Donald Trump’s Granddaughter Kai Trump Leans Into NIL Partnerships

While millions of high school graduates are kicking back this summer, the University of Miami-bound golfer Kai Trump is cashing in on her NIL earning potential.

Five years after the National Collegiate Athletic Association approved its name, image and likeness policy that allows student-athletes to capitalize on themselves, Trump is among the 554,000-plus NCAA athletes who are doing just that. 

Accelerator Active Energy, TaylorMade and Leaf Trading Cards are three key endorsement deals for her. With a social media reach of 5.4 million across all platforms, she is in the upper echelon of college-student athletes, but she is “not sitting at the very top,” according to Bill Carter, founder of the NIL Forum.

Through her equity stake and endorsement deal with Accelerator Active Energy, the 19-year-old used her name to launch a blue raspberry energy drink released Tuesday. Last summer, Trump inked a deal with the zero sugar beverage company that counts Travis Kelce and former Louisiana State University gymnast Livvy Dunne among its stakeholders.

Accelerator’s vice president of partnerships, Kerry Leslie, declined to comment about the value of Trump’s deal or her investment in the company. Carter estimated that Trump’s deal could range between $350,000 and $1 million annually. Looking ahead, he said, “I expect her to go all-in with NIL and that she will try to maximize it without being overly discerning or even put her personal brand first. She’s potentially very impactful. The evidence is the social media followers that she’s accumulated.”

College student athletes are vying for what amounts to between $900 million and $1.3 billion annually in partnerships. As Trump’s visibility expands over the next four years, her base of followers could be boosted by 50 percent or more, Carter said. While U.S. President Donald Trump‘s eldest grandchild has leaned into the Trump name, by posting from the White House, and will always be associated with the family name, Carter said, “if she continues to build her own identity as a student athlete and a golfer at Miami, and continues to have success in the sport, she has a greater opportunity to build a larger audience.”

While many professional athletes cap their deals between 10 and 12 companies, as the NBA legend Michael Jordan once did, Carter does not expect Kai Trump to hold back. Trump’s contract with Accelerator is being negotiated, Leslie said. The incoming collegiate golfer allowed the brand to stamp her name on the Blue Raz Slush cans. Last year she rolled out some signature apparel that was imprinted with her initials interlocked.

Trump, who delivered a speech at the 2024 Republican National Convention, is the eldest of Vanessa and Donald Trump Jr.’s five children. (The couple divorced in 2018.) Kai Trump has a bird’s-eye view of professional golf through her mother’s partner Tiger Woods, who is a Nike-sponsored athlete and founder of the Sun Day Red brand. The soon-to-be college freshman was on hand last month, when her father wed Bettina Anderson in the Bahamas.

Asked about working with Trump, Leslie said, “She’s so genuine and authentic. She’s probably one of the most polite 19-year-olds I’ve ever talked with. She’s the youngest partner that we’ve ever had and she’s mature beyond her years. She treats everyone the same and respectfully.”

Media requests to GSE Worldwide, the agency that represents Trump, and TaylorMade were unreturned. A Leaf Card Trading replied to a media request about Trump, but did not follow through.

Noting how former college athletes such as Deon Sanders’ son, Shedeur, and LeBron James’ son, Bronny, had “very lucrative” NIL portfolios, Noah Henderson, director of the sport management program at Loyola University Chicago, said, “A lot of that comes from the fact that they are more marketable, because their last name is notable. Kai Trump falls in that category. The majority of her [NIL] value comes from her status as a celebrity.”

Cooper Manning’s son and University of Texas football player, Arch, is reportedly leading the NIL field with an estimated valuation of $6.8 million. Former LSU basketball player Flau’jae Johnson is said to have been tops for women with a valuation of $1.5 million.

While online platforms like On3 peg Trump’s NIL value around $1.2 million, Henderson said, “My general sense is to take any online reported earnings with a grain of salt, because there’s incentive to report false numbers. Unless you see that contract, you don’t know for certain what anyone is making. And sometimes agents will leak incorrect numbers to the media in order to inflate the market so their other players can earn more.”

Making the point that college sports fans are known to be “really tribal, “which benefits NIL athletes’ followings, Henderson said, “With Kai Trump, that could accelerate her numbers even more, given the tribalism to a political party and to the President, and the emotional connection to the last name.” Meanwhile, Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., the chair and ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee that oversees college sports, have proposed the Protect College Sports Act that would regulate college sports and create a federal framework for NIL deals. That legislation has mixed support among the conferences in college sports.