Here come the Trumps. The 2016 Republican convention in Cleveland has been quite the family affair.
Monday night’s primetime address by Donald Trump’s third wife, former Slovenian model Melania Trump, dominated the headlines — but for all the wrong reasons. She looked great, through.
The Tuesday night schedule was also dominated by Trumps. The Donald’s other daughter, 22-year-old Tiffany, a recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, one of the classiest institutions in the world, gave a stirring speech. Despite her youth, Tiffany came across as poised and confident.
“Like my father,” she said. “I never back down from challenges.”
Tiffany even managed to talk about her real estate mogul dad in a way that made him seem like a normal human being with feelings. She didn’t mention her love of taking selfies with all her trust fund friends, or her obsession with Snapchat. She’s just like us! (But not really.)
Trump’s main son, Donald, Jr., also delivered a relatively impressive performance on Tuesday night. His address to the convention was full of normal Republican talking points, sticking far more to the script than his father ever has — perhaps to his benefit.
The young Donald even managed to survive a brief plagiarism scare after Twitter detectives noticed a few fishy lines in his speech.
Important journalists were very impressed. Don, Jr., sounded really pumped up about his dad.
In the coming days, convention attendees will hear highly anticipated speeches from Trump’s other son, Eric, and (far more so) his main daughter, Ivanka. It is unclear if 10-year-old Barron Trump (Donald’s son with Melania) will address the crowd.
And so the 2016 general election will feature an epic battle of American dynasties, pitting the Trump tribe against the formidable if far smaller Clinton clan.
The Clintons love money just as much as the Trumps do, they just don’t have as much. Bill is the former president, and probably would have been married as many times as Donald if he wasn’t so concerned about his career in politics. Hillary is an underachieving public speaker and political candidate who would almost definitely lose again in 2016 had Republican decided to nominate anyone else. Then there’s Chelsea, who lives with her two children and failed hedge fund manager husband in a multimillion condo in Manhattan, and who was previously paid $600,000 a year at NBC to interview a computer-generated lizard.
Who will prevail? Can the Clintons make up in quality what they lack in quantity? Can Bill outdo Melania in the First Spouse fashion department? Can Chelsea outshine Ivanka? What about Eric Trump? Does anyone care about him?
Stay tuned.