Joshua Trump, Delaware boy bullied for last name, goes viral after sleeping at State of the Union
Joshua Trump, the sixth-grade Wilmington student not related to the president but bullied for his last name, was invited to the State of the Union by the White House.
President Donald Trump wasn’t the only Trump in the limelight Tuesday.
Trump gave his second State of the Union address on the floor of the U.S. House, delivering a call for unity and urging an end to “partisan investigation” while addressing issues like immigration, drugs, and the economy. But the topics Trump tackled weren’t the only subject on everyone’s lips.
Guests like astronaut Buzz Aldrin and Alice Walker, who was granted clemency by the president in June, joined the president and First Lady Melania Trump at the event. Lawmakers also brought guests.
Joshua Trump, the sixth-grade Wilmington student not related to the president but bullied for his last name, was also in attendance, invited by the White House. But it looks like the president’s remarks, which wrapped up around 10:30 p.m., extended into the boy’s bedtime — photos of an apparently sleeping Joshua Trump quickly circulated among watchers on Twitter.
By Wednesday morning, the 11-year-old was hailed a legend, and even welcomed to the “resistance.” Some joked that Joshua Trump was taking “executive time,” a reference to the many “unstructured” hours outlined in the president’s schedule over the last three months, recently leaked to Axios.
It wasn’t clear exactly when the boy fell asleep.
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The bullying began when Trump declared his campaign for president and became so extreme that he had to be homeschooled for a year, his father, Bobby Berto, told 6ABC in December.
"He said he hates himself, and he hates his last name, and he feels sad all the time, and he doesn't want to live feeling like that anymore, and as a parent that's scary," his mother, Megan Trump, told the news outlet at the time.
Now a student at Talley Middle School, teachers use his father’s last name instead, in an effort to remedy the bullying. Students have also been disciplined, according to 6ABC.
“Going to be a fun long day,” his father wrote on Facebook Tuesday. “Proud of my brave boy.”