Donald Trump’s close family members have always played a key role in his administrations and campaigns, and during the Republican National Convention, he debuted his granddaughter Kai on centre stage.

The 17-year-old daughter of Donald Trump Jr was thrust into the spotlight on Wednesday, appearing just before her father to highlight “the side of my grandpa that people don’t often see”.

“To me, he’s just a normal grandpa. He gives us candy and soda when our parents are not looking,” she said.

“He always wants to know how we’re doing in school. When I made the high honour roll, he presented it out to his friends how proud he was of me.”

Golf game

Kai Trump is the oldest of five children that Donald Jr had with Vanessa Trump before their 2018 divorce.

At the convention, she commented on her shared love of golf with her grandfather.

“He calls me during the middle of the school day to ask how my golf game is going and tells me all about his,” she said.

“I have to remind him that I’m in school and I will have to call him back later.”

Kai Trump sharing the green with Donald at a LIV Golf event. Photo: Getty

The former president has often bragged about his golfing ability, having won several club championships at his own courses in dubious circumstances, and famously broke out into an argument with political rival Joe Biden at the last debate.

Kai Trump made no mistake about where her political allegiances lay during her speech.

“A lot of people have put my grandpa through hell and he’s still standing: Grandpa, you are such an inspiration and I love you,” she said.

“The media makes my grandpa seem like a different person, but I know him for who he is.”

Dynasty

Amazingly, she is only a year younger than her uncle Barron Trump, the youngest of the former president’s children, who has also appeared more frequently on the campaign trail in recent months.

Trump’s daughter Ivanka played a considerable role in his first administration, alongside her husband Jarred Kushner.

After the end of Trump’s first presidency, Ivanka swore she was finished with politics after serving as his special adviser.

The couple reported earning somewhere between $172 and $640 million while working in the White House, which didn’t include the $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia into Kushner’s private equity firm.

Alongside Kai’s four siblings, Donald Trump’s other son with his ex-wife Ivana, Eric Trump, has a son and a daughter — both young children — who could continue on the Trump legacy.

Politics has proven both lucrative and alluring to the Trump family, so expect to see more having a crack — regardless of their patriarch’s eventual fate in November — in the coming decades.