First Lady Melania Trump, 56, said family time in the Trump household is shrinking, in remarks made Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026, during an appearance on Fox Business’ “The Big Money Show.” She suggested her 20-year-old son, Barron Trump, does not mind the distance.
“It’s less and less the family time. It’s suffering because of it,” she said. “But that’s OK. We are here to work, to do a good job, and that’s what matters. And Barron is already a young man, so sometimes he’s maybe even happy that, you know, I just want to do my stuff. And that’s OK.”
The appearance was booked around the first lady’s new initiative, IMPERIA, a platform to connect women business leaders, CEOs, founders and investors, which she launched that morning by ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. In the clip, dated Sept. 23, she says women are at the center of the economy and must build ownership together.
A Question About Sunday Dinners
Taylor Riggs, a co-host of “The Big Money Show,” opened with praise, calling the first lady an inspiration to young mothers “trying to do it all — run businesses, charities, organize state dinners,” and run a family. Riggs then asked whether the Trumps still gather for Sunday night dinners or whether she tries to see Barron when she can.
Her answer began with logistics. “It’s good to schedule, right?” Melania Trump said. “It’s always good because everybody’s so busy.”
Her husband is sometimes in the Oval Office until 9:30 at night, she said, and she does not hold dinner for him. “You don’t, because he’s busy. I’m busy too,” she said. The Daily Beast has reported that the first lady is believed to spend most of her time in New York City while the president lives at the White House, citing claims by author Michael Wolff; the White House has dismissed Wolff as a “serial liar.”
The Fox Business interview contained nothing that walked back her portrait of a schedule leaving less and less room for the dinner table. Some viewers criticized her advice to young mothers online as out of touch.
A Contrast With January
The September remarks sit oddly beside a comment she made in January 2026 on Fox Business, to then-host Maria Bartiromo, while promoting her documentary: “You need to be there for a child nonstop, especially when they need you, especially at that age that Barron is.” Her son was 19 at the time. Fox parted ways with Bartiromo in early September.
Barron Trump is now in his third year at New York University (NYU). In 2025, People and the New York Post reported that he had transferred to the university’s Washington, D.C., academic center and moved into the White House rather than remain on the school’s Manhattan campus; neither NYU nor the White House confirmed the move.
In August, the New York Post reported that Barron had become reclusive, with sources saying, “He doesn’t go out.”
Washington saw less of Melania Trump than usual this summer; she made no public appearances between July 19 and Aug. 20. The absence came amid reports, attributed to Wolff and others, scrutinizing her husband’s close working relationship with Natalie Harp, a 35-year-old aide to the president.
Scrutiny Over the ‘Manosphere’
Critics have also questioned the president’s youngest son over his apparent closeness to figures in the controversial “manosphere,” among them Andrew Tate, 39, who faces rape and human-trafficking charges in the U.K., was indicted in Romania this month on charges including trafficking minors, and denies wrongdoing.
The New York Times reported last December that Barron Trump was “a big fan” of Tate and his brother, according to influencer Justin Waller, and that Barron joined a 2024 video call with Andrew Tate while being fitted for a suit; a Tate spokesperson called the report “fake news.” Tate himself has said he spoke with Barron Trump after the July 2024 assassination attempt against his father in Butler, Pa.
What Her Documentary Showed
Her documentary, “Melania,” also billed as “Melania: Twenty Days to History,” was released by Amazon MGM Studios in January. Director Brett Ratner made the project his first since he was accused of sexual misconduct in 2017; he has denied the allegations. On Sept. 23, the first lady announced a follow-up: a two-part Amazon docuseries, also directed by Ratner, due out later this year.
Watchdog groups and critics of the administration went after the film’s financing, including Amazon’s reported $40 million licensing fee, and called its release insensitive at a moment when protests were swelling in Minneapolis over two fatal shootings by federal agents.
The documentary, which traces the days before the January 2025 inauguration, is largely set at Trump Tower in New York and Mar-a-Lago in Florida. Her mother, Amalija Knavs, died in January 2024, and that loss anchors the film’s most personal stretch. Cameras follow her to former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral in Washington on Jan. 9, 2025, the anniversary of the death, and on to St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan, where a candle is lit in her mother’s honor.
She reveals during a car ride that musician Michael Jackson is her favorite, and the film gives “Billie Jean” two airings across its running time. Brigitte Macron, the wife of French President Emmanuel Macron, joins her on a video call in which the two women trade concerns about youth anxiety and social media use. Barron, for his part, appears to avoid the camera.
