LARA Trump’s journey to Republican darling and, at one time, Senate hopeful was anything but ordinary.
The former pastry chef has now become a top advisor to President Donald Trump, even joining him on his trip to China.
Thursday saw Lara join her father-in-law for dinner with Chinese President Xi Jinping, wearing a traditional Chinese qipao for the event.
But the GOP powerhouse personality wasn’t always looking for life in the political limelight.
Born Lara Yunaska, she studied communications at North Carolina State University before getting a degree in pastry arts from the French Culinary Institute in New York City according to according to Town & Country Magazine.
She also worked as a personal trainer, showing others how to hone their bodies to their full potential as she has her entire life.
But it was during her time in culinary school while living in NYC that she met Eric Trump, Donald’s son, for the first time in March 2008.
After making what Lara called a “unique” but memorable introduction, the two started dating and got married in 2014.
Around this time, she had been promoted to an associate producer on CBS’ Inside Edition after starting in 2012 as a story coordinator.
Yet despite her promotion, Lara decided to leave her multifaceted career behind and start fresh as an advisor to Trump.
Her devotion to her father-in-law’s political journey continued throughout his first term and into his first bid for re-election, which he lost to Joe Biden.
But her political journey didn’t stop there, with rumors swirling about a Senate run that she quickly squashed by endorsing the eventual winner, Republican Representative Ted Budd of North Carolina.
She returned to the political spotlight by joining Fox News as a contributor in March 2021, stepping down in 2022 when Trump announced his second bid for re-election.
During this campaign, she became the RNC’s co-chair on March 8, 2024 by unanimous vote, holding the position until December of that year.
Lara was rumored to be finishing out Marco Rubio’s unfinished Senate term at the time, but withdrew her name from contention later that month.
Then, in February 2025, she returned to Fox News to run her own talk show called My View with Lara Trump, still running today.
Her show is described as “the return of common sense to all corners of American life” and features a mix of “analysis and interviews with influential figures,” according to Fox News.
Now, her journey has culminated with all eyes in the political world on her as she accompanied her father-in-law to the China summit last week.
The 43-year-old dazzled onlookers as she took center stage in traditional dress during the state banquet on Thursday.
Earlier in the day, she was pictured walking front and center in line with the US and Chinese presidents.
The pictures instantly sparked chatter online after Lara, 43, appeared not just alongside her husband, Eric Trump, but shoulder-to-shoulder with the president himself as the crucial US-China summit got underway.
Her prominent role during the high-stakes summit further adds to her emergence as one of the Trump family’s most visible political figures.
