Times Donald Trump Didn't Help Favoritism Rumors With His Kids

There's a never-ending fascination with the Trump family's parenting style. MAGA fans point to the accomplishments of the kids as a positive review of Donald Trump as a dad, while critics believe that his parental duties stopped at writing checks. The only thing that both sides seem to agree on is that the former president has a favorite child. And, as you've probably guessed, it's former first daughter Ivanka Trump. While her brothers gained popularity thanks to their appearances on "The Apprentice," she took an interest in her father's primary businesses from a young age. Ivanka famously built a Lego Trump Tower as a six-year-old, co-hosted Miss Teen USA at 16, and joined the family business proper right after college. 

Donald, for his part, was always incredibly proud of Ivanka, coming under fire for some adoring (and somewhat disturbing) comments he made about her over the years. Interestingly, even the Trump children agree among themselves that Ivanka is their father's gem. During a 2016 interview with veteran media personality Barbara Walters, Don Jr., Eric, and Tiffany Trump all pointed to Ivanka as Donald's favorite kid (via ABC News). Unfortunately, while other parents do their best to present a neutral stance, the controversial politician has done very little to dispel the narrative of favoritism. If anything, Donald has leaned into it more as the years have gone by.

Donald Trump claims to love all his children equally, but it's hard to buy this narrative when the controversial politician makes statements like this: "Speaking of a job well done, we have two of my daughters here today: Ivanka, who is working hard on infrastructure! Ivanka [...] and Tiffany!" (via YouTube). For context, the then-president was introducing his daughters at a rally in Ohio in 2018. Sadly, this was not the only time that Donald seemed less proud of Tiffany than Ivanka. In 2016, he spoke about his children on "Fox and Friends" and seemed to claim that his youngest daughter deserved less praise than her siblings. 

"I'm very proud 'cause Don and Eric and Ivanka and, you know, to a lesser extent 'cause she just got out of school, out of college, but, uh, Tiffany, who's also been so terrific," Donald said (via Mashable). Years earlier, he seemingly spontaneously implied that his relationship with Tiffany and Ivanka wasn't equal while speaking to New York Magazine. "You know I have another daughter, with Marla, named Tiffany? She's just a beautiful, great kid also. But it's very separate. When you have separate wives, it's sort of [...] separate," Donald reasoned, confusingly. 

Youngest children typically enjoy more attention from their parents. But it would seem that Donald Trump is far more interested in Ivanka Trump than he is in youngest kid Barron Trump. In fact, the former president once referred to him as Melania's son, which convinced people that Barron wasn't actually Donald's son. The outspoken businessman's apparent indifference to his teenage son sharply contrasts with his bragging about Ivanka. "You know who's one of the greatest beauties of the world, according to everybody? And I helped create her. Ivanka. My daughter, Ivanka. She's six feet tall, she's got the best bod," he boasted back in 2003 (via YouTube).

Donald also regularly forgets important stuff about Barron. When discussing the possibility of his youngest son being a delegate in May 2024, he confirmed that he would be "all for it," pointing out that Barron was only 17 (via X, formerly known as Twitter). In reality, Barron was 18 at the time. This is in stark contrast to an interview from 25 years prior. When asked if he worried about Ivanka modeling, Donald replied: "I do, and I have to deal with her. She's just 17, and she's doing great, Ivanka. And she made me promise her, swear to her, that I would never date a girl younger than her. [...] As she grows older, the field is getting very limited," (via YouTube). Ivanka was, in fact, 17.

Donald Trump began hosting "The Apprentice" in 2004 and was later joined by Don Jr. and Ivanka Trump, who appeared as boardroom members. The former president hosted the show for 14 seasons until he left to pursue his political ambitions. During a 2024 interview with Variety, Donald confessed that he encouraged NBC to hire Ivanka as the next host upon his departure. "The best person to hire would be Ivanka Trump," Donald recalled telling them. "NBC didn't like it, because it became like a family thing. But I said, 'There's nobody you're going to hire that will come even close to Ivanka.' They said, 'Huh...' And then they came back with Arnold Schwarzenegger." 

This may have played a part in turning Donald and Schwarzenegger from friends into foes. Unsurprisingly, his obvious bias hasn't gone unnoticed. There have long been rumors of a family feud between Ivanka and Don Jr., who asked their father outright why he preferred her during a 2020 interview on "Triggered." As Don Jr. memorably quipped, "Which is your favorite Trump child and why is it Ivanka?" via (YouTube). Donald chuckled in response, calling him "a wise guy." 

While chatting to The Atlantic about his children in 2019, Donald Trump labeled Ivanka Trump as "unique." He also gushed that his former senior adviser would be the ideal presidential candidate, arguing, "If she ever wanted to run for president, I think she'd be very, very hard to beat." The proud papa praised Ivanka's diplomatic nature and even shared that she would've been a good candidate for employment at the United Nations and the World Bank. Donald further asserted that the former first daughter could easily manage any room she walked into. 

In contrast to this gushing praise, Donald's comments about his other children seem lacking, to say the least. "Barron is young, but he's got wonderful potential. And Tiffany's doing extremely well. Don is, uh, he's enjoying politics; actually, it's very good. And Eric is running the business along with Don and also very much into politics," he rattled off, adding, "I mean, the children — the children have been very, very good."

Of all of Donald Trump's children, Ivanka Trump was the only one chosen to serve her father during his presidential term. While Don Jr. and Eric Trump ran the family business, Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, were employed as two of Donald's senior aides. Two years into their appointments, the then-president even praised Ivanka for creating "millions of jobs" (via People). This claim has since been thoroughly debunked. Ironically, Donald's decision to hire his daughter ended up negatively affecting their relationship. As his tenure progressed, Ivanka was constantly hounded to answer for her father's controversial actions and often failed at influencing his decisions. The New York Times reported that the businesswoman was left in tears after Donald refused to publicly apologize for the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape. 

Likewise, the former commander-in-chief admitted to The Atlantic that Ivanka had tried and failed to convince him to reconsider his stance on climate change. Amusingly, reports hint that the former first daughter wasn't the only frustrated party. In Maggie Haberman's book, "Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America," she claimed that Donald almost fired Ivanka and Jared via a tweet. Following his election loss, Ivanka began to distance herself from her father's politics and even stated that she accepted that the election wasn't stolen, going against him in a notable way. In response, Donald discredited her words on Truth Social, posting that his beloved daughter "was not involved in looking at, or studying, election results. She had long since checked out," (via Business Insider). We bet Don Jr. snickered at that!