In 1990, Donald Trump told Playboy Magazine that "statistically" his children had a "very
bad shot" because "children of successful people are generally very, very troubled,
not successful.
They don't have the right shtick."
However, he's since groomed his three eldest, Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric, to hold executive
positions within his business empire, and his daughter Tiffany is poised to earn her
law degree, while his youngest son Barron and his mother Melania hold down the penthouse
fort in New York.
They haven't become the Kardashians just yet.
But are they keeping up with their father's expectations?
Here's the untold truth of the Trump kids.
The spoils
Barron might drive his very own kiddie Mercedes-Benz around his $100 million NYC penthouse, but
Donald Jr. told People that he and the rest of the Trump kids were "spoiled the right
way" in that they were "spoiled with great experiences, great surroundings, and incredible
environments that really allowed [them] to see other incredible people and really try
to emulate that."
Donald Jr. also told Forbes that while it might appear that they're coasting on their
dad's coat tails, Poppa Donald instructed them to learn the tricks of the trade along
the way as well.
He said, "My father's logic from the beginning was if you're going to have someone dig a
ditch for you, you'd better know how to do it yourself.
So here's your shovel.
Start digging."
The upbringing
Donald Jr. has also said that he didn't have a "'let's go play catch in the backyard' sort
of father-son relationship."
"We always went to job sites with him.
We'd be in his office playing with trucks as a six-year-old while he's negotiating deals
with presidents of major companies."
Donald Jr. was born in 1977 to mother Ivana, Donald's first wife.
With five kids of his own by the time he was in his late 30s, Donald Jr. works as executive
vice president at the Trump Organization, managing the existing properties portfolio.
He certainly didn't have a typical growing up experience, as he spent summers with his
grandfather Milos and learned to speak Czech fluently.
Plus, you know, he was born into untold wealth from the start.
The standards
Trump's second child Ivanka was born in 1981 and has claimed that her siblings' success
can be attributed to the fact that they never fell into bad habits, telling GQ, "I look
at my brothers and myself and I'm, like, really proud of the fact that nobody's, like, totally
f—ed up.
Nobody's a drug addict, nobody's driving around chasing women, snorting coke.
There's something amazing about that.
And you know, this isn't to pat myself on the back, but I could be a lot worse."
She attributes the Trump kids living "within some realm of reality" to her parents, whom
she told New York Magazine were "pretty tough" on them.
The former model has three children of her own and works as executive vice president
of the Trump Organization, overseeing hotels, and founded her own lifestyle brand.
She also founded her online forum and authored her book on "women who work" after appearing
on The Apprentice.
In her words, she received "a flood of letters from young women asking for guidance."
Since her father's election, Ivanka has moved to Washington D.C.
While her reps have indicated she'll have no official role in the administration, she
has committed to speaking up for those issues she's passionate about, such as child care.
Her husband, Jared Kushner, on the other hand, was officially appointed into a presidential
advisor position.
The role models
Trump's second son Eric has admitted that his older brother Donald Jr. had a big hand
in raising him and that he considers him to have been a "mentor."
He told The New York Times, "In a way, he raised me.
My father, I love and I appreciate, but he always worked 24 hours a day."
Eric, born to Donald and Ivana in 1984, was eight years old when his parents divorced.
When his mother gained full custody of all three children, she sent them to boarding
schools to escape the media blitz.
He told The Washington Post that he understood the decision to send them away, saying, "My
parents were so solid at keeping us away from it … And I think boarding school was their
subtle way of also doing that."
Eric has been married since 2014 and is also executive vice president of Trump Organization,
focusing on company assets involving golf and wine.
The alums
The Trump family has a special allegiance to the University of Pennsylvania.
Donald Trump, Don Jr., Ivanka, and Tiffany all graduated from that institution, while
Eric bucked tradition and instead opted for Georgetown.
He graduated in 2006 and serves on the school's board.
Only time will tell as to where young Barron will ultimately enroll, but chances are, he'll
be cheering for the Quakers like almost all of his siblings before him.
