Kai Trump
I Brought My Secret Service to Erewhon YT/ Kai Trump

Kai Trump, the 18-year-old granddaughter of President Donald Trump, is facing a torrent of online criticism after posting a YouTube vlog of herself shopping at Erewhon, the high-end Los Angeles grocery chain, with her Secret Service detail in tow.

The nearly 19-minute video, uploaded on 8 March and originally titled 'I Brought My Secret Service to Erewhon,' showed the aspiring professional golfer sampling a $22 (£17.50) Hailey Bieber-inspired smoothie and purchasing a $128 (£102) Erewhon-branded sweatshirt. Her total bill came to $233 (£185). She joked to the camera that she was 'about to go bankrupt' and would need to 'file for bankruptcy,' according to The Daily Beast, which first reported the backlash. The video was later quietly renamed 'I Tried the World's Most Expensive Grocery Store.'

The United States launched military operations against Iran alongside Israel on 28 February 2026 in an operation dubbed Operation Epic Fury. With the conflict now in its 10th day and casualties mounting, the contrast between the president's granddaughter filming a luxury grocery haul and young Americans of the same age serving in uniform did not go unnoticed.

'Let Them Eat Cake:' Backlash Floods Kai Trump's Video

Comments sections on both YouTube and X were overwhelmed with criticism. One of the most-liked YouTube comments read, 'Title might be the most tone deaf thing I've ever read.' Another wrote, 'I love that my taxes are funding this instead of school lunches.'

On X, the language was harsher. One user wrote, 'People can't afford to put gas in their tank because your pedophile grandpa started a war for Israel and you're making videos shopping at the most expensive grocery store in the US,' according to The Wrap.

Democratic strategist Mike Nellis called it a 'modern-day let them eat cake moment' in a 9 March post on X. Influencer Matt Bernstein wrote that it 'genuinely sometimes feels like they are trying to usher in a French Revolution.' Multiple YouTube commenters invoked Marie Antoinette.

The Lincoln Project also weighed in. In a post viewed over 90,000 times, the political action committee wrote, 'Your kids might get drafted to fight in Iran, while the Trump family uses your tax dollars to shop premium, organic, gluten-free cake,' Newsweek reported.

Calls to Enlist Kai Trump Gain Traction Online

A significant portion of the backlash centred on calls for Trump family members to serve. YouTuber Keith Edwards posted 'DRAFT KAI TRUMP' on the platform. Others told her to 'hop in a chopper' with her 19-year-old uncle Barron Trump, the Mercury News reported.

The #SendBarron hashtag had been trending since the deaths of six American troops in the conflict. Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told CBS's Face the Nation on 1 March that it 'won't be the billionaire kids of Donald Trump and his buddies that die' but 'the children of middle class and poor families.'

This was not Kai's first brush with criticism during the conflict. Days earlier, a now-deleted TikTok showed her filming a selfie on an airport tarmac with military helicopters visible behind her.

Some critics also pointed to the taxpayer cost of Secret Service protection being used as content fodder. 'So we are paying for your Secret Service protection so you can do videos at an expensive grocery store?' one commenter asked.

Kai, the eldest daughter of Donald Trump Jr. and his ex-wife Vanessa Haydon, launched her YouTube channel on 7 November 2024 and has since amassed 1.45 million subscribers. She also has 2.7 million Instagram followers and 3.4 million on TikTok. Her own clothing line sells sweatshirts for $130 (£103). She previously used the White House grounds to promote the brand last September, according to The Daily Beast.

The Erewhon video had surpassed 189,000 views as of 10 March. Oil prices, meanwhile, had jumped roughly 7% to their highest level since 2022, while average US petrol prices climbed nearly 50 cents in a week to $3.478 per gallon, according to AAA data.

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