Trump’s family won’t be in the White House, but they’ll be just as influential on the outside
There may be fewer Trumps in the White House this time around but ethical questions and party influence will continue to swirl around the famous family, writes Josh Marcus
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Your support makes all the difference.The first time Donald Trump was president, it was decidedly a family affair. His wife Melania and young son Barron joined him in the presidential living quarters. His adult daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner served as top White House advisers. Sons Eric and Donald Jr. looked after the family business, the Trump Organization, which holds real estate across the world. Those properties resulted in the Trumps allegedly racking up thousands of conflicts of interest during his presidency, according to ethics experts.
This time around, things will look a bit different at 1600 Pennsylvania. Barron’s at college in New York. Jared and Ivanka are in Miami after the latter formally announced her withdrawal from politics in 2022. Melania’s reportedly going to bounce between Palm Beach and Manhattan, rather than live full-time at the White House. Don Jr. got a new job as a venture capitalist instead of joining the White House, and Eric is taking a back seat to his wife, Lara.
There may be fewer Trumps in the White House come January but the family will still have its fingerprints all over the levers of power, from politics to media to finance.
The Rising Political Star: Lara Trump
Lara Trump, who is married to Trump’s third eldest, Eric, is the family member most directly in touch with electoral politics and it seems her trajectory is only up.
During the 2024 campaign, she served as co-chair of the Republican National Committee. There she alternated between reinforcing her father-in-law’s baseless claims about a fraudulent 2020 election and encouraging the GOP to embrace early voting, part of the party’s broader message attempting to move past Trump’s repeated attacks on the practice.
After helping the Republicans secure the House, the Senate, the White House and the presidential popular vote, Lara Trump’s stock couldn’t be higher within the GOP. Conservative legislators and media figures have been openly advocating for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to appoint her to replace Senator Marco Rubio, who’s been tapped as the president-elect’s nominee for Secretary of State.
On Wednesday, Lara Trump told Fox News she “would love to serve the people of Florida” if asked.
“No one knows better than I do the America First agenda or the goals of Donald Trump for the coming four years,” she said. “So if I am asked, I would love to consider it, but I have yet to have a conversation with Governor DeSantis.”
If appointed, it would cement the beginning of a true Trump political dynasty in Washington, akin to the Bush and Clinton families.
The Money Men: Jared and Don Jr.
As Lara has continued her rise through the more traditional parts of the party, Don Jr. and Jared Kushner have climbed the rungs of high finance, which is rarely a step or two outside of politics.
Since 2021, Kushner has presided over Affinity Partners, a $3bn Miami-based private equity firm whose investors include Taiwanese electronics billionaire Terry Gou and the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
The Senate Finance Committee raised alarms last month the firm had been paid at least $112m in fees but had not returned any profits.
“Affinity’s investors may not be motivated by commercial considerations but rather the opportunity to funnel foreign government money to members of President Trump’s family, namely Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump,” Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, a Democrat, wrote in a letter to the company in September.
Affinity told The New York Times the firm has always complied with federal law and said private equity firms often don’t immediately return profits.
“Partisan politics aside, Affinity Partners is an S.E.C.-registered investment firm that has always acted appropriately and any suggestion to the contrary is false,” Chad Mizelle, Affinity Partners’s chief legal officer, told the paper. “We are fortunate to have the support of some of the world’s most sophisticated investors and work hard on their behalf every day.”
After the 2024 election, Don Jr. reportedly made a money move of his own, joining the anti-ESG, “deglobalization” venture capital firm 1789 Capital. The company, which has invested in Tucker Carlson’s media company, has a thicket of ties to the world of right-wing tech capital, the same milieu that helped propel former venture capitalist and Peter Thiel protege JD Vance to the White House.
1789’s founders include Omeed Malik, a banker and investor who has fundraised for Donald Trump, and Christopher Buskirk, who co-founded the Rockbridge Network, a conservative donor network, with Vance. Another Thiel ally, former Senate candidate Blake Masters of Arizona, is on the company’s board of advisors.
The Trump campaign made explicit overtures to the crypto community and successfully appealed to right-leaning figures at the top of the tech world, like Elon Musk and the Winklevoss twins. The presence of two Trump sons at influential financial firms is another reminder of the increasingly blended worlds of finance, tech, and conservative politics.
The up-and-coming influencers: Barron and Kai Trump
Barron Trump, the president’s youngest son, has scarcely said a word in public but has managed to become both a subject of unending media curiosity and an influential media adviser to his father’s presidential campaign.
Barron and his friend Bo Loudon were reportedly responsible for getting Trump to sit down with Kick influencer Adin Ross in August, part of a media blitz that included numerous stops on the alternative podcasts and streams of the right-adjacent “manosphere” that helped connect Trump 2024 to the young male vote.
“Barron has been very involved in selecting – or recommending, I should say – a number of the podcasts that we should do,” Trump adviser Jason Miller said during the campaign. “I got to tell you, hats off to the young man. Every single recommendation he’s had has turned out to be absolute ratings gold that’s broken the internet. He’s done a great job.”
Kai Trump, Don Jr.’s daughter, appears to be launching an influencer career of her own. In addition to joining the University of Miami golf team, the 17-year-old is a YouTuber and released a widely watched behind-the-scenes video of Trump’s election night win.
Kimberly Guilfoyle, her father’s fiancee, meanwhile, also leans into content creation, hosting a Rumble show that features regular interviews with Trump campaign officials, Maga activists, and conservative personalities.
Trump rose to power by adroitly wielding the braided power centers of business, politics, and media. Now it has become a family tradition.
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