4 of the biggest scandals involving US presidential kids, from Donald Trump Jr.’s tweets and Hunter Biden’s taxes to Malia Obama’s viral smoking video – which was defended by Ivanka
- George W. Bush’s daughter Jenna Bush Hager came under scrutiny for underage drinking, while Joe Biden’s son Hunter is under investigation
- Ivanka Trump and Chelsea Clinton defended Barack Obama’s daughter Malia after videos of her smoking went viral, while Donald Trump Jr. has had plenty of social media scandals
Presidential kids are often the subjects of scrutiny when growing up in the public eye, which means that when they get in trouble, it’s not just a telling off from their parents they can expect, but scandalous headlines from media outlets across the globe.
Here are seven scandals involving presidential kids, from former president George W. Bush’s daughter Jenna Bush’s alcohol troubles to Donald Trump Jr.’s countless cringey moments.
1. President George W. Bush’s daughter Jenna Bush had alcohol misdemeanours
Jenna Bush and her twin sister Barbara were the talk of the town in the early 2000s, though it wasn’t always for the right reasons. In 2001, while Jenna was a first year at the University of Texas, the then first daughter was cited for two alleged underage drinking offences: possession of alcohol as a minor and later trying to use a fake ID to purchase alcohol at an Austin restaurant.
The incidents occurred within a five-week span and were minor misdemeanours, though they also inevitably made national headlines. Jenna, who pleaded no contest to the possession of alcohol charge, was ordered to pay US$51 in court costs, serve eight hours of community service and attend six hours of alcohol awareness classes. After she also pleaded no contest to trying to use someone else’s ID for alcohol, her driving licence was suspended for 30 days, and she had to pay a total of US$600.
“I felt embarrassed, and I felt really badly for [my dad] because I thought this is going to make him look bad,” Jenna, now Jenna Bush Hager, told Today show host Hoda Kotb in March. “He apologised to me because what we wanted more than anything was to just be normal college kids. He said, ‘I’m sorry. I promised you could be normal, and this isn’t normal.’”
Though the drinking charges were front-page news at the time, Jenna says she can now laugh about it.
“Everybody knows I had a fake ID, which was really naive because my dad was president,” Jenna said on Today. “I tried. I tried and failed. A girl that was in my school was like, ‘We look a lot alike; I’ll give you my ID.’ That was dumb.”