In the afternoon sunlight, Eric Trump shook his fist and shouted “Fight! Struggle! Fight!” Second son Donald Trump told a rapt crowd: “They tried to smear us, they tried to bankrupt us, they came after us, they impeached him twice… and then, guys, they tried to kill him.”
Members of the MAGA movement gathered for a Trump campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where the Republican presidential candidate survived an assassination attempt within three months. Trump was joined on stage by his running mates JD Vance and billionaire Elon Musk. But if she's looking for moral support from her family, she'll have to turn to Eric. His other children – and his wife – were noticeably absent.
Trump's recent absences from the main event suggest that a divided family is keeping a lower profile than in the past. Electoral cycles. When he took the political establishment by storm in 2016, the Trump family business was part of his brand. This time he stops in the campaign giving ironic and colloquial speeches and shows a very isolated figure.
Trump's eldest daughter, Ivanka, is running for office, while his youngest daughter, Tiffany, is pregnant. His youngest son, Barron, 18, began his freshman year of college at New York University. Eric, executive vice president of the Trump Organization, makes occasional appearances on the campaign trail with his wife, Laura, who co-chairs the Republican National Committee.
“Every night I go to bed and every morning I wake up wondering about voter integrity,” Eric, 40, joked to Laura in Butler. “It feels really good. I am very excited when Laura returns the morning of November 6th and will not talk about voter integrity.
Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., 46, has been less prominent on the campaign trail than in previous election cycles. But appearances are deceiving. Offstage, Don Jr. is more influential than ever as a political activist. He's built a loyal following in the magic world with his inspired podcast Rumble and has gained powerful allies like Charlie Kirk, founder and president of Turning Point USA.
It was Dan Jr. who argued that his close friend, a relatively inexperienced senator from Vance, Ohio, had become Trump's running mate. In Washington, rumor has it that the couple reached a deal that would name Dan Jr. as his running mate if Vance bid for his own White House. Vance previously said: “Other than his father, I don't know if I've seen anyone with a stronger natural connection to our site.”
Few doubt that Dan Jr. will be the power behind the throne of a second Trump administration. Speaking on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention in July in Milwaukee, he said he wanted “veto power” over presidential transition decisions. “I don't want to elect a person to a position of power; All I want to do is stop the guys that are disastrous,” Don Jr. said at the Axios House event. “I want to stop the liars, I want to stop the guys who pretend to be with you.”
Joe Walsh, former Republican congressman and Tea Party activist turned Trump critic: “What I've heard is that Junior is very active behind the scenes and very influential behind the scenes, and if Trump wins, Junior will basically be a powerhouse. corridor. He will become a great player in management..”
The rise of Don Jr. and Eric has coincided with the decline of Ivanka and her husband's influence. Jared Kushner and both worked in the Trump White House. This is seen as evidence that populist extremism has been prevalent in Trump's own family since he took over the Republican Party.
Kamala Harris, part of a group called Republicans for Harris, which is campaigning for the Democratic nomination, said: “This time, different family members are faces and who are they? They are the most magical. Junior is clearly Magician. Laura Trump is a mega idiot and her husband Eric is the same.
Jared Kushner and Ivanka were never like that. They're very polite, high society, so they're never interested in the whole magician thing. It parallels who will work for Trump in the second administration. Everything is crazier for the magicians.
Despite his upbringing in New York, Don Jr. grew up as an outdoorsman who hunted, fished, and connected with Central America. He has also spent a decade as a brash political personality giving impassioned speeches, tweeting conspiracy theories and egging on liberal critics – the “owners” – in ways that befit his father's moment.
Joshua Kendall, author of First Kids: Parenting and Politics From George Washington to Barack Obama, agrees. He said: “Trump has become very authoritarian, so Dan Jr. is more prepared for this than in 2016, when Trump tries to make decisions every time he wants to be president.
“Now he doesn't really care, which fits very well with Don Jr.'s personality, which is that he's a real firebrand and, like his father, likes to get down and dirty with speeches.”
Children have long played an important role in presidential campaigns; He worked tirelessly to boost Jimmy Carter in the 1976 New Hampshire primary. As the oldest major party candidate in history, Trump, 78, has turned to his grandchildren to soften his image.
Kai Trump is the 17-year-old daughter of Don Jr. and his ex-wife Vanessa. He told delegates at the Republican convention: “The media is portraying my grandfather as a different person. But I know who he is. He is very loving and caring. He truly wants the best for this country. And he will fight every day to make the United States United be great again.
Although Trump's wife, Melania, also attended the conference, she broke with tradition by not giving a speech. The former first lady has kept a low profile, aside from promoting her own memoir, in which she expressed support for abortion rights, a political headache for her husband.
That's a stark contrast to past elections, where spouses like Laura Bush and Michael Obama have been important allies, and Harris' husband, Doug Emhoff, has been unfailingly loyal and active on the campaign trail.
Kendall added: “Melania does less than she should. She came out in favor of abortion in that book, so you can't count on her to do everything she can. The appeal of Don Jr. and Eric is that Trump can trust them. They are two family members who are very fond of him and are very willing to do his dirty work.
“Melania has also drawn a line in the sand. She won't speak at the conference, which is not common these days, and she won't go crazy. Compare how much Mhoff does with how little he does.“
Some commentators believe there is another practical reason for Trump's wife and daughter to hold back this time. Rick Wilson, co-founder of the Lincoln Project, a pro-democracy, anti-Trump group, wrote on X: “You know Trump is losing because Jared, Ivanka and Melania are nowhere to be seen. If they were really ahead, they would be like jackals on a two-day-old Ghazal corpse for the rest of the campaign.
