Kai Trump, the 19-year-old granddaughter of President Trump who just started her freshman year on the University of Miami women’s golf team, posted a vlog to her YouTube channel over the weekend showing her in tears about adjusting to life away from home, and revealed she had to leave campus early in the semester after coming down with a severe case of strep throat.
In the video, uploaded Saturday, Kai described the emotional toll of saying goodbye to the people she grew up around. “I’ve been like, literally sobbing,” she said. “It’s just like really sad that I have to say goodbye to like everyone.” The moment captured something plenty of first-year college students go through: the gap between excitement about a new chapter and grief over the one that just ended.
A rough start compounded by illness
Things got harder from there. Just days into the semester, Kai came down with a severe case of strep throat and had to leave the University of Miami campus and return home to Jupiter, Florida, so her mother could help her recover. “I’m struggling right now,” she said in the vlog, describing a stretch that combined homesickness with a genuinely miserable illness.
Kai enrolled at Miami this fall as a member of the Hurricanes’ women’s golf program, a sport she has competed in seriously for years and one that drew recruiting interest from multiple Division I schools before she committed. Her choice to document the rockier parts of the transition, rather than only the highlight-reel moments, is consistent with the tone of her YouTube channel, where she has built an audience by sharing an unfiltered look at her daily life.
An ordinary struggle, despite an extraordinary last name
Being the granddaughter of a sitting president puts Kai Trump in the public eye in a way most 19-year-olds never experience, but what she described in the vlog is about as ordinary as it gets for incoming college freshmen: missing family, missing friends, and getting hit with a bad illness at the worst possible time. College counselors and student health centers around the country report the first few weeks of a first semester as a common flashpoint for homesickness, particularly for students moving away from home for the first time to pursue a varsity sport that comes with its own demanding schedule on top of a full course load.
Kai has not said publicly how much class time or practice she missed while recovering in Jupiter, and her family has not issued any separate statement beyond what she shared herself. The vlog format she has used throughout her time building a following online means updates on how she’s settling in will likely keep coming directly from her channel rather than through a traditional press outlet.
Sources
The Daily Beast: Kai Trump Breaks Down in New College Vlog
AOL: Kai Trump Breaks Down Leaving Home
Irish Star: Kai Trump Breaks Down, Says…
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