t the first time Barron Trump was the target of his father’s political adversaries. In 2019, Stanford Law Professor Pamela Karlan ignited a firestorm during impeachment hearings for cracking a joke at the expense of the then-13-year-old, saying during her testimony, “The Constitution says there can be no titles of nobility, so while the president can name his son Barron, he can’t make him a baron.”
In 2018, actor Peter Fonda posted on Twitter he wanted to “rip Barron Trump from his mother’s arms and put him in a cage with pedophiles.”
In 2017, Katie Rich, then a writer for “Saturday Night Live” was suspended for saying on Twitter that Barron Trump “will be this country’s first homeschool shooter.”
Republican reaction was that Sington’s post was “creepy.”
“This is super creepy,” wrote Garrett Ventry, former senior communications adviser to the Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans.
Michael R. Caputo, former assistant secretary of public affairs for the Department of Health and Human Services during the Trump administration, said: “This creepy NBC guy is completely broken. I wonder if he has kids? Nephews? Nieces? How old are they?”
“You sound like a creep dude,” wrote Javon A. Price, former aide to GOP Representative Byron Donalds.
Brenden Dilley, host of political talk show The Dilley Show, said: “Strong pedo vibe, dude.”
Anyway, a sincere Happy Birthday to the young man. And welcome to politics.