Nearly every member of President Donald Trump’s family circle was in attendance for the ceremonies and events around his inauguration as 47th president of the United States, and that includes his in-laws.
Of course, his wife Melania, children Donald Jr., Eric, Ivanka, Tiffany and Barron, and his grandchildren were all seen throughout Monday’s events. But also seen were some relatives who may not be as well known, in particular Trump’s father-in-law, Viktor Knavs.
Knavs could be seen during the inauguration and at the presidential parade later in the day next to Barron Trump, his grandson.
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Barron Trump (L) and his grandfather Viktor Knavs attend the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena, in Washington, DC, on January 20, 2025. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP) (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
As Trump returns to the White House, his family circle looks a little different than it did when he first arrived in 2017.
His youngest son, Barron, was in fifth grade back then. He’s now a college freshman who towers over his 6-foot-plus dad. Granddaughter Kai, who was 9 in 2017, is now an aspiring social media influencer and impressive golfer. Grandson Joseph, who posed in Trump’s lap with a Lego model of the White House last time, is 11 now.
The most prominent relatives in Trump’s political sphere, daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared, are in Florida this time around after working in his first administration.
Family members can provide presidents with a ready source of moral and sounding-board support, companionship and even relief from the world’s problems. Not to mention creating headaches for the president at times, too.
“Family can do things that other people can’t, and they can be trusted in a way that other people also can’t,” said Tevi Troy, a former George W. Bush administration official and author of several books about the presidency. “Everyone needs someone they can talk to late at night when you let your hair down, so to speak.”
The president-elect has five children — three of whom are married — from his marriages to Ivana Trump, Marla Maples and current wife Melania Trump. He has 10 grandkids, with an 11th on the way.
Here’s a look at Trump’s family circle:
She avoided active campaigning during Trump’s 2024 run, limiting her public appearances to key moments, such as the campaign’s launch, the Republican National Convention and election night. She released a self-titled memoir late last year and will be the subject of a documentary distributed by Amazon Prime Video that is expected to be released later this year. While some doubt that Trump’s 54-year-old wife will spend much time at the White House, she said on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” that she has already packed and picked out the furniture she wants to take to the executive mansion.
Donald Trump Jr. is 46 years old.
Trump Jr.’s influence has grown to the point that he lobbied his father to choose close friend JD Vance for vice president. He also pushed for former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the president-elect’s picks for director of national intelligence and health and human services, respectively. Trump Jr. helps run the family real estate business and is an honorary chairman of Trump’s transition. He has a podcast and has said his role is to prevent “bad actors” from getting into the administration. He recently flew on his father’s airplane to Greenland; the president-elect has expressed a desire to take control of the mineral-rich Danish territory.
Trump Jr. has five children — or “smurfs,” as he sometimes refers to them — with his former wife, Vanessa Trump. They are Kai Madison, 17; Donald John III, 15; Tristan Milos, 13; Spencer Frederick, 12; and Chloe Sophia Trump, 10.
Ivanka Trump is now 43 years old.
As Trump geared up for the 2024 run, Ivanka announced that she loved and supported him but was getting out of politics to focus on her husband and their three kids. She did, however, join her father and other family members on election night and when he rang the bell at the New York Stock Exchange in early December after Time magazine named him Person of the Year. She told “The Skinny Confidential” podcast that this time around she just wanted to “show up for him as a daughter” and be there to watch a movie or a sports game.
Ivanka and her husband have three children: Arabella Rose, 13; Joseph Frederick, 11; and Theodore James Kushner, 8.
Eric Trump is now 41 years old.
Eric is also an honorary chair of the transition and a close adviser to his father. But he continues to focus more on running the family business. In September, he and his brother started a crypto platform called World Liberty Financial, and their father helped launch it in an interview on the X social media platform.”
Eric and his wife, Lara, have two children: Eric Luke, 7, and Carolina Dorothy Trump, 5.
Tiffany Trump is now 31 years old.
She was more present in the 2024 campaign but still largely avoids the spotlight. Tiffany, 31, and her husband, Michael Boulos, are expecting their first child this year. Boulos is a businessman who traveled with Trump in the final stretch of the campaign. His father is Massad Boulos, a Lebanese American businessman who helped Trump with the influential Arab American community in the swing state of Michigan. Trump has named Massad Boulos to be a senior adviser on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs.
The president’s youngest son, Barron Trump, is now 18 years old and a freshman at New York University.
Barron is a freshman New York University business student. His parents and Trump campaign officials credit him for recommending podcasts popular with young men that the president-elect appeared on during the campaign. Barron will have a bedroom in the White House, Melania Trump said on “Fox & Friends.”
WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 20: (L-R) Viktor Knavs, Barron Trump and Melania Trump attend the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. Donald Trump takes office for his second term as the 47th president of the United States. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Donald Trump said Barron had helped introduce him to people he had never heard of before.
“He was very good,” the president-elect told NBC News in a telephone interview Saturday. “It’s the new wave. And he was very helpful.”
His mother had told “Fox & Friends” last year that “I’m very proud of him, about his knowledge, even about politics and giving an advice to his father. He brought in so many young people. He knows his generation.”
Trump’s daughter-in-law, 42, campaigned for him during all his runs. After Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020, she considered running for a U.S. Senate seat from her home state of North Carolina but ultimately decided against it. She became a Fox News commentator.
As Trump revved up his 2024 campaign, he installed his daughter-in-law as co-chair of the Republican National Committee, where she was a TV-ready advocate overseeing fundraising, voter outreach and the party’s “election integrity” initiative. She stepped down from the RNC after the election and removed her name from consideration as a possible successor to Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Trump’s choice for secretary of state.
Lara Trump is passionate about fitness and has her own line of activewear. She also has explored a side venture as a singer and has released some songs. Daughter Carolina is named after her home state.
Kushner, 44, has stepped out of the political spotlight — but his father could soon step in. Trump announced after the election that he intends to nominate Charles Kushner, a real estate developer, to be U.S. ambassador to France. The elder Kushner was pardoned by Trump in December 2020 after he pleaded guilty years earlier to tax evasion and making illegal campaign contributions.
Donald Trump’s 17-year-old granddaughter is an aspiring social media influencer. Her behind-the-scenes video from election night garnered 3.7 million views on YouTube. Other posts related to her grandfather have been watched millions more times on TikTok. Kai delivered her first public speech at the Republican convention and is an avid golfer who sometimes plays with her grandfather.
“If I’m not on his team, he’ll try to get inside of my head, and he’s always surprised that I don’t let him get to me,” she said at the convention. “But I have to remind him, I’m a Trump, too.”
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner’s daughter was 6 when her grandfather showed China’s Xi Jinping a video of her, in a traditional Chinese dress, belting out Chinese-language songs.
“It’s very good, right? She’s very smart,” Trump said. Xi responded that Arabella was her grandfather’s “little angel” and a “messenger of China-U.S. relations.”
Now Arabella is 13 and enjoys singing, playing the piano, horseback riding and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, according to a social media post from her mother.