Charity work
The Trump kids might be best known for their participation in the family's financial dynasty,
but they've also done some good deeds over the years as well.
Donald Jr. has worked as an ambassador to Operation Smile, which provides reconstructive
services to children with deformities across the world, and Eric founded the Eric Trump
Foundation in 2006 to help raise money for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, reportedly
raising as much as $30 million for the organization.
He has claimed to be very hands-on about his involvement with the charity, visiting its
hospital locations on a regular basis.
He said of those visits, "Each time is more special than the last…
You develop amazing relationships with the parents and the children, many who weren't
given a chance at life by other hospitals — it truly puts life in perspective and
will completely change you as a person."
The businesses
Just outside Charlottesville, Virginia, Trump Winery sits on a sprawling 1,300-acre estate.
And Eric has been in charge of all of it since its opening in 2011, an interest, he said,
which stems from the his feelings that wine "is sexy" and "luxurious."
He and wife Lara kicked off their wedding celebration with a tasting at the winery in
2014.
The outcast
Tiffany Trump has been one of the least visible of Trump's children throughout Trump's presidential
bid, and that's in part to do with the fact that she was raised across the country with
her mother, Trump's second wife, Marla Maples.
Tiffany was born in 1993 and raised in California with her mother from the age of four after
Maples and Trump officially divorced in 1999.
While Tiffany remained on the west coast with her mother, she did keep touch with her siblings
all the while, but grew up largely without her father.
As Maples herself told The New York Times, "She'd like to get to know her father better
and spend time with him like his other children did: by going to his office and watching him
work."
Maples said Tiffany felt "wounded" by being depicted as the "forgotten Trump" during his
campaign.
The good news is, she can finally fulfill that dream of having a "slumber party in the
White House" now.
The minor
There's a reason Barron Trump's rare appearances on the campaign circuit were so heavily scrutinized
and subject to memes: He didn't really want any part of it.
A source close to Trump's transition team revealed that the election process was "difficult"
for the then-10-year-old child and that his mother Melania took it upon herself to try
and keep the "disruption to a minimum."
As the only son to Trump and Melania, Donald's third wife, Barron was born in 2006 to immense
riches and luxury.
He was famously photographed in his gilded suite, fit with a gold-trimmed stroller no
less, and is expected to remain in his penthouse until he finishes fourth grade in 2017.
To get a sense of just how pampered the kid is, Melania revealed that he's routinely covered
in her skincare line's Caviar Complex C6 every night after his bath and said, "He's not a
sweatpants child.
He doesn't mind putting on a [suit] and he likes to dress up in a tie sometimes like
Daddy … "I call him 'Mini-Donald."
The wedding estate
Trump's luxe Palm Beach, Florida estate called Mar-a-Lago has played host to several of his
children's weddings, including Donald Jr.'s marriage to Vanessa in 2005, Ivanka's nuptials
with Kushner in 2009, and Eric's wedding to Lara in 2014.
The trophies
Donald Jr. and Eric Trump stoked the ire of animal rights activists by appearing in photos
while posing next to a dead elephant, kudu, civet cat, and waterbuck while on a big game
safari hunt in Zimbabwe.
Donald Jr. spoke out in response to the backlash and earned even more criticism for his rationale.
"Nah listen, I still hunt, I've always been a hunter.
It's something that I've done for a long time.
In Africa, and people who haven't been there don't see it, like, over there an elephant
villages for weeks, and it all gets used.
Nothing gets wasted in Africa."
The abodes
Most of the Trump kids live in — where else?
Trump properties.
Ivanka revealed that she chose to reside in the $10 million Trump Park Avenue penthouse
but that she still has to pay a mortgage for the place.
She added that she did negotiate its price with her father, saying, "He'd be disappointed
if I didn't."
Meanwhile, Eric and his wife Lara live in a $2 million apartment at Trump Parc East,
and while Donald Jr. has reportedly moved across town to a non-Trump tower, and Tiffany
is currently touring Harvard University, Barron, who occupies an entire floor in Trump Tower,
has yet to chip in for rent.
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