President Trump, first lady Melania and their son Barron left New Jersey on Aug. 20, for Washington, D.C., at the end of the president's "working vacation." (The Washington Post) 
 
 Once again, Barron Trump has become the target of online criticism. And once again, political figures, celebrities and others on social media are standing up for the 11-year-old, imploring the media to keep the youngest Trump out of the negative limelight. 
 
 On Monday night, conservative news outlet the Daily Caller published a story attacking Barron for the T-shirt and shorts he wore while boarding Air Force One on Sunday. The headline read, “It’s High Time Barron Trump Starts Dressing Like He’s In the White House.” 
 
 In a barrage of angry tweets, many described the story as “mean spirited,” “shameful,” intrusive and irrelevant. The reactions shared a common understanding that the president’s children are supposed to be off-limits. 
 
 Following the story’s publication, the White House on Tuesday asked the news media to give Barron space. 
 
 “As with all previous administrations, we ask that the media give Barron his privacy,” Stephanie Grisham, a spokeswoman for Mrs. Trump, told the Associated Press. “He is a minor child and deserves every opportunity to have a private childhood.” 
 
 Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton, who has come to Barron’s defense before, weighed in with a tweet: “It’s high time the media & everyone leave Barron Trump alone & let him have the private childhood he deserves.” 
 
 She later followed up with another message, tweeting, “Barron is A KID. No child should be talked about in the below manner-in real life or online. And for an adult to do so? For shame” 
 
 Tuesday night, Melania Trump responded with a tweet thanking Chelsea Clinton and saying, “so important to support all of our children in being themselves! #StopChildhoodBullying” 
 
 Thank you @ChelseaClinton – so important to support all of our children in being themselves! #StopChildhoodBullying https://t.co/UCUpFc5ZjR — Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) August 23, 2017 
 
 In Monday’s Daily Caller story, entertainment reporter Ford Springer wrote that “while the president and first lady traveled in their Sunday best, young Barron looked like he was hopping on Air Force One for a trip to the movie theater.” 
 
 As the President Trump and first lady Melania Trump departed from Morristown, N.J., to Washington on Sunday, Barron joined them wearing khaki shorts, loafers and a bright red T-shirt with the words, “On your mark tiger shark.” 
 
 
 
 President Trump, first lady Melania Trump and son Barron Trump walk across the tarmac at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, N.J., on Aug. 20. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP) 
 
 “What am I missing here? Is Barron just better than I ever was at rebelling against my parents?” Springer wrote. “His dad is always looking dapper and his mom has become a worldwide fashion icon since becoming first lady. The youngest Trump doesn’t have any responsibilities as the president’s son, but the least he could do is dress the part when he steps out in public.” 
 
 It wasn’t the first time Chelsea Clinton has come to Barron’s defense. In January, a slew of jokes circulated on social media about the boy’s appearance at his father’s inauguration ceremony. “Saturday Night Live” writer Katie Rich was suspended indefinitely after a tweet she posted about Barron received angry backlash and calls for her firing. 
 
 In response to the earlier attacks against Barron, Clinton wrote a Facebook post that was praised and shared widely: 
 
 “Barron Trump deserves the chance every child does — to be a kid,” Clinton wrote. “Standing up for every kid also means opposing POTUS policies that hurt kids.” 
 
 On Monday afternoon and evening, Twitter users questioned why the Daily Caller writer, and the public, should care about “what an 11-year-old boy wears,” as journalist Yashar Ali tweeted. “How is it your business?” he added. 
 
 “Poor Barron,” tweeted comedian Chelsea Handler. 
 
 Some complimented the first son’s outfit: “Barron was rockin a good look today,” tweeted Jesse Lee, who served as a special assistant under President Barack Obama. 
 
 And others tracked down Barron’s shirt, apparently a $24.50 boys’ T-shirt from J. Crew. A similar shirt in lime green on J. Crew’s website included a note: “We’re sorry. This item has been so popular, it has sold out.” 
 
 Jesus, they're even inhuman 2 their own. @Ford_Springer of conserv @dailycaller slams Barron Trump 4 his clothes. FORD! Kids are OFF LIMITS! — Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) August 22, 2017 
 
 Leave Barron alone. Anything else is shameful. https://t.co/anHWEBd3AG — Tim Fullerton (@TimFullerton) August 21, 2017 
 
 Chelsea Clinton spoke with college students about channeling anger into action and how she's learned to deal with her critics at a conference held at the University of Maryland. (Jackie Kucinich/The Washington Post) 
 
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 Jerry Falwell Jr. keeps defending Trump as Liberty University grads return diplomas ||||| WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House on Tuesday renewed its request to the news media for privacy for President Donald Trump's young son, Barron, after a conservative news and opinion website criticized the casual attire he wore home after the family's summer vacation. 
 
