Top NYU Republican regrets quitting over Barron Trump 'oddity' flap
NEW YORK − Five days after the president of New York University’s College Republicans described Barron Trump as an “oddity on campus,” she was forced to resign from her position − a decision she now says she regrets.
Kaya Walker, who headed NYU’s College Republicans of America, stepped down Monday after describing the president’s son, a freshman, in an interview with Vanity Fair magazine saying: “He's sort of like an oddity on campus. He goes to class, he goes home."The comment drew swift backlash after it was shared on AF Post, a popular conservative account. It garnered 9.4 million views and more than 9,000 comments.
“Omg going to school to learn is very odd!! Fkn idiots,” wrote one X user.
“Surprisingly being a rich kid… he doesn’t act carelessly going to parties and acting entitled,” another posted.
A letter posted by the national organization on Monday announcing Walker's resignation called the comments “inappropriate” and something that “does not align with the values and principles upheld by our organization.”
The College Republicans of America also described the president’s youngest child, his only one with First lady Melania Trump, the “future” of the conservative movement.
Who is Kaya Walker and what did she say about Barron Trump?
Walker is a senior studying French and International Relations at New York University's College of Arts & Sciences, according to her LinkedIn profile.
In an interview with the New York Post after her resignation Walker said her comment, “he goes to class, he goes home” were taken out of context.
Readers “took it to say that I was saying that Barron was strange for being a commuter − which I thought was crazy because I’m a commuter,” Walker told The Post.
Trump, who travels to NYU in a motorcade from his childhood home at Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan, is among the 64% of the school’s almost 30,000 students who live off campus.
“They [made it] look like I was calling the president’s son weird, but I feel like anybody who can read would know that’s not what I was doing,” she said.
She also told the paper she had campaigned for Trump.
Since Walker's comments went viral, she and her family have been subjected to an “endless stream of nasty comments and threats” she told the paper. “I actually regret resigning,” she said.
College Republicans of America sees Barron Trump as 'the future'
Will Donahue, the president of the 200-chapter national organization, noted that the group broke a 100-year precedent by endorsing Trump before the Republican primary.
“Barron Trump represents the future of the conservative movement, and we would be honored to have him join the College Republicans of America,” Donahue wrote.
Asked why he sees Barron as the standard bearer, Donahue told Paste BN: “We believe that MAGA is the future of the conservative movement, and that the youth will spearhead the institutionalization of Trump's policies in our politics.”
Both the president and the first lady have credited Barron with playing an active role in pursuing the youth vote by encouraging his father to appear on popular podcasts.
“He was very vocal,” said the first lady in an interview with "Fox & Friends," praising his knowledge of politics.
"He brought in so many young people," she said. "He knows his generation, because nowadays the young generation, they don’t sit in front of TV anymore.”
Donahue said he hadn’t heard back from Barron Trump.
Conservative movement in liberal colleges?
New York University has a long history as a liberal bastion. Ninety-two percent of NYU employees’ total campaign contributions between 2023 and 2024 went toward Democratic organizations, according to an analysis by the Washington Square News, NYU’s student newspaper.While younger voters still lean Democratic, Donahue noted Gen-Z’s (those born between 1997 and 2012) rightward shift in the 2024 election.
Voters ages 18-24 supported Democratic candidate former Vice President Kamala Harris by 10 points. In the 2020 election, 18- to 24-year-olds supported former President Joe Biden by 29 points, demonstrating a shift in voter choice, according to Tuft University's Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.
“Young people want fair trade, reasonable immigration policy, and no new wars, and that is what MAGA offers,” Donahue told Paste BN.
At NYU, Walker, who joined the club as a 17-year-old freshman told New York Post that she’d watched weekly attendance go from five to over 40.
"I’ve been killing myself trying to support the conservative movement,” she told the paper. “Everybody knows that it’s an uphill battle being a Republican at NYU."
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House Correspondent for Paste BN. You can follow her on X @SwapnaVenugopal