As often happens during military conflicts, the issue of the draft — which was phased out more than 50 years ago — has resurfaced in the public sphere, and online, since the attacks on Iran were launched. And in this case, some antiwar critics have found a target for their ire and fears: Barron Trump, the president’s 20-year-old son.
Almost as soon as the bombing of Iran started in late February, memes and AI-generated images began to appear showing the Trump scion in fatigues and other military gear, implying he should be sent into battle. The images were shared widely on social media, sometimes alongside a hashtag — #SendBarron — even as one satirist started a “Draft Barron Trump” website, suggesting that sending Barron Trump to war would reflect his father’s strength.
This week, those kinds of images and sentiments surfaced anew with news that the Selective Service System was moving to automatically register eligible men for the draft, a largely administrative rule change which would take effect by the end of the year. Currently, the responsibility falls on the men themselves, though many states also have registration options when young men apply for driver’s licenses or other IDs. Since 1980, men aged 18 to 25 have been required to register.
Since the beginning of the war on Feb. 28, critics of President Trump, such as former Gov. Jesse Ventura of Minnesota, have called on Barron Trump to enlist. At the same time, some prominent past supporters of President Trump have also mentioned the idea of him serving, including popular podcaster Theo Von, who suggested on Sunday that Barron Trump should help fight the war, while discussing the issue with influencer Jake Paul.
Last week, Mr. Von had posted that “the elites and politicians that are leading us into these wars might make different choices if it was their children.” That came after an angry appearance on a podcast with Joe Rogan, another Trump backer who has been critical of the president’s decision to go to war.
The comments, online and elsewhere, highlight both the unsettled debate over President Trump’s war in Iran, which is currently being paused in a fragile two week cease-fire, as well as the president’s own, sometimes fraught, history with the military.
President Trump, who graduated from college in 1968, during the Vietnam War, received five deferments from military service, including one for bone spurs in his heels. The other four were for education.
The White House did not return requests for comment concerning Barron Trump and military service.
The draft has continued to be deeply unpopular, according to periodic opinion polls. The last child of a president to go to war was Beau Biden, President Biden’s son, though his deployment to Iraq as a member of the Delaware Army National Guard came when his father was vice-president. Perhaps the most famous group of presidential children in wartime were the Roosevelts; four of F.D.R.’s boys served in World War II, as did several of Theodore Roosevelt’s sons.
The younger Mr. Trump — who is a student at the Washington campus of New York University, near the White House — turned 20 in March. When the draft was finally phased out in 1973, 20-year-old men were the first priority selection group.
Some of the online postings have featured Barron as a paratrooper, including in an AI-generated music video with a “Send Barron” chorus. Other times they’ve carried a dark edge, juxtaposing photos of American servicemen who have died in the conflict along with the #SendBarron tag.
Brooke Foucault Welles, a professor of communication studies at Northeastern University who has studied “hashtag activism,” said online campaigns and slogans can frame the public’s thinking about divisive topics, noting that #SendBarron seems to be an attempt by some to call attention to “the class tensions around wars and the military.”
Toby Morton, a 55-year-old comedy writer who created the “Draft Barron” website, said on Thursday that his site had some five million total visits since launching in late February, with renewed attention since word of the automatic draft registration broke this week. He said that the impetus for the site was “how, historically, kings sent their sons to fight alongside everyone else’s.”
“Trump often leans into that kind of kinglike image of strength and power,” said Mr. Morton, who previously made headlines with another satirical site devoted to Mr. Trump’s renamed Kennedy Center. “So the satire simply asks the obvious follow-up question.”
Jesse McKinley is a Times reporter covering politics, pop culture, lifestyle and the confluence of all three.
The post Drafting a Presidential Son? The Manosphere Wants to Talk About It appeared first on New York Times.
