Melania, Ivanka and Barron Trump - who is the new first family?
- Published
Donald Trump pledged to unify America as he addressed cheering supporters at a concert at the Lincoln Memorial on the eve of his inauguration, flanked by his wife and extended family. So who are the new first family of the United States?
Tiffany Trump is Donald Trump's daughter by his second wife Marla Maples, a former actress and TV personality. She is an avid user of social media, where her posts depict a glamorous lifestyle. She won a highly sought-after internship with Vogue in 2011 and released a pop song, Like a Bird, when she was 17. Tiffany kept a relatively low profile during the election campaign but earned her father's praise for her "fantastic" convention speech, in which she said her father was a "natural-born encourager".
Jared Kushner is the husband of Ivanka, Donald's eldest daughter. He is the son of a prominent New York property developer and has been the owner of the weekly Observer paper in New York for 10 years. For someone with no prior government experience, he has accumulated a dizzying array of portfolios in the administration of his father-in-law. The 36-year-old, whose previous main work experience was running his father's real-estate firm, is a senior adviser to the commander-in-chief. Despite having no diplomatic credentials, he has been tasked with no less a challenge than resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He also serves as the president's lead adviser on relations with China, Mexico and Canada. Mr Kushner, who is Jewish, is reported to have angered members of his own family when he wrote a defence of Donald Trump's use of the Star of David in a tweet attacking Hillary Clinton. Writing in his own newspaper, he said: "My father-in-law is not an anti-Semite". He continued: "The difference between me and the journalists and Twitter throngs who find it so convenient to dismiss my father-in-law is simple. I know him and they don't."
Ivanka Trump is perhaps the best-known of Donald Trump's children, the only daughter of his marriage to Ivana, his first wife. In March 2017 it was announced that she was officially joining her father's administration as an unpaid employee with the title Assistant to the President. The US first daughter bowed to pressure following an outcry from ethics experts at her initial plans to serve in a more informal capacity. A model in her early years, she is also a vice-president at The Trump Organization and was also a judge on her father's reality TV show The Apprentice. She converted to Judaism after marrying Jared in 2009. In a speech to the Republican National Congress, she backed her father to support women's rights: "As a mother myself, of three young children, I know how hard it is to work while raising a family. And I also know that I'm far more fortunate than most. American families need relief. Policies that allow women with children to thrive should not be novelties, they should be the norm."
Arabella is the eldest daughter of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.
Melania Trump, a former model born in Slovenia, married Donald Trump in January 2005. She has made few public appearances since her husband became president and sometimes appears stiff and awkward when she does so. "She has been thrust into a role she didn't seek and doesn't seem to relish," the BBC's Barbara Plett Usher reported in March 2017. But it may be that cracks in Mrs Trump's famous reserve will appear as she prepares to move to Washington from New York when her son Barron finishes the school year. She stood by her husband after video footage emerged during the campaign in which he boasted about groping women. In July 2016 she made headlines after making a speech at the Republican National Convention, which she was accused of plagiarising from one made by Michelle Obama in 2008. In an October 2016 interview with CNN, she was asked what she would change about her husband. She replied: "His tweeting."
Barron Trump is the only child from Donald's current marriage to Melania, and he walked part of Pennsylvania Avenue in the inauguration parade. Although he made brief appearances on the election campaign trail, the 10-year-old has been mostly kept out of the spotlight. All that changed soon after the president's inauguration in January 2017, however when he was at the centre of a Twitter storm following comments made about him by a comedian. Barron plays golf with his father and is reported to be fluent in Slovenian, his mother's native language.
Kai Trump is the eldest of Vanessa and Donald Jr's five children.
Lara Yunaska, a former TV producer and keen equestrian, married Eric Trump in 2014. She broke both her wrists horse-riding two weeks before their wedding, at which Jared Kushner officiated. The couple are expecting their first child in September. As an animal welfare advocate, it is not known what Lara makes of her husband's hunting hobby. She is also involved in the Trump Foundation, said to be one of the largest private charities in the US. Lara told Fox News on 6 November: "Women are highly offended that a candidate like Hillary Clinton thinks she can get our vote simply because we are the same gender… It's ridiculous, it's insulting, and it's offensive".
Donald Trump Jr is Donald Trump's eldest son from his first marriage to Ivana. In March 2017 he controversially criticised London's mayor shortly after the terror attack on Westminster which killed three people. Now executive vice-president of The Trump Organization, he married Vanessa Haydon after being introduced to her at a fashion show by his father. His rise has not been free from controversy. His, and brother Eric's, taste for hunting big game was criticised after photos emerged showing them posing with dead animals including a leopard and a crocodile. Donald Jr was also holding the severed tail of an elephant.
Eric Trump is the third child of Mr Trump's marriage to Ivana. Like his siblings, he is also an executive vice-president of The Trump Organization. Eric is president of the Trump Winery in Virginia and oversees Trump golf clubs. In 2006, he also set up the Eric Trump Foundation, which has pledged $28m to a research hospital which helps children battling life-threatening diseases. In March 2017 he said that he will give his father "quarterly" updates on the Trump family's business interests, a pledge made despite the president's promises to divest himself of his business interests. Like his brother, Donald Jr, Eric was criticised over a hunting trip to Zimbabwe in 2010. He may have broken the law on election day by tweeting a picture of his ballot paper, saying it was an "incredible honour to vote for my father."
Vanessa Trump, nee Haydon, married Donald Trump Jr in November 2005. The couple have five young children, including Kai, aged eight (pictured). Vanessa began modelling as a child and once dated Leonardo DiCaprio. She serves on the executive committee of her brother-in-law Eric's charity foundation. She keeps a gun at home - and according to an interview with SilencerCo, a company that makes gun silencers, she also has a permit to carry a concealed weapon and shoots regularly.
Donald III is the eldest son of Vanessa and Donald Jr.
- Published10 September
- Published9 November 2016
- Published10 November 2016
- Published25 April 2017
- Published9 November 2016