Who Is Lara Trump? 10 Things to Know About the President’s Daughter-in-Law

From Town & Country

For Donald Trump, politics is a family affair, and one of his daughters-in-law is working to ensure he’s re-elected. Lara Trump, the 37-year-old wife of Donald’s son Eric, is gearing up for the election. Here’s everything you need to know about one of the public faces of the President’s 2020 campaign.

She's a mother of two.

"Family of FOUR!" Trump wrote on Instagram in August 2019, along with a new family portrait with her baby girl. Carolina is Eric and Lara's second child. Their son, Eric "Luke" Trump was born in September of 2017.

The newborn is also the president's tenth grandchild; Eric's sister Ivanka Trump has three children with her husband Jared Kushner: Arabella, Joseph, and Theodore, and his brother Donald Trump Jr. has five with his ex-wife Vanessa: Donald Trump III, Spencer, Tristan, Kai, and Chloe.

"I knew I always wanted kids someday," Lara Trump told People in March of 2017..

Eric, too, has previously hinted at wanting to start a family. Back before the 2016 election, he said, "Maybe when this crazy political race is over, we'll start working on the kid thing."

She’s at work on Trump’s reelection campaign.

Lara is Senior Advisor to Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., the President’s reelection committee. In late March of 2017, news broke that she had been hired by the digital firm working on President Trump’s 2020 campaign. She serves as a senior consultant and liaison for the firm, Giles-Parscale, which the Associated Press reported is also a “data and digital provider for America First Policies, a nonprofit group started earlier this year to back Trump’s presidential agenda.” Lara’s role is apparently to work on “digital, fundraising, and merchandising efforts,” according to the Raleigh News & Observer.

Lara spoke at the New York State Republican Committee’s annual gala on June 20, 2017 and outlined her plans. “In the next seven and a half years we do have a lot of work to do, but I am truly optimistic,” she said. “I’m optimistic about the direction of the world... because we have a true leader.” She told the audience that she’s already met with National Republican Committee officials to talk strategy about the 2018 congressional midterm elections, as well as the next presidential election.

After all, she told a crowd in Wilmington, North Carolina, “2020 is going to be here before we know it.”

Now that it's here, she's continuing to campaign for her father-in-law and against Biden.

She has made "real news" videos on behalf of Donald Trump.

In a video posted to Donald J. Trump's facebook page, Lara, a former television producer, touts a series of flattering stories about her father-in-law. "I bet you haven’t heard about all the accomplishments the president had this week because there’s so much fake news out there," she says. (His accomplishments, according to the video, include donating his salary, low unemployment numbers, and giving out medals at the White House.) As the New York Post noted, Lara is not a government employee and these appear to be a part of Trump's reelection efforts.

Early in the Trump presidency, Lara took an active role in the White House.

Trump "has been hosting high-level meetings within the White House to push a variety of domestic policy initiatives," Newsweek reported in November of 2017. She's reportedly met with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, Veteran Affairs Committee Chairman Phil Roe, and Representative U.S. Ron DeSantis in the hopes of getting their support for a $10-million federal initiative to establish a new nationwide Veterans Affairs program.

Her involvement may be ethically questionable; government watchdogs told Newsweek that it represented "a clear crossing of the well-established line between campaign work and public service."

"I cannot remember something like that ever happening in my time," David Gergen, who served in the White House administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton, along with George Bush’s 1980 campaign, said. "This White House is being run like a family business, and campaigning is their bread and butter."

In the past, she's worked as a chef, a trainer, and a TV producer.

A native of Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, just east of Wilmington, Lara Trump was born Lara Yunaska. She studied communications at North Carolina State University before earning a degree in pastry arts from the French Culinary Institute in New York. She’s worked as a personal trainer and as a board member of her husband’s charitable foundation, which ceased operation at the end of 2016 and has recently come under fire for a report of misused funds.

Lara also worked as a producer for Inside Edition before taking off the final two months of the 2016 presidential campaign to focus on the election. “When they’re reporting on your family on the show you work for, it’s a little challenging,” she said at the time.

Her wedding to Eric was a major event.

