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Eric Trump Made An Appearance At The WHCD
The Trump who showed up to Saturday night's White House Correspondents Dinner probably wasn't the one you would expect. Eric Trump, Donald Trump's youngest son with ex-wife Ivana, represented the family name at the Washington, D.C. soiree over the weekend in place of his father, who is caught up in the middle of the tense race for the Republican presidential nomination. Although The Donald is the most famous Trump, Eric's star is on its own rise.
Born January 6, 1984, Eric is his father's middle child, but the youngest of his full siblings, including Ivanka and Donald, Jr. He was raised in Manhattan his whole life, first in Trump Tower until he was 11, then nearby with his mother after his parents' messy separation. Despite the divorce, Eric has remained close to both of his parents, and had good things to say about them. "He has an amazing work ethic," Eric said of his father back in 2003, when he was a sophomore at Georgetown University, studying finance. "I really look up to him." He's got a lot of admiration for his mom too, former Czech ski star and supermodel Ivana Trump. "She's got a great character. I love her. She's an extremely energetic person and her sense of adventure is amazing," he told 48 Hours in the same interview.
Eric's professional career has revolved around the Trump Organization, where he started working as soon as he graduated from Georgetown in 2006. He currently serves as an executive vice president of development and acquisitions and oversees the much of the real estate development and ongoing deals for the company. In 2006, he started the Eric Trump Foundation, which raises funds for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. To date, the foundation has raised nearly $28 million for cancer research, and helped to fund a breakthrough in childhood leukemia treatment in 2015.
Eric married his sweetheart of six years, Lara Yunaska, in 2013 at a family-centric wedding at the Trump-owned Mar-a-Lago Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida. Eric's sister Ivanka served as one of Yunaska's bridesmaids, while his brother-in-law Jared Kushner officiated the ceremony, and his little niece Arabella held the position of flower girl. Yunaska, a native of North Carolina, is a former personal trainer and currently works as a producer for the CBS show Inside Edition .
Even though he won't get to live in the White House if his father is elected, Eric seems pretty confident that he will be the First Son come November. "There's no doubt ... it will definitely be him up there [hosting the White House Correspondents Dinner next year]," Eric told People after Saturday night's festivities. "If you had told people 10 months ago that he would be doing this well, they would have called him crazy – they did call him crazy. But he's done an amazing job and run an amazing campaign."
Eric seems to be one of his dad's biggest supporters, and a pretty competent businessman as well. If the U.S. sees a President Trump come January, Eric might be right by his dad's side, helping to run the country.