 The 11-year-old wore shorts, a T-shirt that said "On Your Mark Tiger Shark" and loafers without socks for Sunday's return trip to the White House from the family's home on Trump's private golf club in central New Jersey. 
 
 Trump wore a suit and tie while Barron's mother, first lady Melania Trump, wore a sleeveless, calf-length yellow-and-white dress. 
 
 Ford Springer, The Daily Caller columnist, wrote that since Barron doesn't have any responsibilities as the president's son "the least he could do is dress the part when he steps out in public." 
 
 "Barron was returning to the White House from New Jersey on Sunday and while the president and first lady traveled in their Sunday best, young Barron looked like he was hopping on Air Force One for a trip to the movie theater," the column said. 
 
 Stephanie Grisham, a spokeswoman for Mrs. Trump, appealed to the media to give Barron space to be a kid. 
 
 "As with all previous administrations, we ask that the media give Barron his privacy. He is a minor child and deserves every opportunity to have a private childhood," Grisham said. 
 
 Vince Coglianese, editorial director for The Daily Caller, defended Springer. 
 
 "Let's not pretend the press is suddenly concerned about defending the Trumps," Coglianese said by email, describing Springer as the "the most pro-Barron Trump writer I've ever met." 
 
 "Leave it to the fake news to spin his bro-to-bro advice into some sort of 'slam.' He's just looking out for the kid. Leave Barron alone," Coglianese said. 
 
 The White House also got bipartisan support from former first daughter Chelsea Clinton, who defended Barron on Twitter. Clinton was the subject of ridicule as a teenager growing up in the White House in the 1990s when her father, Democrat Bill Clinton, was president. 
 
 "It's high time the media & everyone leave Barron Trump alone & let him have the private childhood he deserves," Clinton tweeted Monday, with a link to the Daily Caller column. 
 
 She followed up on Tuesday after a Twitter user criticized Barron's entire family in unpublishable terms. 
 
 "Barron is A KID. No child should be talked about in the below manner-in real life or online. And for an adult to do so? For shame," she tweeted back to the individual, who uses the Twitter handle @MattyRenn. 
 
 Late Tuesday, the first lady tweeted her thanks to Clinton, saying "so important to support all of our children in being themselves! #StopChildhoodBullying." The hashtag was a reference to her promise to work as first lady to combat cyberbullying. 
 
 In response to The Associated Press through Twitter, @MattyRenn said the White House doesn't have the right to dictate who cannot be insulted "given the very real threats faced on a daily basis by all Americans to the antagonistic foreign policy of this president." 
 
 Earlier this year, Clinton defended Barron after he was the target of a joke by a "Saturday Night Live" writer. The writer was later suspended. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Follow Darlene Superville on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap ||||| I’ve been on the Barron Trump train from the start, but it’s about time the president’s son starts dressing the part. 
 
 Barron is the youngest son of Donald Trump and the only child the president shares with Melania Trump. Time and time again Barron has proved that he’s just a normal 11-year-old kid, despite the fact that his dad is the President of the United States and he lives in the White House. One thing that isn’t normal though is the way he dresses when he joins his parents for a public appearance. 
 
 Barron was returning to the White House from New Jersey on Sunday and while the president and first lady traveled in their Sunday best, young Barron looked like he was hopping on Air Force One for a trip to the movie theater. (11 Times Barron Trump Proved He’s A Normal 11-Year-Old Kid) 
 
 Think about how many times your parents forced you to dress up when you were a kid for a special occasion. No matter how hard you resisted, it was inevitable, you weren’t leaving the house until you had your tie tied, your shirt tucked in nice and neat with your hair combed, and a blazer on. 
 
 That’s not how it goes for the president’s youngest child. 
 
 Donald Trump and Melania always depart the White House looking their best. The president wore a fine tailored suit and Melania wore an elegant dress just as jaw-dropping as the last. But then Barron steps out in a t-shirt, khaki shorts and some suede loafers. (VIDEO: Barron Trump Snaps A Pic Of Marine One) 
 
 What am I missing here? Is Barron just better than I ever was at rebelling against my parents? Yeah, I’d put the blazer and tie on and comb my hair and all that, but as soon as my mom turned her head you better believe I was messing my hair up and loosening my tie. Hell I might even undo a couple buttons on my shirt if I was feeling like a real badass. 
 
 Barron doesn’t have to worry about all that, but he should. His dad is always looking dapper and his mom has become a worldwide fashion icon since becoming first lady. The youngest Trump doesn’t have any responsibilities as the president’s son, but the least he could do is dress the part when he steps out in public. 
 
