Kai, Donald Trump’s media-savvy granddaughter, breaks into the golf elite

Her name is Kai Trump, she’s 18 years old, and she’s the eldest of the U.S. president’s 10 grandchildren. Her father is Donald Trump Jr. Her mother, Vanessa, is in a relationship with Tiger Woods. With eight million followers across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and other platforms, she’s a social media star. Every picture or video she posts goes viral. She participated in her grandfather’s presidential campaign to win over young voters. She has her own clothing brand, which she promotes at the White House. And she’s an amateur golfer who will make her debut on November 13 in a tournament on the LPGA Tour, the world’s elite circuit, thanks to a sponsorship invitation.

Sports, politics, and the media world converge in Kai Trump, a student at Benjamin High School in Palm Beach, Florida, who will study and play golf at the University of Miami next year. For now, she’ll have the opportunity to rub shoulders with the best golfers in the world — such as 2024 LPGA Tour player of the year Nelly Korda — at The Annika, an LPGA Tour event, where Spanish players Carlota Ciganda, Azahara Muñoz, and Julia López are also competing. The tournament has granted her a “sponsorship waiver” to “grow the game of golf among younger and more diverse audiences.” And Kai Trump is a goldmine there, having taken the podium at the Republican National Convention to defend her grandfather’s ideas before the last election. “To me, he’s just a normal grandpa; He gives us candy and soda when our parents are not looking,” she joked. The U.S. president financially supports the tournament that has invited his granddaughter to play, and which offers $3.25 million in prize money.

Donald Trump’s close relationship with golf has extended to Kai, a player in the American Junior Golf Association (ranked 461st) whose caddie is Allan Kournikova, brother of the famous former tennis player, Anna. Her appeal is much more media-driven than athletic. On the course, she doesn’t shine among the best. But off it, she’s a sensation. Her YouTube channel (1.35 million subscribers) features, for example, a 28-minute video showing her spending a day with her grandfather at the last Ryder Cup: from the ride on Air Force One to the donuts for dessert at dinner. In another video on X, she poses at the White House wearing sweatshirts printed with her initials, KT, priced at $130 each. She also shows off her grandfather’s birthday gift — a $100,000 Tesla — as well as sharing an inside account of election night when Trump won last November, and a SpaceX rocket launch with Elon Musk.

The LPGA, meanwhile, is rubbing its hands together with glee over Kai. “I would imagine [...] that this is one of the most talked-about women’s golf tournaments that has probably ever existed,” said Justin Sheehan, the Pelican Golf Club’s chief operating officer. “It’s on news channels and sports channels. The numbers of social media impressions... are staggering. Love it or hate it, it’s getting people to talk about the event.”

“The ANNIKA Foundation is a beneficiary here, and we’re all about providing and empowering our women. It really fits in our mission as well,” added Swedish legend Annika Sörenstam, the tournament’s host. Kai has no shortage of advice, even if her grandfather won’t be able to attend to watch her: “He’s running the world right now, so a little busy,” she joked. “[Tiger] told me to go out there and have fun and just go with the flow.”

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