Tiffany Trump has been heavily involved in the high-stakes campaign of her reality-show-star-parent.
No, not that one. Until recently, the main campaign that seems to have engaged the energies of the 22-year-old student/socialite is the one for her mother Marla Maples to stay on “Dancing with the Stars.” While Tiffany has repeatedly tweeted the phone number for her followers to call to have her mother stay on the ABC reality show (Marla was voted off a fortnight ago), Tiffany had been all but invisible on the political scene — until about mid-April, when she started joining the other Trump children for a series of Trump-family TV interviews.
Vote for my mom @itsmarlamaples #DWTS call 1(800)-868-3407 or at https://t.co/B7C8TZMYUJ @DancingABC #teammartony pic.twitter.com/cmMJUaZR8l
— Tiffany Trump (@TiffanyATrump) March 29, 2016
After a near-total political blackout, she’s tweeted a few times related to her father’s Presidential bid in the course of the last month — mostly debate shots — and been featured in interviews alongside her family with Sean Hannity on Fox News and Anderson Cooper on CNN. She paid tribute to her father’s “inspiring work ethic” at a Trump family CNN Town Hall. But Tiffany hasn’t been blazing the campaign trail half as much as her three older half-siblings or publicly promoting her father’s business and media interests.
.@RealDonaldTrump's 4 adult children joining him for town hall. #TrumpTODAY pic.twitter.com/WjgsnBknU6
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) April 21, 2016
Tiffany’s recent public appearances seem to stem from a desire by the Trump camp to show off his progeny and push the image of his blended family to soften the strident tone of his campaign. Yet it’s unlikely that his youngest daughter will ever be permitted to give an interview on her own during the campaign, as her older sister Ivanka has been.
Observers have been left to ask: Is this the Trump daughter the Trump campaign doesn’t want you to see?
Neither the Trump campaign nor Tiffany herself responded to Heat Street’s requests for comment. But it’s no mystery why the elder Trump may wish to hide his daughter’s escapades in the limelight under a barrel.
Tiffany’s party-loving antics have been chronicled exhaustively on social media. She runs around with a circle of privileged-but-trashy celebrity offspring who have been nicknamed “The Snap Pack” by the New York Times.
Tiffany’s crowd includes Andrew Warren, grandson of designer David Warren; Peter and Harry Brant, sons of billionaire industrialist Peter Brant and model wife Stephanie Seymour; Kyra Kennedy, daughter of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.; Gaia Matisse, the actress great-great granddaughter of Henri Matisse; Raya Benitez, son of eighties music producer “Jellybean” Benitez, and E.J. Johnson, son of LA Lakers basketball legend Magic Johnson.
While these rick kids of Instagram consider themselves sophisticated socialites, “The Snap Pack” — on the evidence of their social media antics — are as trashy and vacuous as Trump’s presidential campaign, exhaustively over-sharing their sybaritic excess on social media.
Their scene has been characterized by underage drinking, racy outfits, and inveterate attention-seeking, with social nightmares often diluting the dream lifestyle they promote on social media.
Until recently, Tiffany had been at the forefront of the inanity — leading some to question whether she’s been put under wraps and/or asked to tone things down.
“She’s been left out of the campaign,” observes New York socialite Peter Davis. After winning the Florida, North Carolina, and Illinois primaries in March, Trump mentioned his other four children on stage but failed to cite Tiffany. (He did later give her a shout-out on Twitter.)
Society photographer Patrick McMullan, who has snapped Tiffany since she was a youngster in the Hamptons, told Heat Street: “Tiffany is running around with the young kids, but [the Trump campaign is] not using her and maybe won’t do so until he gets the nomination. They’re keeping her on track.”
Half a decade ago, Tiffany had her sights set on becoming a pop star. She recorded a song “Like a Bird” with the rapper Logic. The song included the lyrics: “Everybody’s partying / Obsessing over crazy things / I just want serenity / While living it up.”
In the Hamptons last summer, together with Warren and Benitez, Tiffany was reportedly told off by a bouncer for living it up too excessively. She was asked to calm down after dancing too close to the stage of a Jason Derulo set at the VH1 Save the Music Foundation benefit.
“Some of her friends are pretty obnoxious and entitled,” a source told the New York Post.
Another potential source of awkwardness for her father’s political ambitions is the fact that her boyfriend, Ross Mechanic, happens to be a Democrat.
Tiffany met Ross at the University of Pennsylvania, her father’s alma mater, where she presently studies sociology with a concentration in law. Tiffany has spoken of going to law school or business school after college and is planning a move back to Manhattan later this year, according to the New York Post.
The Donald has previously paid tribute to his daughter’s intelligence, saying: “She’s got all A’s at Penn so we’re proud of her.”
But Tiffany has also suffered her share of cringe-worthy moments on account of her father. The only daughter of Trump and his second wife Marla Maples, the embarrassment bar for Tiffany was set high from a young age when her father discussed her legs and breasts on TV while she was a baby.
Pursuing her fashionista ambitions, Tiffany interned at Vogue in summer 2011 and modeled for Warren’s Just Drew clothing company at New York Fashion Week last February, sporting a navy double-breasted blazer and tights for their fall 2016 presentation.
She played little part in the Times’ “Snap Pack” feature earlier this month — perhaps due to the lower profile she is currently trying to keep.
Scandal has recently engulfed some of the other personalities featured in the Times article. Peter Brant was arrested at Kennedy Airport last March on charges of assault and disorderly conduct, allegedly having roughed up a Port Authority cop while drunk and waiting to board a flight to West Palm Beach. Even his own lawyer called him an “idiot.”
The New York Post’s Page Six column reported that shortly after his brush with the law Brant ran up a huge tab at the restaurant Nobu in Tribeca before leaving his friends, who included Ms. Kennedy and Ms. Matisse, with the $2,000 bill.
Kennedy has had her own fair share of trouble recently, being banned from social media by her father for cyberbullying Allie Jones, a New York magazine writer, who publicly poured scorn on the Times’ piece. “Clearly taking your insecurities on others,” Kennedy fumed on Instagram. “We can play too.” (Ironically, it was New York magazine which coined the term “The Brat Pack” to describe the exploits of Demi Moore, Emilio Estevez and Co.)
The ban doesn’t seem to have lasted long though. Kyra, who styles herself as “somewhere between psychotic and iconic” on Instagram, was back on the online mobile photo-sharing service last week showing off her time at Coachella music festival.
update: Actually No One's Mad https://t.co/SdxfwKbZ0f pic.twitter.com/QIGAiKTp78
— Allie Jones (@allierileyjones) April 7, 2016
In the Times’ feature, Warren had declared: “I like to take photos but I’m not a bad person. I’ve had a cancer patient D.M. me on Instagram and say, ‘Your Instagram snaps give me hope.’ ”
Yet, in the same article, Warren, who did not respond to Heat Street’s requests for a comment, seemed to hint at tensions with his friend Tiffany. “With Tiffany Trump, there is too much going on… it was a distraction from the designs. I don’t want to mix with politics.”
Perhaps, in a reversal of how things usually play out during election campaigns, it is the presidential candidate who will prove an embarrassment to his daughter.
