Eric Trump’s high school graduation wasn’t your typical proud-parent moment — no cheering in the crowd, no family photos, no dinner afterward. Instead, he got a collect call, a European car race, and a reality check from his mother, Ivana Trump, about where his big day ranked on her list of priorities. Spoiler: it didn’t crack the top three.
The middle Trump son recently sat down with Megyn Kelly to discuss his new book, “Under Siege,” and shared a story about his mother that has the internet equally shocked and amused.
Eric recalled phoning home from boarding school using 1-800-COLLECT to remind his mom about his upcoming graduation ceremony. He asked Ivana to mark the dates in her Rolodex.
She asked him to hold on before delivering the news that his ceremony overlapped the Monte Carlo Grand Prix. For Europeans, Eric explained to Kelly, the race is like the Super Bowl, the Masters golf tournament, and everything else combined into one — the Holy Grail of sporting events.
When Eric protested that it was his graduation, Ivana didn’t mince words. “Every f—king moron graduates from high school. Get over it,” she told him.
She never attended the ceremony.
But Eric was quick to clarify that his mom “was a woman that adored me, right? This wasn’t some broken household where my mom didn’t love me to death.” He emphasized that Ivana showed him and his siblings the world and made them work for everything. He even joked that had he been graduating with a doctorate from MIT, she probably would have said the same thing. “She was an amazing woman. She was a powerhouse,” Eric told Kelly.
Social media erupted after Kelly and Trump shared a joint post of the interview clip on Instagram.
“It was very surprising to hear she had a more important engagement than Eric’s graduation,” one person wrote.
Another commenter took Ivana’s side: “If I had a chance to go to the Monte Carlo Grand Prix, I would have missed my own high school graduation.”
Not everyone found it amusing.
“I think that’s a terrible thing she said for his graduation, they have Monte Carlo every year your son only graduates once, she doesn’t sound like she was very nice person to her children,” one critic wrote. Another added, “I think she should have attended your graduation,” though they complimented the interview.
“Sounds like her and Trump we’re a perfect match,” one person noted.
In the book, Eric opens up about his mother’s struggles with alcoholism in her later years, while noting his father abstained from drinking, substances, and smoking entirely. It’s not the first time Eric has spoken about finding his mother after she passed, but the book offers deeper insights into their complicated relationship.
In a 2017 interview with Gayle King, Eric praised his mom as tough, strong, and elegant, describing her as a disciplinarian who taught them manners.
When she passed away in 2022 at age 73, Eric was the first to find her. He posted an emotional tribute after her demise, calling her an incredible woman who fled communism and taught her children about grit and toughness.
He told Fox News Digital that she could beat any man down a mountain on skis while looking like a supermodel.
His sister, Ivanka Trump, appeared on the Lex Fridman Podcast in 2024 to discuss Ivana’s influence. She remembered her mother’s love for life, recalling memories of Ivana floating in the ocean or dancing with complete comfort. When Ivana died, Ivanka posted that she was “heartbroken” and that her mother lived life to the fullest.
Donald Trump Jr. also honored his mother with an Instagram tribute, thanking her for pushing them hard and instilling incredible values.
In Ivana’s 2017 memoir “Raising Trump,” she recounted a moment during her divorce when Donald Sr. tried to take Donald Jr. away, calling her a bad mother, according to Variety.
Ivana calmly responded that she had two more children to raise, and Donald Jr. was returned within minutes. Meanwhile, Trump has been criticized for not being a hands-on dad and bringing his kids to meetings with dreams of the day they would take over the family business, according to Insider.
In the 2015 documentary “Unprecedented,” Washington Post journalist Marc Fisher — co-author of “Trump Revealed” — revealed that “He [Trump] had them compete at every turn, even on vacation,” keeping the family rivalry alive no matter where they went.
The Trump children’s mother endured a very public marriage collapse when Donald began his affair with Marla Maples in the late 1980s. The confrontation between Ivana and Marla at an Aspen restaurant in 1989 became tabloid fodder, with Ivana recounting how Marla approached her, asking if she loved her own husband.
Ivana Trump now rests at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, near the first hole, but her memory lives free.
The graduation story reveals just how the Trump family operates by different rules. Whether you’re laughing along or shaking your head, Ivana’s blunt parenting style was undeniably her own, and her children clearly inherited her refusal to apologize for it.
