Lara Trump Sparks Backlash With Her Post About China

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Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images

What to Know

01 Eric Trump and his wife Lara joined President Donald Trump for his trip to China.
02 Lara took to social media to boast about the trip and captioned her selfie with, "Team CHYYYYYNA 🇨🇳🇺🇸"
03 Critics would like to know how the Trump family went from "America First" to "Team CHYYYYYNA."

President Donald Trump is currently in China, and he didn’t go there alone. Though he left Vice President JD Vance and First Lady Melania Trump behind, he was joined by multiple CEOs and other members of his cabinet, along with Eric and Lara Trump.

On Tuesday, May 12, Lara took to social media to boast about the trip, and people were unhappy about it for numerous reasons. She shared a selfie in which she stood beside Dan Scavino, Walt Nauta, Natalie Harp, Marco Rubio, and her husband, then captioned it with, “Team CHYYYYYNA 🇨🇳🇺🇸”

Immediately, people questioned why she and her husband were traveling to China.

Lots of critics on X were all asking the same thing: Why do Lara and Eric need to join the president for this trip? In the comments, people accused the Trump family of being “grifters” once again and said the post was actually giving “Team Let Them Eat Cake.” One critic wrote, “You know posting that kinda s— makes you all look like scumbags especially when half the country can’t afford to fill up their gas tanks.”

Someone else commented, “Question: WTF are Eric and you doing in China? We did not vote for you for anything and you have no business being there.”

Plus, people called them out for their apparent hypocrisy. “If Hunter Biden had posted some s— like this the Right would’ve lost its friggin mind,” another critic argued. “But these grifting sacks of silicon do it and no one on the Right says a word. AMERICANS CANT AFFORD GAS LARA.”

The whole “team China” (or CHYYYYYNA) thing also rubbed people the wrong way.

Because what happened to America First, exactly? “>campaigns as America First >admits to being Team China???” another critic wrote. “Btw just imagine if Hunter and Ashley Biden posted this s— during President Biden’s administration en route to a foreign nation.”

“Nothing screams america first like team CHYYYYYNA,” someone else commented.

In addition to running on the “America First” promise, Trump also relied on strong anti-China rhetoric while campaigning. To go from that to “Team CHYYYYYNA” is an interesting shift. One person described it as a “bold rebrand.”

And people also related the post back to one of the president’s very recent controversies.

Lara’s post about “Team CHYYYYYNA” came around the same time that the president’s response to a question about the Iran war went viral on social media. A reporter asked Trump whether “Americans’ financial situations” have pressured him to make a deal with Iran. But he said “Americans’ financial situations” are actually not on his mind at all.

“Not even a little bit,” he told the reporter. “The only thing that matters when I’m talking about Iran — they can’t have a nuclear weapon. I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing — we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s all.”

The “Team China” declaration kind of made sense to some people because of this controversial statement from Trump. “Only someone who’s team China would say something this disgusting,” someone said in response to Trump’s comment about not caring “even a little bit” about Americans’ financial struggles.

To Lara, the people in her selfie are “Team CHYYYYYNA.” But to some critics online, they’re “Team ‘We don’t think about Americans, not even a little bit.'”

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Paige Sheffield (she/her)