A member of President Donald Trump’s family is undergoing an unconventional treatment after a painful setback threatened to derail a highly anticipated athletic debut — and initially raised fears that another surgery could be ahead.

The athlete is Trump’s 19-year-old granddaughter, Kai Trump, who reinjured her surgically repaired wrist while making her college golf debut for the University of Miami at South Carolina’s Golfweek Fall Challenge.

The frightening moment came when Kai struck the ground near a cart path and immediately felt a shock shoot through her arm.

“Let’s just say there must have been some cart path underneath that ground because it was very hard,” Kai explained.

She managed to keep playing, but several holes later, things took a more alarming turn.

“Then on the tenth hole, I hit my driver, and I felt like I tore it again,” she said.

That sensation was particularly concerning because Kai had already undergone surgery on the same wrist earlier this year.

The procedure addressed damage to her triangular fibrocartilage complex as well as stabilizing tissues surrounding the extensor carpi ulnaris tendon.

Kai had been working toward returning pain-free in time to begin her freshman season with the Miami Hurricanes.

Suddenly, during her college debut, she feared she had damaged the repaired area all over again.

Medical testing after the tournament, however, delivered some encouraging news.

Kai said she had not completely torn the repaired area.

Instead, she described the new damage as a “little sliver” involving cartilage and ligaments inside her wrist.

Most importantly, she said doctors determined that another surgical procedure was not necessary.

Kai instead turned to stem cell injections administered by pain-management specialist Dr. Jeffrey Weigers.

In a video documenting her recovery, Kai identified the treatment she received as Dezawa MuseCells as she works toward getting back onto the golf course.

The treatment comes during what has already been a challenging transition into collegiate competition.

Despite the wrist pain, Kai completed all three rounds of the Golfweek Fall Challenge at Caledonia Golf and Fish Club.

She finished tied for 102nd in the 120-player field.

But the final leaderboard did not reflect the physical setback she was dealing with after aggravating a wrist that had already required surgery.

Kai committed to the University of Miami in 2024 after establishing herself as a competitive junior golfer.

Miami coach Janice Olivencia previously described her as a developing player who would bring considerable energy and excitement to the Hurricanes program.

Her arrival at Miami generated substantial attention because of her family, large social-media following and aspirations in competitive golf.

Kai is the eldest child of Donald Trump Jr. and Vanessa Trump and President Trump’s eldest grandchild.

She stepped onto the national political stage during the 2024 Republican National Convention, where she delivered a speech about her grandfather.

But golf has increasingly become a major part of her public profile.

Kai won club championships at Trump International Palm Beach and developed a competitive handicap before beginning her college career.

She also made her LPGA Tour debut last November, becoming the youngest player in that tournament’s field.

Her move into college athletics has brought challenges away from the course as well.

Kai documented leaving her home in Jupiter, Florida, and acknowledged the emotional difficulty of saying goodbye to her family and friends as she began college.

“I’m not a very emotional person at all, so this is like really weird for me to cry,” she said.

Despite those emotions, Kai expressed excitement about beginning the next stage of her life as a student-athlete.

Now the wrist injury has added another obstacle just as that chapter begins.

Kai has publicly documented the setback, including both the frightening moment when she believed she had torn the wrist again and the subsequent medical findings indicating she could avoid another operation.

That could prove significant for her freshman season.

The Hurricanes are scheduled to compete in the Ruth’s Chris Tar Heel Invitational beginning Oct. 16 in North Carolina.

That gives Kai several weeks to undergo treatment, monitor the injury and determine whether her wrist can withstand a return to competitive golf.

Whether she can participate will ultimately depend on her recovery and whether she can swing without triggering additional pain.

For now, avoiding another surgery represents an encouraging development after a debut that suddenly threatened to turn into a much longer setback.

Kai’s famous last name ensures that her performances will receive more attention than those of most freshman golfers.

But after surgery, months of rehabilitation and now another painful injury to the same wrist, her immediate challenge is one familiar to athletes at every level: getting healthy enough to compete again.

Democrats’ own internal polling has delivered a striking result in one of Ohio’s most closely watched congressional races, showing longtime Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur locked in a dead heat with Republican challenger Derek Merrin.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s latest survey puts Kaptur and Merrin at exactly 48% each in Ohio’s 9th Congressional District.

