There is a peculiar modern sport among certain corners of the commentariat, spotting a Trump doing something vaguely normal and then reacting as though Versailles has reopened and Marie Antoinette is live streaming from the bakery.
The latest instalment of this curious pastime arrives courtesy of the Telegraph’s Judith Woods, who appears to have discovered, with a kind of breathless horror, that Kai Trump went shopping at Erewhon (an expensive LA supermarket) while accompanied by the United States Secret Service.
Stop the presses. Sound the klaxon. The republic trembles.
One might gently point out a rather awkward logistical reality, when you are the granddaughter of President Donald Trump, the security detail does not clock off because you fancy a smoothie. They are there regardless. They are there when you go to dinner, when you travel, when you walk through an airport, and yes, when you pop into an expensive Los Angeles supermarket.
The agents are paid whether Kai buys kale chips, a smoothie, or a packet of chewing gum. They would be standing nearby if she went to Walmart. They would be standing nearby if she went to church. They would be standing nearby if she went to the dentist.
That is not a lifestyle choice, it is the price of proximity to power in a country where politics occasionally inspires people with alarming ideas about violence.
To frame this as some sort of taxpayer funded influencer stunt is a bit like complaining that the King’s bodyguards accompany him to Waitrose.
But let’s talk about Kai herself, because the commentary so often reveals that the critics have not actually watched her content.
I have.
I follow her videos, and she’s brilliant.
Not in the manufactured, algorithm bait sense that fills most of YouTube, but in a far rarer way. She’s authentic. For someone who has grown up in one of the most scrutinised families on earth, she is astonishingly mature and wise for 18.
She is also kind, humble, sweet, talented and whether certain journalists like it or not, an extraordinary asset to the Trump brand.
You can see it immediately, she doesn’t perform the brittle, hyper curated influencer persona that dominates Gen Z media. She’s honest, warts and all. She’ll laugh at herself, often unnecessarily. She’s self deprecating in a way that suggests genuine modesty rather than a PR strategy.
Watch more than one video and something else becomes obvious, she’s actually a bit shy.
Which makes the sneering line about her claiming that filming in public feels awkward rather odd. Anyone who has watched her properly knows she means it. She says so repeatedly. She’s not a show off strutting through the aisles, she’s a slightly embarrassed teenager speaking to camera and trying to figure it out as she goes.
And that’s precisely why people like her.
In fact, the very Erewhon video being mocked includes a moment where she literally exclaims how expensive everything is. Hardly the triumphant parade of plutocratic decadence it’s being portrayed as.
Now, a confession, I know Erewhon well. I used to live in LA and just down the road.
Yes, it’s expensive. Yes, the smoothies cost the price of a small municipal bond. But people misunderstand what you’re actually paying for. It isn’t just the food.
It’s the ecosystem of California wellness theatre, and occasionally some genuinely remarkable people behind the counter.
When I was there, there was a chap called Truth who worked the smoothie station. Twenty dollars for a smoothie from Truth. Which sounds ridiculous until you realise you also got ten minutes of nutritional wisdom that was better than most GP consultations.
Truth could tell you exactly what you needed in that blender, turmeric for inflammation, magnesium for sleep, lion’s mane for focus. Ten minutes with him was practically a postgraduate seminar in biochemistry.
True story, he actually cured an ingrown toenail issue I may have had. (Sorry if that’s TMI). Twenty dollars for the smoothie, priceless advice thrown in. That’s Erewhon.
So yes, Kai Trump went there. She filmed a video. Her Secret Service detail stood nearby doing the job they are legally required to do whether she’s buying organic berries or going on a date with her first boyfriend.
And millions of people watched because she’s engaging, funny, refreshingly normal, and crucially not pretending to be anything she isn’t. Which, frankly, is more than can be said for a great deal of political commentary.
If anything, the video shows a young woman navigating an extremely unusual life with grace, humour, and a surprising amount of humility. Her grandfather must be enormously proud.
And if the gravest scandal the Telegraph writer can uncover is that an 18 year old bought a smoothie while protected by the security she cannot opt out of, then perhaps the crisis in modern journalism is deeper than the price of Erewhon collagen powder.
WATCH Kai Trump’s Erewohn video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDa8__sXB3o
