Lara Trump moved to swat down one of the stranger internet theories attached to her family on Thursday, saying on The Right View with Lara Trump that Barron Trump is “not a time traveller.” The daughter-in-law of Donald Trump said she had been engrossed in the viral content surrounding her 20-year-old brother-in-law before deciding to answer it directly.
“I’m not trying to ruin anybody or rain on any parades here,” she said, before adding, “Barron Trump is not a time traveller. Sorry to say it. I’m sorry, I broke a lot of people’s hearts today.” Lara Trump then asked, “Name me one time traveler. Name me anybody who actually can say that that’s a real thing?” and said, “It doesn’t exist but people have gotten so far off the rails on this ‘Barron being a time traveler’ thing. I don’t know what to tell you. I think it’s crazy. I’ve known Barron for 18 years, OK, he’s not a time traveler.”
The theory centers on Ingersoll Lockwood, the 1841-1918 writer who published two children’s books in the late 19th century: The Travels and Adventures of Little Baron Trump and his Wonderful Dog Bulger in 1889 and Baron Trump’s Marvellous Underground Journey in 1893. The books feature a wealthy boy adventurer named Wilhelm Heinrich Sebastian Von Troomp, also known as Baron Trump, and the idea that the fictional character somehow points to Barron Trump has been picked apart and promoted online for years, including by Joe Rogan and others.
The theory gained traction in part because Barron Trump has kept a low public profile, which has helped turn him into a kind of online cipher. The claim that Lockwood’s novels somehow map onto Barron Trump’s life has been pushed especially hard as a bit of internet folklore, but Lara Trump’s blunt answer leaves little room for ambiguity: she says the teenager-turned-young-adult at the center of the speculation is just Donald Trump’s youngest son, not a traveler from the future.
That should matter most to the people still treating the theory as more than a joke. Lara Trump did not hedge, and she did not leave the door open. She answered it plainly, on the record, and closed the book on the idea herself.
