Lara Trump: Everything You Need to Know About Donald Trump’s Daughter-in-Law
Lara Trump may not have grown up in the Trump family, but it appears she’s integrated into the fold like a lifelong member. The onetime television producer married into the clan following her wedding to Eric Trump in 2014. She quickly became a key member of her father-in-law’s inner circle when he first ran for president and is reportedly still an important adviser in the Trump administration. Here’s everything you need to know about Lara Trump and her role in the White House.
Lara Trump’s life before becoming a Trump
Lara Lee Yunaska was born on October 12, 1982, in North Carolina. She stayed in state for her college education, studying communications at North Carolina State University. She later earned a degree in pastry arts from the French Culinary Institute in New York.
Prior to marrying Eric Trump, Lara worked as an associate producer for Inside Edition before leaving in the final two months of the 2016 presidential campaign. At the time, she shared with the Port City Daily that covering her own family on the news program got just a little too real.
“When they're reporting on your family on the show you work for, it's a little challenging,” she said. “We managed to keep everything pretty even-keeled for the duration of this whole thing, but certainly it's nice to not have to worry about that from day-to-day.”
Her children
Lara and Eric Trump welcomed their first son, Eric “Luke” Trump, in 2017. The couple had their second child—a girl named Carolina—in 2019. As Town & Country pointed out, Carolina is Donald Trump’s 10th grandchild.
“I knew I always wanted kids someday,” Lara told People in 2017. “Eric’s dad was so excited, that we were worried he’d blurt it out at a press conference.”
Her involvement in the Trump administration
Lara plays just as substantial a role in the Trump administration as Trump's own children. She currently serves as a senior adviser for Trump's 2020 reelection campaign, reportedly making $15,000 a month for the job. According to HuffPost, Brad Parscale, Trump’s campaign manager, is paying Lara and Donald Trump Jr.’s girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, through his private company rather than directly through the campaign. This way, HuffPost explained, the campaign doesn’t need to report their salaries publicly.
“I can pay them however I want to pay them,” Parscale told HuffPost.
For that reported sum, Lara (and Kimberly) regularly make appearances on television as surrogates for Trump. Lara also makes campaign appearances alongside both her husband and her father-in-law.
Beyond her work on the campaign, Lara also took an active role in the White House just after the election, troubling many insiders. In a 2017 Newsweek story, David Gergen, a former presidential adviser, said, “I cannot remember something like that ever happening in my time. This White House is being run like a family business, and campaigning is their bread and butter.”
“This is not normal,” Virginia Canter, with the Center for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told Newsweek, explicitly pointing to the fact that campaign workers typically should not have roles inside the administration. “To the extent that somebody is actively engaged in political campaigning, it would be inappropriate for them to be sitting in and heading White House meetings. It raises a lot of concerns; you get the appearance that the individual is moving policy for political purposes rather than the public interest.”
She’s bringing her own family in too.
In 2017, Kyle Yunaska, Lara’s brother, “became part of the ‘beachhead’ team of temporary political appointees working to transition the federal agency to the new administration,” Axios reported. Yunaska had zero experience in energy before the appointment.
She was a onetime YouTube star.
Beyond her work as a campaign spokesperson, Lara also filled many of her days as a YouTube star for the Trump administration. She used to regularly host the Real News Update on Trump’s channel. However, the updates appear to have stopped in mid-March of this year, as the coronavirus crisis grew and many faulted the Trump administration for its response.
She is an animal lover.
Lara is a self-proclaimed animal lover. (Her husband is famous for hunting and killing endangered animals around the world for sport.) In 2017 she told Politico via email, “I am honored to have worked with numerous animal rescue centers and other amazing organizations to assist in making life better for them…. I hope to make a positive impact on a cause so close to my heart and will continue to use my voice to spread awareness and encourage people to adopt from shelters.”
Lara also conducted meetings with then interior secretary Ryan Zinke, veteran affairs committee chairman Representative Phil Roe, and then representative Ron DeSantis to garner support for the $10 million federal initiative to establish a new nationwide veterans affairs program, known as the PAWS act. Newsweek reported that the act would have established a partnership program between the veterans affairs agency and the Humane Society of the United States. The partnership would have provided veterans with therapy dogs for health care purposes. The act passed in the House in February 2020. It was introduced in the Senate, but has not passed.
Originally Appeared on Glamour
