Donald Trump’s shock victory in the US Presidential election was not simply a victory for the man himself.
ADVERTISEMENTDonald Trump’s shock victory in the US Presidential election was not simply a victory for the man himself. It also represents a victory for the great American image: the Family.
Trump ran his campaign surrounded by his family, and won in a similar fashion. Notable alongside the victorious Republican as he spoke to his expectant New York City audience was the youngest of his five children, 10-year old Barron Trump.
The image of a family man was consistently pushed during the campaign. His sons Eric and Donald Jnr were alongside their father, and despite Trump’s wife Melania’s reluctance to appear on camera or give interviews, a Washington Post-ABC poll suggested Trump’s family was seen as a bigger asset to the campaign than the Clinton clan.
But it was not for lack of trying that the Clinton family failed to attract the vote of traditionalists.
Husband and former President Bill Clinton was intrepid on the campaign trail, making appearances at over 200 campaign events, rallies and fundraisers.
Clinton’s daughter Chelsea, who grew up in the White House when her father was President, campaigned across the country in an attempt to get her mother elected to the same position.
Trump’s daughter, his second child Ivanka, is not only perhaps the most famous of the Trump children, but is also a friend of Chelsea Clinton. She told one American magazine that the pair had remained friends throughout the campaign, as “our friendship has never been about politics. I don’t expect it will be about politics in the future”. The 35-year old former fashion model now works as executive vice president within the Trump Organization. Ivanka is now married to a real estate developer, Jared Kushner. The couple have three children.
Ivanka’s mother is Donald’s first wife, Ivana, a Czech model, who is also the mother of two eldest sons, Donald Jr and Eric.
Donald Jr, 38, is also an executive vice president of the Trump Organization. He cast New York’s votes at the Republican National Convention earlier in the year, which he has described as “one of the great honors of my life”.
However, he later courted controversy by tweeting an image of a bowl of skittles with the caption: “If I had a bowl of skittles and I told you just three would kill you. Would you take a handful? That’s our Syrian refugee problem”. After being heavily criticsed, he swiftly removed the image.
Eric Trump, the middle son, is 32. And yes, you guessed it, is an executive vice president at the Trump Organization.
Most notably, Eric made a speech at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Cleveland, in which he said his father had declared he would never run for President unless “it got so bad that I had no choice”, to which Eric added, “ladies and gentlemen, that day has come”.
Not wanting to break from family tradition, he also made several high profile gaffes during the campaign. At one point he posed with a woman wearing a t-shirt with the logo, “Latina contra Trump”, which translates to “Latina against Trump”.
Perhaps the least known of the Trump Tribe is his second daughter Tiffany.
Born to his second wife, Marla Marples, the 22-year old grew up with her mother in California.
She recently graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, following in her father’s footsteps (Donald Sr graduated from Penn’s Wharton Business School in 1968).
Tiffany also spoke at the RNC, an event which her mother said she “could not be more proud of”.
Trump’s current wife, Melania, is also a former model, much like his first wife. She is also European, originating from Slovenia, and became a US citizen in 2006, the same year she gave birth to her son, Barron.
Again, she has been put under the spotlight for several discrepancies during the campaign.
Her speech on the first night of the RNC was questioned and she was even accused of plagiarism after listeners noticed that it sounded a lot like Michelle Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2008.
ADVERTISEMENTIt was also revealed that Melania may have worked illegally in the US, as she was apparently paid for as many as ten modeling jobs before she had the legal right to work in the US.
But with Donald Trump’s victory, it seems that none of this matters, and Melania will indeed become only the second First Lady of the United States to have been born abroad (the first being Louisa Adams, wife of John Quincy Adams, President between 1825 and 1829).