Lara Trump’s Unusual Career Path From Pastry Chef to Politics Is Impossible to Ignore

Lara Trump’s appearance alongside President Donald Trump during the visit to China has sparked a lot of online discussion and renewed interest in her career. This was especially notable after Melania Trump was nowhere to be seen.

The 43-year-old Fox News host and political advisor to Trump attended a state banquet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in May 2026. She wore a traditional Chinese qipao and appeared alongside the president and her husband, Eric Trump.

Trump’s daughter-in-law has become a familiar face in Republican politics, but her journey into the national spotlight began far from Washington.

Born Lara Yunaska in Wilmington, North Carolina, she studied communications at North Carolina State University. She then got a degree in pastry arts from the French Culinary Institute in New York City and became a pastry chef.

Interestingly, Lara also worked briefly as a personal trainer and then joined the CBS news program Inside Edition. She started as a story coordinator in 2012 and was promoted to assistant producer in 2014, which she left after she married Eric Trump.

She met Eric in 2008 through mutual friends in NYC and allegedly didn’t know his last name when they first met. She said on The Right View podcast:

“When I first met Eric, I did not know who his dad was. I didn’t know his last name initially. I just knew I met some really tall guy out.”

The couple eventually got engaged in July 2013 and married in November 2014 at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.

After getting married, she stepped away from her television career and entered Republican politics. According to The Sun, she left Inside Edition to support Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. She told the Port City Daily:

“I wasn’t going to have the time to adequately dedicate to this. When they’re reporting on your family on the show you work for, it’s a little challenging.”

Her contributions in the Trump administration grew rapidly after this. Lara advised Trump during the 2016 and 2020 campaigns. She then joined Fox News as a paid contributor in March 2021.

After Trump launched his 2024 reelection campaign, Lara left Fox News. In March 2024, she became co-chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC) after receiving unanimous support from committee members.

According to People, at that time, Trump also praised her leadership qualities and said:

“Lara is an extremely talented communicator and is dedicated to all that MAGA stands for.”

Lara drew a lot of attention during her RNC tenure with discussions around fundraising goals ahead of the 2024 election cycle.

Since Lara is a Trump advisor, speculation around her political future has been ongoing. Reportedly, she considered running for office in North Carolina in 2021 after Sen. Richard Burr announced his retirement. Even though she declined to enter the race, she did hint that it’s no “for now” and not forever. She said:

“It is going to be very hard for me to enter this Senate race right now. I am saying no for now, not no forever.”

After Trump was elected president, Lara rejoined Fox News in February 2025. This time around, she returned to Fox News with her own weekend program, My View with Lara Trump. The show focuses on analyzing and interviewing influential figures while ensuring “common sense” returns to all corners of American life.

Lara and Eric later expanded their family with the birth of their two children, son Eric “Luke” Trump Jr., born in September 2017, and daughter Carolina Dorothy Trump, born in August 2019.