Here's What The Trump Family Really Eats

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For many American families, differing political views can make planning Thanksgiving get-togethers an exasperating exercise, but for the Trumps, the most divisive issue might be what to include on the menu. While some members of the Trump family fill up on fruits and greens, if there's anything Donald Trump hates more than windmills, sharks, and low-flow toilets, it's a vegetable.

The master of the word salad has marveled over the offerings of supermarkets, saying during a March 2025 Women's History month event, "The cost of groceries. A word that I used a lot on the campaign. It's like an old-fashioned word, but it's a beautiful word, it's a very descriptive word." But if he ever visits a grocery store, don't expect to see him in the produce section. Of his desperation to get Trump to eat vegetables in some form during his first presidential term, his former physician, Dr. Ronny Jackson, told The New York Times, "We were putting cauliflower into the mashed potatoes." Meanwhile, Trump may have been daydreaming about the taco bowls and pork chops on a stick he snacked on during his campaign.

Trump's legendary love affair with fast food means he's better acquainted with quick-service restaurants like KFC than supermarkets, and his unfussy palate has seemingly been passed on to his grandchildren. Ivanka Trump once revealed in an Instagram Story that her daughter, Arabella Kushner, likes to snack on skewers of marshmallows and hot dog wieners (via Teen Vogue). Yum. She might be the member of her family responsible for coming up with the oddest food combo, but there are a few other eyebrow-raising eating habits scattered amongst the Trumps' varied diets.

When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. joined Donald Trump for an in-flight meal in 2024, even the face of the "Make America Healthy Again" initiative was served a tray loaded with goodies from the Golden Arches. RFK Jr. is not exactly impressed with Trump's diet. "The stuff that he eats is really bad. ... The food that goes onto that airplane is just poison," the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services said on "The Joe Polish Show." Donald Trump's favorite McDonald's order usually includes a Big Mac, although USA Today reported that he used to order gourmet burgers at the NYC eateries 21 Club and Jackson Hole when he lived in the city. 

When he gets a hankering for ground beef, Trump doesn't always reach for a burger. While being profiled by The New Yorker in 1997, Trump claimed that Mar-a-Lago had "the greatest meatloaf in the world." In a 2023 episode of her podcast "The Right View," his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, revealed that the meatloaf remains on the menu and the dish is actually based on his mother Mary Trump's recipe. "He loves that meatloaf," she said. "That's a good time for him. [It] comes with some beautiful potatoes on the side." Presumably, there are no cruciferous veggies hidden in the spuds.

Donald Trump Jr.'s love of hunting has landed him in hot water a few times (he'll never live down holding the severed tail of the Republican Party's pachyderm symbol). However, he revealed that some of his kills wind up on the dinner table. He told Bowsite.com that he feeds his kids venison, and they're fans of the game meat. "I think a lot of times they actually prefer it to actual beef," he revealed. As he shared on Facebook, he has served it to them fried with a side of gravy-smothered biscuits.

Don Jr. used to go on hunting and fishing trips with Kimberly Guilfoyle, but anglers are always looking for the next big catch, and his was socialite Bettina Anderson. While Guilfoyle and Anderson have more in common than you'd probably expect, Donald Jr.'s new ladylove will have to work hard to measure up to his ex in the kitchen. In August 2024, Guilfoyle took to Instagram to show off the chicken françoise she was whipping up for her then-fiancé and the kids — while wearing a pair of stilettos, no less.

Alas, Donald Jr. was first spotted with Anderson that same month, so Guilfoyle's cooking wasn't strong enough bait to keep him from checking out what other hooks had to offer. But at least Guilfoyle no longer has to worry about getting invited on some of Donald Trump Jr's sketchier hunting trips. According to "The Rachel Maddow Show," he once hunted and ate a marmot in Mongolia, which is illegal because they can carry the bubonic plague.

Donald Trump Jr. told Bowsite.com that he and his siblings grew up being served by chefs, which is how he learned to cook. However, some family culinary favorites didn't come from the kitchens of five-star food artists. In 2008, Eric Trump told Grub Street that he adored his Czech grandmother's cooking so much that he learned her recipes so he could make some of the dishes himself. "She makes a lot of the thick native Slavic dishes — the chicken paprikas, the goulashes, the sauerkraut, the soups that contain a lot of cream and sausage and poultry," he said.

According to his father, Barron Trump also couldn't get enough of the traditional dishes served by his grandmother on his mother's side. Donald Trump even credited Melania Trump's late mom, Amalija Knavs, for Barron's towering height. "That's how he got so tall — he only ate her food," he once told a group of supporters (via Hello! magazine).

After Knavs died at the age of 78 in January 2024, Melania's stylist, Hervé Pierre, shared some insight into what Knavs was cooking while living at the White House with her family. Pierre told Women's Wear Daily that she once even invited him to help her pick some fresh carrots and potatoes from the garden planted by the former first lady, Michelle Obama. "Later that night I was savoring a homemade soup made from the White House vegetable garden," he recalled. "It was quite chic, delicious and really fresh."

