Trump Invites Adopted Girl and Family on Stage, Shares Private Moment With Them

Bowen Xiao
5/24/2018
Updated:
9/28/2018

On Tuesday night, President Donald Trump invited a young adopted girl and her parents on stage. He praised the family in a touching speech played on national television.

The 4-year-old adopted girl, named Katherine, was born with an opioid dependency from her birth mother, who asked for an adoption agency to find her a home.

Every 25 minutes, a baby is born suffering from opioid withdrawal, also known as neonatal abstinence syndrome, The Epoch Times previously reported. Trump has made tackling the opioid epidemic a top priority in his presidency.

As he greeted the family onto the stage at the National Building Museum, he added, “She’ll be president someday.”

President Donald Trump greets the adopted girl and her family during the Susan B. Anthony List 11th Annual Campaign for Life Gala at the National Building Museum May 22, 2018, in Washington. (Lisa Fan/The Epoch Times)
President Donald Trump greets the adopted girl and her family during the Susan B. Anthony List 11th Annual Campaign for Life Gala at the National Building Museum May 22, 2018, in Washington. (Lisa Fan/The Epoch Times)

The couple, Lisa and Bruce Alexander, already have three children of their own, but they felt compelled to adopt recently. They said a miracle happened when they were able to invite Katherine into their home, just days after her birth.

“Katherine is four years old, and she is full of incredible energy, spirit, and talent. At the age of two—come on up, Katherine—she memorized ‘America the Beautiful.’ She recites poetry, and recently she announced to her dad that when she grows up, she wants to be a famous police officer and then when she gets tired of that, she wants to become president,” Trump said at the Susan B. Anthony List gala event in Washington.

The Alexanders said they had already given up hope as they watched other couples get calls for adoption. But eventually, they got a call from their adoption agency.

“We were speechless,” Bruce told The Daily Caller. “A lot of things lined up that were not coincidence. It was meant to be.”
The paperwork and judicial process had gone by very smoothly and in a matter of days, which is rare in these cases.

A Private Moment

On stage, the family got to share a private moment with Trump. Bruce told The Daily Caller that the president “was profoundly gracious.”

“He thanked me for being an adoptive father and thanked me for what we have done as parents,” Bruce revealed.

The father said that the president was very keen to chat with his daughter.

“He was really focused on Katharine,” Bruce said. ”Speaking to little kids is a gift. He had a conversation with her. Asked her if she was enjoying her night.”

“Trump is very much his own man,” Bruce continued, “But there is a human side to him. I was there, I’m a father. Us dads really care about our children. He was so real.”

Lisa told The Daily Caller that Katherine is not just an adopted girl.

“Katharine is my child,” she said, “Adoption does not set Katharine apart. Every adoption story is special, just like every birth is special. Katharine is not adopted, she is our daughter.”

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Bowen Xiao was a New York-based reporter at The Epoch Times. He covers national security, human trafficking and U.S. politics.
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