This week, those kinds of images and sentiments surfaced anew with news<\/a> that the Selective Service System<\/a> was moving to automatically register eligible men for the draft, a largely administrative rule change<\/a> which would take effect by the end of the year. Currently, the responsibility falls on the men themselves<\/a>, though many states also have registration options when young men apply for driver\u2019s licenses or other IDs. Since 1980, men aged 18 to 25 have been required to register.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>. 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<\/a>, while discussing the issue with influencer Jake Paul.<\/p>\n Last week, Mr. Von had posted that \u201cthe elites and politicians that are leading us into these wars might make different choices if it was their children.\u201d That came after an angry appearance on a podcast with Joe Rogan, another Trump backer who has been critical of the president\u2019s decision to go to war.<\/p>\n The comments, online and elsewhere, highlight both the unsettled debate over President Trump\u2019s war in Iran, which is currently being paused in a fragile two week cease-fire, as well as the president\u2019s own, sometimes fraught, history with the military.<\/p>\n President Trump, who graduated from college in 1968, during the Vietnam War, received five deferments from military service<\/a>, including one for bone spurs in his heels. The other four were for education.<\/p>\n The White House did not return requests for comment concerning Barron Trump and military service.<\/p>\n The draft has continued to be deeply unpopular, according to periodic opinion polls<\/a>. The last child of a president to go to war was Beau Biden, President Biden\u2019s son, though his deployment to Iraq<\/a> 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.\u2019s boys served<\/a> in World War II, as did several of Theodore Roosevelt\u2019s sons<\/a>. <\/p>\n The younger Mr. Trump \u2014 who is a student at the Washington campus of New York University<\/a>, near the White House \u2014 turned 20<\/a> in March. When the draft was finally phased out in 1973<\/a>, 20-year-old men were the first priority selection group<\/a>.<\/p>\n Some of the online postings have featured Barron as a paratrooper<\/a>, including in an AI-generated music video with a \u201cSend Barron\u201d chorus. Other times they\u2019ve carried a dark edge, juxtaposing photos of American servicemen<\/a> who have died in the conflict along with the #SendBarron tag.<\/p>\n Brooke Foucault Welles, a professor of communication studies at Northeastern University who has studied \u201chashtag activism,\u201d<\/a> said online campaigns and slogans can frame the public\u2019s thinking about divisive topics, noting that #SendBarron seems to be an attempt by some to call attention to \u201cthe class tensions around wars and the military.\u201d<\/p>\n Toby Morton, a 55-year-old comedy writer who created the \u201cDraft Barron\u201d website,<\/a> 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 \u201chow, historically, kings sent their sons to fight alongside everyone else\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTrump often leans into that kind of kinglike image of strength and power,\u201d said Mr. Morton, who previously made headlines with another satirical site devoted to Mr. Trump\u2019s renamed Kennedy Center<\/a>. \u201cSo the satire simply asks the obvious follow-up question.\u201d<\/p>\n Jesse McKinley<\/p>\n Styles reporter<\/p>\n After the war began, I started to see reference to Barron Trump and military service, comments which have continued to percolate as the fighting has. I was also interested by the fact that Barron is the first presidential son in decades to be of draft age during their father\u2019s time in office, dating back to FDR’s four boys.<\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/cropped-4bfadbb07d37c9d9e62c14a1681d57dac2706db8b17c984ca5619a2f82fb78f3c8472866.png\")
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