Eric Trump told Grub Street he's a big sushi fan, and his wife, Lara Trump, informed listeners of "The Right View" that it's one of her favorite foods. However, you'll probably never see Donald Trump touch the dish. According to the book "Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump," the titular tycoon said during a 1990 trip to Japan, "I'm not going to eat any f***ing raw fish." Melania Trump expresses a similar sentiment in her self-titled memoir, but she was a bit more diplomatic about sharing her dietary preferences during a 2019 state visit to Japan. "I made it known that I do not eat raw fish," she wrote.

While Tiffany and Ivanka Trump have both been spotted at sushi restaurants, Ivanka told Vogue in 2009, "I don't eat raw fish," citing her kosher diet as why she avoids some meats. As for Donald Trump Jr., he loves sushi so much that he's indulged in some of questionable quality. He was forced to change his eating habits when he angered his dad by working as a bartender after graduating from college, a decision that resulted in Donald Jr. being denied access to his parents' money. "I'm the guy who lived off gas station sushi for like a year," he said on his podcast "Triggered."

One mealtime favorite the Trump family can seemingly agree on is pizza. In 2016, Melania and Barron Trump were spied going out for a pie at Serafina Fabulous Pizza in New York City, and pepperoni pizza was brain food for Tiffany Trump when she was attending college at the University of Pennsylvania. "Pizza — the only thing that gets me through 8-hour study sessions," she captioned a 2015 Instagram photo of herself biting into a slice.

When Donald Trump Jr. served it to his family in 2021, his daughter Chloe demonstrated her hands-free method of eating pizza by giving her father two thumbs up while he snapped a pic. As for Ivanka Trump, she listed it as a guilty pleasure she used to overindulge in during a 2014 interview with Shape magazine. "I ate like a teenager. Carbs three meals a day, usually in the form of pizza or pasta," she confessed (via Daily Mail). But she eventually found healthier, albeit unconventional, ways to incorporate pizza into her diet. "Tonight, I'm making dinner for two! Seared tuna pizza, chili rubbed skirt steak, sweet potato fries & romaine lettuce w/ creamy chili dressing," she tweeted in 2010.

Donald Trump devised his own method for making his pizza a little less caloric. In response to criticism that he desecrated the cheesy delicacy by cutting it up with a knife, he explained his utensil usage in a 2011 video (via HuffPost): "I like to not eat the crust so we can keep the weight down at least as good as possible."

On "The Right View," Lara Trump revealed that she's a fan of the grocery store staple that defined the early days of Donald Trump's second presidency: the incredible, edible, unaffordable egg. Lara has undergone a stunning fitness transformation and as an athlete, she uses the protein to fuel her long-distance runs. "Anybody who works out a lot will tell you eggs are a staple in their diet," she said. Just don't expect to see her eating eggs in the morning; while she's a fan of breakfast food, she is one to skip the morning meal. "My husband does not love [breakfast] for dinner. Anytime I suggest it, he's horrified by the prospect," she revealed.

Peanut butter is another protein-packed favorite of Lara's. However, on another episode of her show, she revealed that she was forced to give it up while attending school in France. "There is peanut butter nowhere to be found in France," she warned her listeners. When she was back in the land of freedom fries, she found a novel use for empty jars of peanut butter with bits of the creamy spread clinging to the sides. In 2018, she shared a video in an Instagram Story of her dogs, Ben and Charlie, desperately trying to lick a container clean after she placed it on the floor (via Daily Mail).

In a video on his daughter Kai Trump's YouTube channel, Donald Trump Jr. seemed dumbfounded when she told him that her favorite food is a healthy dish: chicken and rice. "What are you, an Olympic weightlifter?" he joked. While she doesn't compete in that particular sport, Kai Trump is surprisingly good at the sport Donald Trump always wanted Barron to play: golf. Despite having this in common with her granddad, Donald Trump would probably agree with his son that chicken and rice is too humdrum and wholesome to be a favorite meal.

As for Donald Jr., he told his daughter that his "dad bod" is the result of having too many favorite foods. "I like everything. I'm a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy, so I like a great steak, but I also like great Italian. I like great Japanese; I like great Middle Eastern," he said. In another video, Kai revealed that prosciutto is her second-favorite food. If the processed meat that originated in Italy had topped her list, perhaps it would have met with her father's approval.

Donald Trump Jr. has been served steak by Salt Bae and enjoys a good slab of meat in the morning. "This is why I'm fat!!! Steak and eggs baby. ... Awesome breakfast in the Catskills," he tweeted in 2011. He also followed in his father's footsteps by hawking mail-order steaks, but his were from a company called Good Ranchers. As for Eric Trump, he might be missing his family's beef biz these days. After dutifully name-dropping Trump Steaks in his 2008 Grub Street interview, he insisted, "They're absolutely delicious. ... We know good food and if they weren't we wouldn't have our name on them."

