A college student has found herself caught in political crossfire.
New York University’s College Republicans club president Kaya J. Walker has resigned from her post amid backlash over a recent comment she made about President Donald J. Trump’s youngest son Barron Trump and his life as a college student at the school.
“He’s sort of like an oddity on campus,” Kaya told Vanity Fair in a profile on Barron published Feb. 12. “He goes to class, he goes home.”
Now, in a letter to the chairman of the New York Federation of College Republicans, Kaya shared her side of the story, claiming her comment addressed the obsession that has developed around Barron on campus rather than describing the 18-year-old himself.
“My comment to Vanity Fair has been ridiculously misconstrued to suggest that I found Barron Trump’s commuter status to be unusual when in reality the majority of NYU’s student body-including myself-are commuters,” Kaya wrote in her letter, which was shared by the NYU College Republicans chapter. “The ‘oddity’ I talked about lies in the unhealthy fascination that people have with a teenager just minding his business by going to college and not at all in Barron Trump himself.”
The college senior went on to note she did not know Barron—whose mom is First Lady Melania Trump—nor has she seen him on campus, instead calling out “the ugly side of our culture on campus and worldwide that delights in forming parasocial relationships with celebrities.”
She further referenced NYU graduates Dylan Sprouse and Cole Sprouse, comparing the ways the Suite Life alums were followed on campus to the way photos of Barron are being circulated by his fellow students on social media.
Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesKaya—who has been involved with the campus organization since her freshman year—also described the ways she’s helped build up the club during her tenure, noting how the club became an outlet after never having “anyone who shared my beliefs growing up in New York City.”
However, after saying she had to “consider the health of our organization,” she asked that the New York Federation of College Republicans chairman “kindly accept” her resignation as President.
“I do not apologize for trying to denounce the campus hysteria,” she wrote, “but I do apologize to everyone that I love and respect that was caught in the crosshairs of this willful and malicious misreading of my comment.”
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesE! News has reached out to reps for Barron as well as to Kaya for comment but has not yet heard back.
And amid her resignation, her club is standing behind her.
In sharing the letter to social media, the NYU College Republicans chapter wrote, “Kaya is a lovely person and has been our fearless leader for years now. It was not members from our chapter who forced her to resign.”
For more on Barron and the Trump family tree, keep reading.
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