Thought just 17, Donald Trump’s granddaughter appears to relish her role as an aspiring, up-and-coming MAGA influencer, as she shares slickly produced videos on social media about the fun she has hanging out with her beloved, president-elect “grandpa.”
But there’s only so much that Kai Trump can do to soften the image of a man who has been compared by critics to history’s most dangerous fascists and who regularly hurls insults and makes profane remarks. His opponent in the election, Kamala Harris, received some 74 million votes to his 76 million.
With her latest video published Tuesday, the teen golf prodigy also showed “grandpa” looking a bit out of his element while a guest at Elon Musk’s SpaceX launch last week.
In one particularly “cringe-worthy” moment of Kai Trump’s behind-the-scenes video, Trump is seen sending Musk into “an awkward spiral” after he asks him whether a rocket booster can be reused — after it has crashed into Gulf of Mexico in a fireball, the Daily Beast reported.
Granddaughter of US former President and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump Kai Madison Trump speaks during the third day of the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 17, 2024.(Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
Last week, Trump joined Musk, his top campaign donor and his purported new expert advisor in government efficiency, to watch the latest test flight of his Starship rocket system, the Daily Beast reported. For the occasion, Trump was joined by Kai Trump and her good friend, as well as Kai Trump’s father, Donald Trump Jr., and Texas Senator Ted Cruz.
Musk, who also is a NASA contractor, planned to show Trump a repeat of the “incredible maneuver” that one of his Starship rocket ships executed in October, the Daily Beast said. That’s when giant mechanical arms, sticking out of the launch tower, successfully “caught” the rocket’s “Super Heavy” booster, after it performed the precise moves needed to return to the launch site, SpaceNews.com reported.
For the Nov. 19 Starship launch, the rocket successfully lifted off from the SpaceX Starbase test site in Boca Chica, Texas, at 5 p.m., SpaceNews.com reported. Its booster separated from the vehicle’s upper stage about two minutes and 45 seconds after liftoff. The booster started to return to the launch site but, a little more than a minute later, controllers announced “booster offshore divert,” meaning that the booster would not return to the launch pad but instead crash into the Gulf of Mexico.
Making the boosters reusable has been a key part of SpaceX’s efforts to cut the cost of each $100 million Starship flight in half, the Daily Beast reported.
Kai Trump’s video, which she also shares as a YouTube vlog, caught the moments when Musk told Trump, “We had some concerns about the tower so it was commanded to land out at sea.”
In the video, which shows Kai Trump standing nearby, Trump appeared to be uncharacteristically quiet and perhaps a bit awe-struck, as he clearly missed the meaning of what the billionaire was saying.
BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS – NOVEMBER 19: Elon Musk speaks with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump (R) and guests including Donald Trump Jr. (2nd from left), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) (C) and Kevin Cramer (R-ND) at a viewing of the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket on November 19, 2024 in Brownsville, Texas. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
That’s because Trump responded by muttering, “amazing.” The former reality TV star then asked Musk, “Can they use that again? Can they get it from the sea?”
Musk appeared to do a double take and to even give the president elect some “side-eye,” the Daily Beast said. Musk awkwardly responded: “Uhh, it’s going to be. … it‘s … it’s probably gonna blow up. That’s my guess.”
Cruz, standing next to Trump, jumped in to help cover up for Trump’s question by getting Musk to explain that he already has “better” versions of the booster in production, with one ready to use. “Well, there you go,” Cruz said.
Trump actually said little else that day, according to Kai Trump’s video and to other news reports. A report in The Telegraph affirmed the view that Trump’s outing with Musk to the SpaceX rocket launch was “awkward” for both men, even as they’ve spent the weeks since the election practically “joined at the hip” at Mar-a-Lago.
Trump indeed looked like a “fish out of water” and appeared to be intimidated by Musk during the Starship test flight, according to Darren Stanton, a former police officer and body language expert.
Trump showed none of his “alpha male persona” and “power gestures” during the event, Stanton told The Telegraph. “Trump was very uneasy… usually he comes over as this alpha male, the most empowered, most powerful person in the room. I think he’s quite intimidated by Musk,” Stanton said. “He was out of his depth – his hands were just by his side like a mannequin.”
MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN – JULY 18: Republican presidential candidate, former U.S. President Donald Trump greets daughter of Donald Trump Jr., Kai Trump, on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum on July 18, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)
It’s hard to believe that Kai Trump intended for her “grandpa” to be seen looking “out of his depth.” As Daily Beast entertainment writer Eboni Boykin-Patterson said in another report, Kai Trump, whose mother is Vanessa Trump, has taken on a role in Trumpworld once filled by her aunt, Ivanka Trump. Since Kai Trump spoke at the Republican National Convention — to “show the side of my grandpa that people don’t often see” — she has become the photogenic young female relative who tries to “sanitize” Trump’s image, Boykin-Patterson also said.
Earlier in her video, Kai Trump poked gentle fun at her grandfather — while also giving her some 2.6 million followers some of the “aspirational” content that social media users look for, Boykin-Patterson wrote. As the teenager giddily showed off the luxurious accommodations on Trump’s private jet, she and her friend also spent a few moments recording a TikTok clip, in which they mimicked her grandfather’s golf swing and his meme’d campaign dance moves, set to the Village People’s “YMCA.”
The Daily Beast said the result of Kai Trump’s posts is “a simpler, smiley perspective” on Trump, whom she describes as a ” hard worker” for “all Americans.” With her followers, the teenager also shares slideshows of her 78-year-old grandfather, sporting big smiles. “And if that’s all you see of this agreeable, doting grandfather, you’d think he’d never tried to overturn an election,” Boykin-Patterson wrote.