Donald Trump’s flute-playing career cut short: ‘I didn’t particularly like it, wasn’t for me’

13 June 2025, 12:11 | Updated: 13 June 2025, 16:52

Donald Trump says he could have been a ‘brilliant musician’ after receiving flute lessons as a boy.
Donald Trump says he could have been a ‘brilliant musician’ after receiving flute lessons as a boy. Picture: Alamy / Classic FM
Classic FM

By Classic FM

The US President has claimed that he “could have been a flutist” in a new interview, after an aptitude test apparently revealed he was “brilliant” at music.

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The 47th President of the United States of America, Donald Trump has shared that he could have been an “incredible musician”, if he’d taken a different path.

Speaking on the debut episode of a new podcast by the New York Post, the former reality TV star said that his parents had sent him for a days-long aptitude test as an 11- or 12-year-old boy.

According to Trump, the results revealed that he was “brilliant at music” and “would be an incredible musician” – news that was apparently not well received by Trump’s father, Fred.

“But I do have an ear for music,” the president insisted. “I play great music. People like the music I play.”

Read more: 11 famous figures you never knew could play a musical instrument

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As part of the test, the young Trump was played a note on the piano which he was then asked to identify an hour or so later. “I’d get it right, I guess”, the president said, claiming that he could also remember it “to this day.”

Despite his father’s displeasure at hearing his son had a musical gift, Trump did play a musical instrument for a short time.

“I had flute lessons. Can you believe it? I could have been a flutist,” the president said, adding that his mother organised flute lessons for him for “very short periods of time.”

His flute flirtation was sadly short-lived: “I didn’t particularly like it, and it wasn’t for me,” he said, before calling the flute an “unusual instrument.”