What Kind Of Father Has Donald Trump Been?

Though it's hard to get a true insight into the kind of relationship Donald Trump had with his father, his three older children have been in the public eye and supporting his race to the top of politics, revealing, during their talks with the press, much more about the kind of father Donald has been.

Donald Trump has been married three times and has five children: Donald Jr, Ivanka, Eric, Tiffany, and Barron. Donald Jr, Ivanka, and Fred are all executive vice presidents of The Trump Organization, indicating a continued family tradition of relating to their dad through business. Tiffany, 22 years old, was one of the Rich Kids of Instagram, while Barron is only 10.

The older Trump kids' comments about their father reveal that Donald, above all, instilled the same work ethic he inherited from his father and grandfather before him.

"It wasn’t a typical ‘let’s go play catch in the backyard’ sort of father-son relationship,”

Donald Jr said of his relationship with his father, but the older kids did get to spend a lot of time with him during their early years.

“We always went to job sites with him. We’d be in his office playing with trucks as a six-year-old while he’s negotiating deals with presidents of major companies."

He also said that the

"got a lot of the paternal attention that a boy wants and needs from my grandfather",

since work was his father's focus in life.

Eric Trump, meanwhile, commented that his father "raised him" "in a way", adding:

"My father, I love and I appreciate, but he always worked 24 hours a day."

Ivanka, once of her father's staunchest supporters during the presidential campaign, speaks very praisingly of Donald, saying, for example:

"He always told me and showed me that I could do anything I set my mind to if I married vision and passion with work ethic."

Donald's elder three children were, in their early years, primarily raised by Irish nannies and their grandparents, before heading off to boarding school, something that is hardly a rarity among wealthy families and that would have given the children the opportunity to be exposed to a whole different kind of relationship dynamic as well.

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Donald Trump's relationship with his children can ultimately probably best be summed up by a comment he made himself:

"They're very grounded and very solid. The hardest thing for me about raising kids has been finding the time. I know friends who leave their business so they can spend more time with their children, and I say, 'Gimme a break!' My children could not love me more if I spent fifteen times more time with them."

It's not hard to see a lot of his father in Donald; the two seem to have very similar fathering styles. It's said that there are five love languages, but a sixth might apply to the Trumps: "Teach them how to do business".