Lara and Eric Trump were together for six years before they wed in November 2014, in a large wedding at Donald’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida—the same setting where Donald married Melania in 2006.

The whole Trump family was in attendance, with Donald Trump Jr. serving as best man. Ivanka Trump was a bridesmaid, her daughter Arabella was a flower girl, and Ivanka’s husband, Jared Kushner, was the officiant. Page Six reported that he joked to Lara during the ceremony, “You are not just gaining a family, you are getting 6 million Twitter followers.” The guest list of more than 400 also included former Real Housewives of New York cast member Jill Zarin and radio personality Elvis Duran.

Lara wore two Vera Wang gowns, one for the ceremony and one for the reception, and she accessorized them with jewelry from Ivanka’s line. There was one hiccup, though. Just two weeks before the big day, Lara broke both her wrists in a horseback riding accident.

Lara wore fingerless gloves during the reception to hide the bandages. “I had to get creative with a way to make casts look bridal,” she told People.

In March, she told Hello! magazine that despite now needing Secret Service protection, life in her marriage isn’t too hectic. “Eric and I lead a pretty normal life,” she said. “Our favorite place to be is our home outside of New York City. It’s quiet and relaxing—just the two of us and our dogs.”

She hit the campaign trail in 2016.

Lara was seen alongside Eric at Donald Trump’s events, and she also served as a surrogate for the president, especially in her home state of North Carolina. “I never expected, when I moved nine years ago to New York City, that this would ever happen to me,” she told Port City Daily before speaking to local Republican women in her hometown. “[Being a part of this campaign] is the greatest thing I’ve ever done in my entire life. It’s incredible.”

“I never knew her to say no a single time,” counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway told the Raleigh News & Observer about Lara. “‘Can you work the phones for fundraising?’ ‘Can we send you and your colleagues in Women for Trump to the four following states?’ ‘Will you sit on a bus for hours?’ Lara never said no.”

Her brother landed a job with the Department of Energy.

In February of 2017, Kyle Yunaska became part of the “beachhead” team of temporary political appointees working to transition the federal agency to the new administration, Axios reported. The Washington Post put the move on “nepotism watch” as Yunaska has no discernible background in energy.

Yunaska does, however, have a background in being one of “D.C.’s hottest bachelors,” as named by Lara’s one-time place of work, Inside Edition.

She’s big on animal advocacy.

Lara’s Instagram feed is full of pictures of her two dogs, and she told Politico that she’s worked with “numerous animal rescue centers.” She added that it’s a “cause so close” to her heart and that she will “continue to use [her] voice to spread awareness and encourage people to adopt from shelters.”

In a segment on The Dr. Oz Show, Lara spoke out against puppy mills, calling them “basically breeding sweatshops for dogs.” She’s also said that she’s “working hard” to get a rescue dog into the White House, with her eyes set on convincing Vice President Mike Pence to adopt.

Lara has so far refrained from commenting on her husband's love of hunting, though on Twitter and elsewhere, reports of her animal rights activism are often met with a reminder of the controversial photos of Eric and his brother Donald Jr. hunting elephants and other big game in Africa

She’s spoken about how politics has affected her family.

Her sister-in-law Ivanka recently told Fox & Friends that she was surprised by the "viciousness" of the response to her father's presidency, and Lara has also mentioned the challenges of being in this particular spotlight. "This hasn't been easy for our family, as you have probably noticed if you've turned on the TV," she said during a speech to Republicans in New York.

In an appearance on Hannity, Lara discussed the controversial photo of Kathy Griffin holding a depiction of the president’s severed head. When asked about “attacks” on her family, Lara said, “We’ve been dealing with it for almost two years now. I’d love to say that it gets easier, it doesn’t get easier, but we can handle it… We understand that this is the world we live in, and we’ve accepted it in a way.”

She and Eric shared a similar sentiment on The Dr. Oz Show when Dr. Mehmet Oz brought up tweets from comedian Chelsea Handler about their unborn child.

“It’s sad,” Eric said, as Lara nodded beside him. “At the same time, when somebody spells ‘genes’ incorrectly, you kind of have to turn your head and ignore it a little bit. But honestly, for every single one of those, there were 300 saying, ‘Listen, we love your family.’”

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