Journalist Rikki Schlott made headlines on April 15, 2026 after swiftly denying she’s dating Barron Trump, the president’s youngest son, following viral speculation that swept across social media.
The 25-year-old New York Post columnist addressed the rumors on April 15, 2026, responding to a now-deleted X post with a blunt three-word statement: “That’s a no.”
The speculation appears to have originated from their shared connection to New York University. The president’s son attends NYU’s Stern School of Business, while Schlott studied history there before leaving during the pandemic and transferring to Columbia University. Additionally, Schlott once described Barron as “hunky” in a December 2024 article, a descriptor that seemingly resurfaced to fan the flames more than a year later.
Social media users delivered mixed responses to Schlott’s denial. While some commenters suggested she was “too smart and pretty for him,” others took the opposite view, claiming Barron “is out of her league.” One user quipped, “I bet you wish you were? lol,” while another added, “You would be so lucky.”
Barron’s romantic life remains largely a mystery. Neither he nor his family has publicly discussed his dating history, though public curiosity has intensified since he started college.
A dramatic incident in early 2026 revealed Barron maintained a “very close” online friendship with a British woman. Details emerged during a London trial where Matvei Rumiantsev, the woman’s then-boyfriend and a trained MMA fighter, faced assault charges after drunkenly attacking her on Jan. 18, 2025. Rumiantsev, a Russian national, had grown jealous of her relationship with the president’s son.
During the assault, Rumiantsev answered a FaceTime call from Barron and showed him the woman crying on the floor. Barron immediately contacted emergency services, telling the 999 operator: “I’m calling from the U.S. I just got a call from a girl… she’s getting beaten up.” Police arrested Rumiantsev at the scene. At London’s Snaresbrook Crown Court in January 2026, Rumiantsev described Barron as “quite persistent” and admitted he was “jealous to some extent” of the friendship. A jury found him guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm on Jan. 28, and he received a four-year prison sentence.
Beyond his personal life, Barron has been building his professional profile. He enrolled at NYU’s Stern School of Business in September 2024 after graduating from Oxbridge Academy in West Palm Beach. He also co-founded World Liberty Financial, the Trump family’s cryptocurrency platform, alongside his father and brothers Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump. President Trump, 79, discussed the decision at the time, saying, “I went to Wharton, and that was certainly one that we were considering. We didn’t do that. We went for Stern.”
First Lady Melania Trump addressed her son’s college experience during a December 2024 “Fox & Friends” interview, saying she didn’t think it was “possible” for her son to be a “normal student” given his family’s profile, though she added she was very proud of him.
Despite initial reports that Barron occupied an entire floor at Trump Tower, he has relocated to Washington, D.C., with his parents and now continues his studies through NYU’s Washington campus.
Business filings in Florida and Delaware from January 2025 show Barron listed as one of five directors in Sollos Yerba Mate Inc., alongside Spencer Bernstein, Rodolfo Castello, Stephen Hall, and Valentino Gomez. The company raised $1 million through a private placement and is headquartered in Palm Beach. The brand is scheduled to launch in May 2026, pushed back from an original April target, with a Pineapple + Coconut 12-pack already previewed on LinkedIn. The registered address, a $16 million property near Mar-a-Lago, is owned by Jay Weitzman, a longtime Trump associate, campaign donor, and former tennis partner of the president, whose parking business has held federal contracts since 2005. Weitzman told Newsweek he holds no ownership stake in Sollos, clarifying that the company is registered at his address solely because his grandson, Spencer Bernstein, one of the company’s directors, lives there.
The venture has drawn criticism online, with users on Instagram and Reddit accusing the brand of cultural appropriation, arguing that yerba mate’s roots in Indigenous Guaraní and South American culture make it an awkward fit for the Trump family’s business portfolio.
Very little is publicly known about his personal life — and based on this week’s swift response, at least one young journalist would prefer to keep her name out of the guessing game entirely.
