Barron Trump’s ‘persistent’ calls to London woman made her ex ‘jealous’

A rape and assault trial unfolding in a London courtroom has opened a window onto the private life of President Donald Trump’s youngest son, Barron, revealing that the 19-year-old had developed a “very close” online relationship with a woman in London and witnessed her allegedly being attacked by her jealous ex-boyfriend via FaceTime — two days before his father’s January 2025 inauguration.

Barron Trump’s name and involvement with the woman came up during Friday’s cross-examination of the ex-boyfriend, Matvei Rumiantsev, a 22-year-old Russian citizen and 6-foot-6-inch former wrestler, as the Daily Beast and The Guardian reported. Rumiantsev is charged with two counts of rape and assault, which allegedly occurred during his tempestuous relationship with Barron’s online friend.

Rumiantsev has denied the charges, while admitting during his trial in Crown Court that he had become “jealous” of Barron, the Daily Beast reported. His girlfriend, also 22, called Barron “sweetheart,” while the president’s fifth child was “quite persistent” in calling her, the Daily Beast also said.

“Throughout the day, she had missed calls from him,” Rumiantsev told the court, according to the Daily Beast. “The U.S. is in a different time zone, so he was calling her in the morning, and then he apparently slept, and then he was calling in the evening.”

“He was quite persistent,” Rumiantsev told jurors. “It was hard for me not to be jealous.”

But Rumiantsev also questioned whether his ex-girlfriend’s feelings for the 6-foot-9-inch New York University student were sincere. “She was frankly leading him on,” he told the jurors, the Daily Beast reported. While Rumiantsev said he was “jealous,” he also felt that her actions towards Barron were “wrong” and that she wasn’t being “fair either to him or to me.”

Prosecutors allege that Rumiantsev raped the woman after spotting several missed calls on her phone from Barron on Jan. 18, 2025, The Guardian reported. Rumiantsev “flew into a rage” when he noticed Barron calling her in the early morning hours.

As has been widely reported from the trial this week, Barron briefly witnessed a fight between Rumiantsev and his ex-girlfriend from across the Atlantic while calling the woman via FaceTime at about 2:30 a.m. local time. Believing that his friend was being attacked, Barron alerted police in London.

A transcript released by prosecutors showed Barron telling the operator: “I’m calling from the U.S., uh I just got a call from a girl, you know, she’s getting beat up,” the BBC reported. Barron also clarified that it was happening on “a video call.”

Rumiantsev told the court that his ex-girlfriend was in a “hysterical state” when Trump called, The Guardian also reported.

The prosecutor showed jurors a video, which the prosecutor said showed the woman on the floor, crying, with Rumiantsev standing above her, saying to her in Russian, “Do you understand?”

Rumiantsev said he’s the one who picked up the call from Barron, hoping it might prompt jolt the woman into calming down, according to the Daily Beast.

“I was trying to make her understand what she doing was unreasonable,” Rumiantsev said. “Maybe that’s why I answered the call. I probably wouldn’t behave like that in front of other people, especially Barron Trump.”

The Daily Beast reported that the alleged fight and Barron’s report to London police took place on the same evening that he joined his family for a private reception and fireworks at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, kicking off a weekend of festivities ahead of his father’s inauguration.

The case also has brought renewed scrutiny to Barron’s private life, which have included questions about whether he began dating anyone after starting school at New York University, the Daily Beast also reported. Even though reporters tend to respect the privacy of teen and young adult children of presidents, Barron has increasingly become an exception because of his reports suggesting that he played an important, behind-the-scenes role in his father’s 2024 presidential campaign and because of his association with controversial figures.

In December, the New York Times also reported that Barron has become an admirer of Andrew Tate. The manosphere influencer, with American and British citizenship, is an accused sex trafficker and rapist and who has been under investigation in Romania for allegedly coercing women into pornography and beating and having sex with a 15-year-old girl.

The Times report described a 2024 scene when a then-18-year-old Barron was on a Zoom call with Tate, who was then barred from leaving Romania. Barron also was with Justin Waller, who has helped the Tate brothers run their “brazenly chauvinistic” movement and online courses, which preach mental and physical discipline, entrepreneurship and “the subjugation of women,” according to the Times. Waller also told the Times that he has tried to play a “big brother” role for Barron and given him advice on dating,

During their Zoom chat with Tate, Barron was being fitted for a suit by Waller’s tailor and the three men discussed their shared belief that the Romanian criminal investigation had no merit and was an attempt to silence both Andrew Tate and his brother and alleged co-conspirator, Tristan.

While Barron didn’t say anything about helping Tate and his brother with their legal issues, Waller told the Times that they discussed how the Tates could use their online platforms to encourage their male fans to support Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Waller acknowledged to the Times that the president’s youngest son “is not a bad ally to have.”