It was all about love during this match.
Lara Trump first crossed paths with her future stepfather at the US Open in 2008, the very same year she began dating Eric.
Her boyfriend, the youngest child of Donald Trump and his first wife, Ivana, hadn’t mentioned that Donald would be at the tennis tournament.
“My husband didn’t give me any heads-up,” Lara, 42, shared.
“I figured, ‘I’m just sitting in the bleachers.’ I thought it would just be a casual outing. Then we went up to the suite where Donald and Melania Trump were.”
Lara reflected on how common it is to hear similar stories about the experience, suggesting that Donald is quite approachable.
The family patriarch, who grew up just five miles from the tennis venue in Queens, inquired about his son’s new girlfriend, who attended the tournament last Sunday.
“He was curious about me. Where I was from, where I went to school, what I was up to,” recalled Lara, originally from North Carolina and working as a producer for “Inside Edition” at the time.
“I was definitely a bit nervous and I wasn’t sure if I was saying the right things.”
Lara’s first meeting with Donald left a lasting impression, especially when he made a playful gesture with ice cream.
“Then he looked at me and asked, ‘What do you know? You get ice cream. Do you like ice cream?'” she remembered.
“And I thought, ‘Oh, Donald Trump eats ice cream.’ If he’s doing that, it makes him feel more down-to-earth, you know?”
Looking back, Lara is grateful that their first encounter was unexpected.
“In a way, I didn’t really have time to overthink it, since there wasn’t a moment to really dwell on,” she noted.
“Without him, honestly, many things I’ve done in my life wouldn’t have been possible, and I’m very grateful for his support and encouragement,” said Lara, who once served as co-chair of the Republican National Committee.
Fast forward six years to 2014, Lara married Eric at Mar-A-Lago, explaining that her initial experience with Donald had a significant role in supporting his campaign during the 2016 election.
“The ease I felt with him was really nice and welcoming from the start, which encouraged me to get involved when he announced his candidacy,” she said.
“At that time, I wasn’t very knowledgeable about politics, but I knew who he was. It was really Donald Trump.”
