The track almost looks deceptively wide, but once the helmet is on, it stops looking very slow. That was the experience of Kai Trump at the Daytona International Speedway from the passenger seat. As she jumps in, her claustrophobia kicks in. But what happened next was something she was not prepared for at all. All locked in, helmet on, and after saying hi to the front camera, the car sped off at speeds of 170mph. Her hands couldn’t move. Minutes later, Kai Trumps gets out.

“That was worse than my driving,” she tells her friend Riley in her latest YouTube video. “I almost passed out after that first G-force.”

Daytona International Speedway is a 2.5-mile tri-oval track. Its size can be tricky for first-timers. It looks small, but it isn’t. The length of the wide track makes even 200 mph look tame on TV. But inside the cockpit, it is almost always brutal. It has hosted the Daytona 500, the Rolex 24, and is one of the most demanding venues. But Trump was in good hands, as it was Chad Seigler, driving her**,** professional driver Jesse Little’s father.

Seigler is NASCAR’s senior director of technical inspection and a former professional stock car racer. Back in the mid-1990s, he had won six times in the Xfinity Series, one of them held at Daytona. The moment Trump jumped in the car, Seigler didn’t waste much time before explaining the technicalities. For Trump, the maximum speed he would touch would be 170 mph. To her, it sounded a little slower.

“Remember, Daytona is 2 and 12 miles,” says the man strapping Trump in. “Chad’s taking…50 seconds to get around the track, but he’s going 2 and 1/2 miles in that time…That’s why it looks so slow. It won’t feel slow, though.”

And it did not. When the ride ended, Kai Trump was engulfed in a mixture of adrenaline and disbelief. “It was very scary,” she tells her dad, Donald Trump Jr., but that fear did not stop her from taking on the wheels herself, just a few minutes later. This comes days after she underwent a critical wrist surgery.

For Kai Trump, her main focus has always been golf, with her committed to playing collegiate golf at the University of Miami. But recent spottings show that the 18-year-old might be dipping her toes into the racing world. Earlier, she had been spotted at high-profile motorsports events, including the Miami Grand Prix. And not just her, many in the Trump family share a similar interest.

While for Kai Trump, Dayonta might be a first-time experience. But her grandfather and the US President, Donald Trump, have attended the Daytona 500 six times. Sometimes he appeared as a grand marshal, other times as a pace car driver. The latter happened last year in February, just after he was elected the president for the second time. Donald Trump led the field with his members, including Kai’s cousin, Carolina Trump. 

Even Kai Trump’s dad, Donald Trump Jr., has made an appearance at several tracks, including the Charlotte Motor Speedway. In fact, his past political tie-ins have included NASCAR driver Corey LaJoie. LaJaoi ran a “Trump 2020”  emblazoned car for his nine races ahead of Donald Trump’s first term campaign. Even in Kai Trump’s video, Trump Jr. could be seen all dressed up in a NASCAR uniform, perhaps ready for his own turn as a passenger.

For now, Kai Trump’s and her family’s goal is to map out her future in golf. This can be drawn out from her controversial LPGA debut at The ANNIKA. Or the playful rounds she has with her grandfather. Yet, time and again, her indulgence in different sports and activities has revealed a broader aspect of her personality.

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The many faces of Kai Trump

Apart from Golf, of course, Kai Trump loves to film herself. Her 1.42 million subscribers on her channel are a testament to that. Almost all of her videos surpass the 1 million mark, with her most viewed video being the one where she plays 1 on 1 with Donald Trump. Her elevated social media persona was primarily the reason she was invited to The ANNIKA on a sponsor’s exemption.

Then her last few videos also showed her newfound interest in boxing. On December 28th, she posted a video as she attended the Kaseya Centre for the infamous boxing match between Jake Paul and Anthony Joshua. In the same video, the two YouTubers hinted at the possibility of a future collab.

And not just sports, Trump has tried her hands on the technical sides of sports as well. At the Optum Golf Channel Games, Kai Trump was invited to broadcast live as a “special contributor.” For her, this is a moment of pride, as events like this often invite her to get their shows more eyeballs. For Trump, it is just another activity to pass the time.