Secret Service Is ‘Well-Versed’ in Handling Girlfriends, Source Says as Barron Trump Dating Rumors Emerge (Exclusive)

Rumors are swirling that Barron Trump has found romance.

An anonymous “friend” on the New York University campus recently told NewsNation that “Barron has a really nice girlfriend and hangs out with her a lot,” though the source provided no additional details. President Donald Trump’s youngest son, 19, just finished his freshman year at the competitive Manhattan-based college.

The euphoric high of a first love is a rite of passage for adulthood, but for the son of the U.S. president, dating has its own unique challenges. Besides trying to maintain privacy on a worldwide stage, Barron also has to deal with Secret Service agents always in tow.

Having a permanent security detail is not an ideal situation for a guy his age who wants to meet new people, but maintaining friendships — and even a relationship — is not as impossible for a Secret Service protectee as some might think.

“He can have a girlfriend as the Secret Service guys are well-versed on how to handle this,” a political source tells PEOPLE. “Anyone who says being under Secret Service protection would keep him from dating is way off.”

Over the years, the source adds, these agents have seen it all while protecting first families of all ages: “Their stories could fill an X-rated novel!”

Others Have Gone Before Him

Barron isn’t alone in finding his way to adulthood with the world and Secret Service agents watching. In modern times, Susan Ford, Chelsea Clinton, the Bush twins and the Obama sisters have all navigated their teenage and young adult years under the spotlight.

Jenna Bush Hager, the daughter of President George W. Bush and granddaughter of President George H.W. Bush, has been vocal about the hands-on role that the Secret Service played throughout her formative years, particularly after she started dating her now-husband, Henry Chase Hager, during her father’s presidency.

Jenna has often recalled an incident when she was in her 20s, where Henry had to “sneak out” of the White House after the couple slept over following a night out at the bars.

“Henry said he woke up and he looked around and he was like, ‘Aaaaaaaah’ because he worked for my dad,” Jenna once told her former Today show co-host Hoda Kotb. The first daughter, however, wasn’t concerned. “‘Well have fun,'” she remembered telling her then-boyfriend. “I didn’t care. Bye!”

Recounting the event in a different interview with Andy Cohen, Jenna said that Henry “got caught” by Secret Service agents on his way out, adding, “That was the problem.”

She went on to note that their top concern wasn’t a “26-year-old in the night-before clothes,” as their job is to keep people from “coming in” the White House — not to make sure she wasn’t “hooking up.”

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Jenna has also talked about how the “worst date” of her life similarly involved Henry and the Secret Service, when Henry’s car ran out of gas on top of a hill and began to roll backward. Of course, the Secret Service was following right behind the couple, and Henry’s car rolled into theirs.

“I was laughing but he was horrified,” Jenna recalled on Today in 2021.

And when Henry eventually concocted a plan to propose to Jenna on a mountaintop in 2007, he tried his best to keep it private. “Well,” the former first daughter said on the Today show in October, “it was private except there was a Secret Service man a couple paces behind me. So it was ‘private.’ ”

The Secret Service agent being the first person to find out about the proposal was “very weird,” Jenna said. “That’s why I need lots of therapy.”

Still, the romance worked out for Jenna and Henry, and the two now laugh about the ups and downs of courting each other alongside a security detail.

The ‘Low-Key’ Trump Scion

PEOPLE has not confirmed NewsNation’s reporting that Barron does, in fact, have a girlfriend, though sources say he is more social than people might think.

He met a lot of new people at NYU and made some friends, one source tells PEOPLE. “He is no slouch and attracts the attention of girls,” the source adds. “And not just at college. He had female friends in high school in Florida. He gets along well with his female friends.”

Another source, whose daughter knew Barron when they attended high school in West Palm Beach, calls him a regular guy who was well-liked.

“Barron didn’t hold court and act like he was better than the others. He was in school and did his thing like everyone else,” the source tells PEOPLE.

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Describing Barron as being on the shier side with old-school manners, another Trump source says, “It’s hard to believe he is Donald Trump’s son as he is more laid back, but he does have some of his moxie in a low-key way.”

That source believes that at this point in his life, Barron isn’t looking for a serious relationship.

“He definitely wants to go out in the world and make money,” says the source. “That is more important to him now than anything long-term in the romance department. But he is still young with more school ahead.”