As previously mentioned, Ivanka Trump enjoys her skirt steak with a side of tuna pizza, and while Kai Trump was filming herself cooking a steak dinner for some friends, she said something that probably almost made her dad's heart stop. "I'm disgusted. I'm going to turn vegetarian now," she vowed as she cut open a liquid-filled package of meat.

Kai left some pink in her steak, which would not impress her grandfather. While he does like to see some color on his cooked beef, it better come from ketchup. Donald Trump has been relentlessly roasted for eating his steaks well-done and dipping the gray meat in his favorite condiment before gnawing away. According to the Independent Journal Review, he dined on the sacrilegious culinary combo during one of his first D.C. outings as president, and he naturally ordered it at the now-closed BLT Prime restaurant located inside Trump International Hotel.

Thanks to their social media posts and past interviews, we know that Ivanka and Melania Trump enjoy many of the same foods. In a 2012 interview with Refinery 29, Melania revealed that she had oatmeal for breakfast that morning. She didn't share any details about what she added to it, but Ivanka told My Morning Routine that she makes jazzing up the bland breakfast food an experience in her household. "I get out all sorts of toppings — chia seeds, berries, flaxseed, goji berries, cinnamon, walnuts, and almonds — and the kids get to 'decorate' their oatmeal," she said.

Ivanka and Melania also share a fondness for fruits and veggies, including avocados. On Facebook, Melania revealed that a "healthy lunch" for her is a salad topped with the green fruit and cherry tomatoes, while Ivanka took to Instagram in 2014 to praise Gwyneth Paltrow's avocado toast recipe (how very millennial of her!).

As is the case with many busy health-conscious individuals, both women like to sip on smoothies packed with nutrients. Melania shared her recipe on Facebook, writing, "I mix banana, blueberries, ground flax seeds, liquid omega-3, vitamin D, lemon, fat-free yogurt and orange juice." As for Ivanka, she revealed on "The Skinny Confidential" podcast in January 2025 that she blends together ingredients like cacao and banana, and she'll have some creatine mixed in water on the side.

Ah, to be a rich kid of Instagram. Before Tiffany Trump started a family and obtained her law degree, she was busy flaunting her extravagant lifestyle as a member of the Snap Pack, a group of wealthy millennial nepo babies that included Paris Hilton's baby bro, Barron Hilton, and Robert F. Kennedy's model daughter, Kyra Kennedy. On Instagram, Trump revealed how one dines while sat at this exclusive cool kids' table. Her photos included the quintessential snack of the well-heeled, caviar, which was served to her on a bed of pasta at Serafina. When she dropped by another New York Italian eatery, Bar Pitti, she noshed on noodles topped with truffles.

The jetsetter has also showed off a cappuccino she sipped on in Paris and the assortment of dainty desserts she nibbled on while having tea at Home House, a private members' club in London. Tiffany has also been spotted eating out at swanky establishments with some famous faces; she's grabbed oysters with Jonathan Cheban of "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" fame and partied with Lindsay Lohan at the Nammos restaurant in Mykonos.

Tiffany also went big for her birthdays. In 2012, she celebrated at the celebrity hotspot Toy, where she was presented with sparklers and what appeared to be the restaurant's PB&J Chocolate Bombe dessert. For her 27th birthday eight years later, she threw a big bash at Papi Steak in Miami, where she proved that she was still a rich kid of Instagram by posing alongside a cake covered with photographs of her.

The Trumps' love of frozen treats is well-documented. Donald Trump loves ice cream so much that he reportedly had double scoops of it with his pie during a 2017 dinner at the White House. His guests, however, only received one, according to Time. He isn't always so stingy with the sweet stuff. On "The Right View," Lara Trump revealed that every Mar-a-Lago meal is followed by a loaded sundae. "It's got all of your accoutrements. You've got some crumbled Oreos; you've got some caramel; you've got some chocolate syrup; you've got some raspberry syrup; you've got whipped cream, mini M&M's. You've got it all there," she said. Lara, who used to have her own cake business, also revealed that she used to make ice cream cakes for Eric Trump before he went on a health kick.

In 2020, Ivanka Trump was spotted ordering a cookies 'n' cream ice cream cone from a Graeter's shop in Cincinnati, and Melania Trump once showed off an entire freezer full of Häagen-Dazs on Facebook. According to the first lady, her son also considers caffeine a stimulant best served cold; she told DuJour Barron Trump is a fan of Starbucks Frappuccinos.

Kai Trump created some content for her YouTube channel by showing viewers her custom froyo sundae from 16 Handles: cake batter, cookie dough, vanilla, and Nutella frozen yogurt topped with hazelnut crunch, waffle bites, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and marshmallow sauce. Her concoction definitely isn't MAHA approved, but her grandpa might just give her a Medal of Freedom for combining sweets in a creative way.