Jeff Bezos’ MAGAfication of The Washington Post has taken yet another head-scratching twist.
The legacy paper wrote Monday that Kai Trump, an 18-year-old high school senior, is among 50 people most likely to shape society.
The president’s granddaughter has amassed eight million followers across social media, has secured brand deals, and bears the surname Trump. These attributes were apparently enough to land her on the Post’s “Next 50” list of those who will be “shaping our society” and “driving the next headlines, whether you’re rooting for them or not.”
The Post writes of Kai specifically, “The youngest generation of the Trump dynasty is joining the ranks of the GOP’s next era online through Oval Office TikToks and brand deals. And like many in the Trump family, she has positioned herself to profit from her administration connections, even as she says she wants nothing to do with politics.”
The paper, which just axed a third of its staff and has nerfed its opinion pages of anti-Trump voices, claims that Kai has amassed her following by sharing a behind-the-scenes look at “her life as a University of Miami student-athlete and Trump’s eldest grandchild.”
However, Kai is still in high school and not yet a member of the University of Miami’s golf team, which she will join this summer.
Trump’s eldest grandchild, like her father, Donald Trump Jr., is a frequent poster, but she says she does not wish to get involved in politics. Still, she took to the stage at the 2024 Republican National Convention and said Trump was “just another grandpa,” something the Post notes softened his image in the buildup to the fall’s general election.
Kai has landed several brand deals tied to her golf career, even though her results in high-profile tournaments have not quite been up to par. She finished in last place by a wide margin in her LPGA Tour debut.
Still, the Post reports that Kai’s brand, which includes her now selling her own merch, is already estimated to be worth over $1.2 million.
Others to be listed on the Post’s “Next 50” are newly-elected New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, rising star Texas Democrat James Talarico, and the Spanish soccer phenom Lamine Yamal, who will play in his first World Cup this summer—a trio not typically viewed in the same realm of influence as the president’s granddaughter.
The Trump family’s other teenager, the president’s 19-year-old son Barron, did not make the Post’s cut for “Next 50.”
