Donald Trump has spoken about how one technology task that his son Barron does means he has ‘unbelievable aptitude in technology’.
Some viewers were puzzled after the US president made the striking comment about Barron, 19, because it seemed he was pointing to something fairly ordinary.
Barron Trump, Donald and Melania Trump’s youngest child, is currently studying at New York University’s Stern School of Business. During a Fox News interview with Laura Ingraham, Trump spoke warmly about his son and suggested he has a particular strength when it comes to tech.
The president began by talking broadly about his children and their abilities.
“If you look at my kids, all of my kids, they’ve been very good, they’ve been very smart,” he said. “They love our country and they’re proud of their father.”
Ingraham then asked whether Barron has any standout talents, such as in business or politics.
Trump instead highlighted Barron’s comfort with technology, calling it “unbelievable.”
However, the specific example he gave prompted confusion online.
Trump said: “I turn off his laptop, I said, ‘Oh good,’ and I go back five minutes later, he’s got his laptop. I said, ‘How’d you do that?’
“‘None of your business, Dad’. He’s got an unbelievable aptitude in technology.”
On Reddit, several users questioned whether Trump was essentially applauding his son for simply getting a laptop running again.
“It sounds like Trump slammed the lid down on his kid’s laptop and stalked out of the room unaware of a thing called ‘sleep mode’,” one commented.
Another person said: “Apparently he thinks his kid is a genius bc of that,” while a third wrote: “Reminds me of when my parents would talk about how smart I was because I could put together legos.”
Others argued that there may have been more to the story than the brief description suggested.
They speculated the moment could have involved Barron getting around a password or restrictions that limited computer use, which would be notably more advanced than restarting a device.
“Well it was basically he had used a program to disallow his son to be on his laptop. Barron figured out a way to bypass,” one explained.
Another wrote: “Yeah, I feel like he meant he got past the password. Probably was something basic such as not having turned it off so there was no password.”
Later in the interview, Trump returned to the topic of family, saying he feels fortunate and that he’s happy with how his children have turned out.
“I’m lucky, you have to be a little bit lucky too… They’re good kids and they work hard,” he said.