 Correction: An earlier version of this piece stated that Barron was returning to Washington, DC from Arizona, not New Jersey. ||||| Melania Trump in Italy last week. A quiet first lady, she has reserved many of her public statements for defending her family. (Luca Bruno/AP) 
 
 It is rare for Melania Trump to issue a statement of any sort. The first lady, who has sometimes seemed reluctant about her new role, prefers privacy and restraint. 
 
 Yet she chose to speak up forcefully Wednesday, nearly a full day after a gruesome photo of comedian Kathy Griffin holding a prop made to resemble the bloody, decapitated head of President Trump was posted online. 
 
 On Tuesday, the photo was condemned by a bipartisan chorus of politicians and pundits as soon as it went public; hours later, Griffin apologized in a video statement. The Trumps did not seem to accept the apology, with the president tweeting the next morning that his children, “especially my 11 year old son, Barron, are having a hard time with this. Sick!” 
 
 But the first lady issued a longer statement midday Wednesday: “As a mother, a wife, and a human being, that photo is very disturbing. When you consider some of the atrocities happening in the world today, a photo opportunity like this is simply wrong and makes you wonder about the mental health of the person who did it.” 
 
 While the president often blasts his opponents on Twitter, it is rarer for his wife to join him. She refrained from using social media during the first weeks of his presidency and generally stayed out of the political fray during his campaign. 
 
 However, her decision to weigh in is in line with her burgeoning approach to public life. She pushes back hard in defense of her reputation and her family. 
 
 [Melania Trump seemed like a rebellious first lady. She’s turning out to be a retro one.] 
 
 In November, she threatened to sue a YouTuber who posted video speculating that her son had autism. The video was removed. 
 
 She also filed a lawsuit against a Maryland blogger and British newspaper that published articles falsely alleging she had worked as an escort. The articles were retracted and the lawsuit settled in her favor. 
 
 One of Mrs. Trump’s first tweets on her @FLOTUS account was to send a thank-you tweet to fashion model Emily Ratajkowski, who had complained that a New York Times reporter was spreading the escort allegation in private conversations. “Applause to all women around the world who speak up, stand up and support other women! @emrata #PowerOfEveryWoman #PowerOfTheFirstLady,” Mrs. Trump wrote. 
 
 [On her first official trip, Melania Trump is dressed for control and containment] 
 
 It often falls to first ladies to guard their family’s private lives. Michelle Obama’s press secretary sternly warned the Ty company when it produced Beanie Babies in the likeness of her daughters. Laura Bush defended her daughters, who made news when they were caught drinking underage. “They just want to do like every other teenager does,” Bush often said. 
 
 Hillary Clinton was said to be upset by a SNL “Wayne’s World” sketch that poked fun at preteen Chelsea Clinton, who wore braces. Mrs. Clinton did not issue a public statement on the segment, but word got back to the show that the first lady did not like it. 
 
 Similarly, a friend called Mrs. Trump a “fierce wife and mother” and she has said her priority is protecting her son. A report in TMZ, that was corroborated by the president’s tweet, said that Barron Trump was shaken by the photo of Griffin, which he saw while watching television at home with his mother. 
 
 “This is a first lady we rarely hear from on anything … so possibly she was thinking of her son,” said Katherine Jellison, a history professor at Ohio University who has studied first ladies. “All the [modern] first ladies who had younger children were really concerned with protecting the kids from the slings and arrows of life in the White House.”
– If anyone understands what it's like to be a first child living in the White House, it's Chelsea Clinton. So it's not surprising she was one of many who came to Barron Trump's defense after a conservative website dressed him down—for wearing khaki shorts and a red T-shirt with a shark logo and slogan when he hopped on Air Force One on Sunday to return to DC with his parents. A reporter for the Daily Caller was insulted, Washington Post reports. "It's High Time Barron Trump Start Dressing Like He's in the White House," read the headline on an article by Ford Springer, who took the 11-year-old to task for dressing like he was going on "a trip to the movie theater." This was especially egregious, Springer writes, since the president is "always looking dapper" and Melania Trump has become a "worldwide fashion icon." Monday night, former first daughter Chelsea, who's come to Barron's defense before, spoke up. "It's high time the media & everyone leave Barron Trump alone & let him have the private childhood he deserves," she tweeted Monday night. Others joined the Team Barron chorus, including journalist Kurt Eichenwald, who tweeted, "FORD! Kids are OFF LIMITS!" Comedian Chelsea Handler simply noted: "Poor Barron." Meanwhile, the Post reports that the J. Crew website sells a green version of Barron's T-shirt, though as of this writing a note on the site read: "We're sorry. This item has been so popular, it has sold out."