Details About Lara Trump's Spicy Stint As A Model

Lara Trump has surprisingly ascended to the top of the Trump family food chain as she's become one of Donald Trump's most trusted minions for his second presidential run. You might go so far to say that Lara has "trumped" Ivanka, who used to be Donald's favorite child before backing away from his political career following the disastrous 2020 election and the January 6, 2021 aftermath. Now, it's Lara's time to shine, and she's maneuvered herself into quite the powerful position by taking over the RNC in March 2024. "My No. 1 goal is making sure that Donald Trump is the 47th president," Lara told the Associated Press after being named co-chair of the organization.

Lara's control of the Republican Party was in full display at the Republican National Convention just a few months later. She was front and center doing her best to be the camera-ready, glamorous face of the party that her father-in-law expects. (If you don't look good on TV, you're nothing to Donald.) While Lara Trump's RNC makeup fail might suggest that she's out of her depths, quite the contrary. Before dating Eric Trump in 2008, she was Lara Yunaska, a young amateur model putting her way through college by working at Hooters and dabbling in some spicy photography for men's magazines.

Before meeting Eric Trump and climbing her way to the top of his family's political empire, Lara attended North Carolina State University where she paid the bills by slinging beers and Buffalo wings as a Hooters Girl from 2000 to 2004. Around that time she also entered the 2004 Hammerjax Bikini Contest and walked away the winner, according to Lara's One Model Place profile. She also entered Maxim's Hometown Hotties competition, which kicked off a brief stint posing for men's magazines.

In 2005, she would pose for Stuff magazine before locking down another first place win in the Aaron Chang Bikini Contest that same year. However, Lara's modeling career didn't go far after her post-college foray on the bikini circuit. According to Mother Jones, Lara was the April model for a local swimsuit calendar a year before she started dating Eric Trump in 2008. The couple wouldn't wed until 2014, and by that time, Lara's modeling career was a distant memory. In fact, the RNC would like to keep it that way as a spokesperson got very testy when a Mother Jones reporter asked the organization about Lara's modeling days.

"Digging up an accomplished woman's 20-year-old past to lob sexist attacks is vile," RNC spokesperson Anna Kelly said. "It's typical for desperate activists like Stephanie Mencimer, who have nothing positive to cover about Joe Biden."

Lara Trump's swimsuit model days are long in the past, and she couldn't have made a more drastic career change. At the time of this writing, she's the co-chair of the RNC and working overtime to support Donald Trump's campaign in the 2024 presidential election. Donald personally exerted his massive sway over the Republican Party to place Lara at the top of its critical fundraising apparatus. However, there's already talk that Lara is hoping to leverage her current status to become a political powerhouse in the GOP.

"Her speech was her introduction to the nation in a big way because while she's had roles in campaigns previously and while she's been a part of Trump's inner circle and family orbit for the last eight years, this is the first time she is positioned in a role that has real power inside the Republican Party," campaign reporter Eric Cortellessa told the BBC. "And she's in a position where she's out to prove herself as not just an effective surrogate for Trump, but a political operator."

According to the BBC, Lara is being credited with a massive surge in fundraising since taking over as co-chair. She also seems to be laying the groundwork to launch another Trump into Washington, and no, it's not her husband Eric. "If there were another Trump in the family to run for higher office, keep your eye on Don [Jr.]," Lara told Time just a few days before the 2024 Republican National Convention.