Trump Flubs Daughter-In-Law Lara's Name & It Says It All About Where She Stands With Him

Like many Trump family members, Lara Trump has repeatedly gone to bat for her father-in-law. Some of the former television producer's most controversial moments have occurred while campaigning for or defending former president Donald Trump, and he has generally repaid her efforts with quiet reverence. However, an unexpected mistake at an October 2024 town hall has us wondering exactly where Lara stands with The Donald. 

While speaking to the town hall audience, the former president verbally added a letter to his daughter-in-law's name, subtly changing the pronunciation. Even more surprisingly, he managed to mispronounce Lara in almost the same breath as pronouncing it correctly, saying (via Newsweek): "I think we're going to do good, and we have Lara. So, Laura is a fantastic person, an unbelievably smart person who works with and knows everybody here and she loves this state." 

Despite the seemingly complementary statement, Donald mispronouncing such a simple name was a head-scratching moment. Although some have suggested that Donald flubbing Lara's name may be a subtle sign of cognitive decline, this is far from the first time the former president has publicly mispronounced someone's name. For example, in a video shared by ABC News, Donald emphasized the wrong syllable in Vice President Kamala Harris' name multiple times while insulting her. Based on his tendency to mispronounce his enemies' names, calling Lara "Laura" might not have been a simple mistake. Instead, it could be yet another Trump family relationship red flag and a sign of how little Donald cares about his ultra-supportive daughter-in-law. 

In a 2024 CNN segment, correspondent Brianna Keilar highlighted a video clip in which Donald Trump's petty behavior is on full display. In the clip, Trump addresses how to pronounce Kamala Harris' name in front of a Florida campaign rally audience. saying: "Don't worry about it, [it] doesn't matter what I say. I couldn't care less if I mispronounce it or not, I couldn't care less." As Keilar pointed out, intentionally mispronouncing names is nothing new for Trump, and the targets of this behavior are especially troubling. "Trump has a history of mispronouncing names, specifically of people who aren't white," she said. 

Sadly, Harris hasn't been the only target of this behavior; in January 2024, Trump attacked opponent Nikki Haley in a Truth Social post in which he intentionally misspelled her name. Trump wrote: "Anyone listening to Nikki 'Nimrada' Haley's wacked out speech last night, would think that she won the Iowa Primary." Her actual first name is Nimrata, which reflects her Indian roots. In the same post, Trump also re-christened a former ally with an even more obvious jab, calling Florida Gov/ Ron DeSantis "Ron DeSanctimonious."

Given this evidence, it's hard to ignore the potential implications of the former president's latest name mispronunciation. Although Lara Trump seems to be firmly holding onto her status in the Trump family, we wouldn't be surprised if a conflict is brewing behind closed doors.