Before Donald Trump took up office as the 45th president of the United States, his grandchildren Arabella, Joseph and Theodore were born into the unending glare of the media spotlight. The three children of Trump’s famous daughter and current official adviser, Ivanka Trump, have held considerably high profiles for pretty much the entirety of their young lives.
With their prominent parent sharing many heart-warming family moments with her 6.5 million Instagram followers, the world has long been able to catch a candid glimpse or two of the Kushner kids and their illustrious upbringing.
Here are five interesting things you may not already know about Arabella (aged nine), Joseph (seven in October) and Theodore (four) Kushner.
Keeping up with the (kosher) Kushners
Though raised in a Christian home, Ivanka Trump converted to Orthodox Judaism before marrying husband Jared Kushner.
In past interviews the first daughter has described her kids’ upbringing as being decidedly Jewish in nature, with the observant family adhering to the faith’s many rites, rituals and customs.
The family observes the traditional Jewish Sabbath (shabbat), follows a kosher diet and celebrates all the Jewish holidays such as Hanukkah, the festival of lights.
Arabella went viral in China
In 2017 the eldest child in the Kushner clan enjoyed some 15 minutes of fame in East Asia. In honour and celebration of the Lunar New Year, Arabella was adorably captured on camera by her mother singing a traditional Chinese holiday greeting song, while also playing with a Chinese puppet.
Once shared, the clip quickly went viral in China, spreading far and wide with most people appreciating the ostensibly heartfelt gesture of holiday goodwill.
The first grandson’s grand first steps
Born in March during Trump’s 2016 election campaign, most of Theodore Kushner’s formative years have all unfolded while his grandfather has called the White House home.
It’s inevitable that as part of America’s first family, many of Theodore’s major milestones would take place in some stately spots, like when he was caught on camera crawling for the first time on none other than the White House floor.
Lady and the Trump
A birthday custom in the Kushner household is to eat noodles, a practice adopted by the family based on the Chinese belief that long noodles portend a long life and Ivanka has shared a couple of these moments celebrating the kids’ birthdays, eerily reminiscent of that touching scene in Disney classic Lady and the Tramp.
Same self-isolating schooling
Much like the rest of the world, when coronavirus quarantine came into effect, the Kushner kids began schooling at home.
Mum posted this pic on Instagram of Arabella and Joseph, like all the other kids out there, in a quintessential quarantining cum home-schooling scene.
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), the leading news media reporting on China and Asia.
Copyright (c) 2020. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.