As President-elect Donald Trump actively works to form a new administration, some have noted that many of those selected for his aides are parents whose families are far larger than the national average.
The current national average for U.S. families is 1.94 people, below the minimum of 2.1 people needed to replace the population. Meanwhile, some of the Trump administration's cabinet members and advisers are performing well above the standards of their successors.
Mr. Trump is the father of five adult children. Although twice divorced, he is said to be a devoted grandfather to his 10 grandchildren, and it was even reported that he spent the morning after election night playing golf with his granddaughter Kai Trump. are.
President Trump's granddaughter Kai shares video blog of family celebration on election night: 'I'm so proud'
(Spencer Pratt/Getty Images)
Interior Secretary candidate Doug Burgum and Deputy Policy Secretary Stephen Miller each have three children. President Trump's nominee for the CIA, John Ratcliffe, and his nominee for Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, each have four children. Married several times, Health and Human Services nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth both have seven children.
The grand prize will go to Sean Duffy, President Trump's nominee for Secretary of Transportation. He and his wife, Rachel Campos-Duffy, have nine children. In 2019, Duffy resigned from her position in the Wisconsin State Assembly to spend more time with her family ahead of the birth of her ninth child.
“Raising a family is hard work,” he explained in a social media post explaining his decision. “I have always accepted signs from God in balancing my desire to serve both my family and my country.”
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Rachel Campos Duffy and Sean Duffy
By comparison, President Biden, who has four children, is more of an anomaly in an administration staffed primarily by people with two or fewer children.
During the campaign, Vice President-elect J.D. Vance expressed his belief that the government needs to put more emphasis on being “pro-family” and make it easier for Americans to have large families and have more children. did.
Vance, 40, and his wife Usha have three children and have expressed a desire for more.
In his first big speech on the national stage at the Republican National Convention, Vance said, “The American dream that has always been most important to me is not to start a business or be a senator; It's not even just being here with all these wonderful people, but being a good husband and father and being able to give my family what I didn't have as a child is what I'm most proud of. I think it's an achievement.”
Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) and his wife Usha attend a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania on August 28, 2024. (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)
He was repeatedly slammed in 2021 by the Kamala Harris camp and the media over his criticism of a country run by someone known as the “childless cat lady.” But the fundamental problem of America's low birth rate is a growing concern for those paying attention.
Social researcher and author Catherine Pakaluk told Fox News Digital that the country's low birth rate has reached a point where it poses real problems and dangers for the future.
“We Americans are not having enough children to replace our population,” she said. “What we're seeing is an inversion of the normal population pyramid, where you would expect more young workers to support fewer older retired workers.”
Mr Pakaluk said that although they are not yet at the level of countries such as Japan and China, which are currently facing population decline, the result is that “there will be fewer and fewer workers” and governments such as tax bases and social security will He said programs are also declining. Medicare is also becoming less and less viable.
Because of this reality, Pacaluk said she is grateful to people like Vance who promote large families.
Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. J.D. Vance arrives with his wife Usha and children to vote at St. Anthony of Padua Maronite Catholic Church in Cincinnati on November 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Carolyn Custer)
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“I really appreciate how Vice President-elect Vance speaks so positively about families and how much he wants to have a larger family.…A lot of things that are very helpful to us today. I think that's what role models are talking about, about how having children isn't all that bad, and may even be better than you expected. ”
But most important to Pacaluk is promoting values that lead people to choose to have larger families. She recently published a book called “Hannah's Children,'' in which she conducted extensive interviews with mothers who had decided to have five or more children. The common thread among these women from various faith backgrounds was a strong religious belief that children are a blessing from God.
This led Ms. Pakaluk to believe that the solution to what she called the “natality deficit” was to return to religious beliefs at the individual and societal level.
She cited Duffy, who is Catholic, as an example.
“What I'm saying is, I don't know if being pro-child will lead to more children…but if you're a church or a pro-religious community, you're going to have more children. I think we can do that,” she said. Said. “This could change within a generation if people encountered strong religious communities more regularly.”
