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Barron, 14, has sometimes been the target of hurtful comments online simply by virtue of being his father’s son. He was even dragged into politics during President Donald Trump’s impeachment hearing last year. Professor Karlan made a joke about Barron and monarchical barons during the House Judiciary Committee’s first impeachment inquiry hearing on December 4, but was called out for bringing a child into the debate.

She was branded “mean” and Melania Trump even jumped in to defend her son’s right to privacy.

Professor Karlan said: “The Constitution says there can be no titles of nobility, so while the President can name his son Barron he can’t make him a baron.”

She was criticised by Matthew Gaetz, a Republican representative for Florida’s 1st congressional district, who took issue with the joke.

He said: “Let me also suggest that when you invoke the President’s son’s name here, when you try to make a little joke out of referencing Barron Trump, that does not lend credibility to your argument.

“It makes you look mean, it makes you look like you’re attacking someone’s family, the minor child of the President of the US.”

Not long after this exchange, the First Lady tweeted: “A minor child deserves privacy and should be kept out of politics.

“Pamela Karlan, you should be ashamed of your very angry and obviously biased public pandering and using a child to do it.”

Professor Karlan later apologised for her comment.

She said: “I want to apologise for what I said earlier about the President’s son, it was wrong of me to do that.

“I wish the President would apologise, obviously, for the things that he has said and done, but I do regret having said that.”

This incident was just one way in which the children of presidents are often joked about to make a point about their parents.

Barron even has an unlikely defender in Hillary Clinton’s daughter Chelsea, who was the target of mockery and vitriol while she was a youngster in the White House.

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Chelsea was 12 years old when her father Bill Clinton became US President, just a year older than Barron was in January 2017.

While she has been an outspoken critic of the Trump administration, Chelsea insisted it was “abhorrent” to drag his son into it.

Reflecting on her own experiences on The Graham Norton Show in November 2019, she said she takes it very personally when people on her side of the political spectrum attack Barron, or use him as a pawn to attack his father.

The former First Daughter insisted such attacks were not fair and that she would “stand on the barricade” to defend the teenager’s right to privacy.

She said: “I do take it very personally when people attack Sasha and Malia Obama, and even Barron Trump.

“I mean, Barron was 11 when his father was elected, so just a year younger than I was when my father was elected. I was 11 when he announced, 12 when he won.

“And I just find it abhorrent that people who are arguably on the same side of the political spectrum as I am think it’s OK to make whatever point they’re trying to make about his father through making fun of his kid.

“I mean, I disagree with President Trump on everything, but I would stand on the barricade to defend his son’s right to privacy and his son’s right to have the childhood that I think every kid deserves, whatever their address.”

However, Chelsea does make the distinction between minor children who did not have a choice in being thrown into the spotlight versus adults who are wilfully defending the President, like Ivanka Trump.

In an article with The Guardian in 2018, she insisted she felt no sympathy for her former friend.

She told the newspaper: “She’s an adult. She can make choices for herself. I mean, she’s 36. We are responsible for our choices.”

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