Just 4% of likely voters remain undecided with the November election approaching.

The numbers underscore just how competitive the contest has become following Ohio’s mid-decade redistricting, which changed the political makeup of the district Kaptur is fighting to retain.

But another result buried inside the Democrats’ own polling makes the tie particularly notable.

President Donald Trump’s job approval stands at just 35% in the district, while 54% disapprove — a 19-point negative gap, according to the DCCC’s Sept. 29 memo.

Yet Republican Derek Merrin is still running even with the Democratic incumbent.

The DCCC says Trump carried the current district by 11 percentage points in the 2024 presidential election.

Despite Trump’s current approval numbers in the Democratic survey, Merrin still captures 48% against Kaptur.

The DCCC emphasized several numbers it views as encouraging for the incumbent.

According to the committee, Kaptur has consolidated 95% of Democratic voters and is leading among independents, although the memo did not disclose the precise breakdown of independent support.

The committee also said Kaptur is running ahead of both Democratic statewide candidates in the district.

It did not identify those candidates or provide their polling numbers in the memo.

Democrats portrayed the tied race as evidence that Kaptur continues to outperform the underlying political environment of her district, pointing to her record and campaign emphasis on lowering costs and representing Northwest Ohio.

The DCCC also sought to blame Republicans for rising household expenses, citing costs including groceries, gasoline, health care and utility bills.

Those arguments represent the Democratic committee’s characterization of the political environment rather than independent findings from the poll.

And despite the DCCC’s upbeat assessment of Kaptur’s position, its own headline number remains unmistakably close.

Kaptur: 48%.

Merrin: 48%.

Undecided: 4%.

Neither candidate has broken the 50% mark, and the difference between them is zero.

The survey was conducted by the DCCC Analytics Department from Sept. 22 through Sept. 23 among 481 likely general-election voters in Ohio’s 9th District.

Respondents were contacted through phone and text-to-web interviews.

The poll carries a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

That means the survey should be viewed as a snapshot rather than evidence that either candidate holds a measurable lead.

But with the Democratic Party’s own polling showing its incumbent tied with Merrin, Ohio’s 9th District remains a closely contested battleground heading into the final stretch before November.

Passengers aboard an Israel-bound jet were thrown into a terrifying midair emergency Wednesday after a violent incident inside the cockpit sent the aircraft plunging and triggered initial fears that the plane had been hijacked.

The Flydubai flight ultimately made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia — but Israeli officials say the crisis began when the co-pilot allegedly stabbed the captain.

Flight FZ1073 had departed Dubai for Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv when the confrontation erupted aboard the Boeing 737.

Two Israeli officials told Reuters that the co-pilot was believed to have stabbed the captain before cabin crew entered the cockpit and helped bring the situation under control.

Israeli authorities are now investigating whether the incident may have been an attempted “terror attack.”

For the passengers trapped aboard the aircraft, the moments that followed were terrifying.

One passenger described panic throughout the cabin as the aircraft suddenly began losing altitude.

“There are many different accounts, but apparently the co-pilot stabbed the captain and collapsed onto the controls, shutting down the entire instrument panel. We began plunging downward for several minutes. Everyone on the plane was screaming, the overhead compartments opened, and the power went out. We were sure we were going to die. It was very scary,” the passenger said.

Flydubai has confirmed that an incident occurred aboard the aircraft and that the plane landed safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.

The airline has not publicly confirmed the reported stabbing or explained what caused the confrontation inside the cockpit.

Both pilots were hospitalized with injuries, according to Reuters.

Flight-tracking data showed just how severe the emergency became.

The aircraft reportedly dropped nearly 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds before transmitting an emergency signal.

The jet initially squawked 7700 — the universal transponder code indicating a general emergency.

It then briefly switched to 7500.

That code signals possible unlawful interference with an aircraft and immediately intensified concerns that a hijacking or other security incident could be unfolding.

The aircraft later switched back to 7700 before safely landing in Tabuk.

Israeli authorities responded rapidly as the crisis developed.

With more than 100 Israeli passengers reportedly aboard, officials initially feared the aircraft could have been hijacked and scrambled fighter jets.

A regional official confirmed that an altercation apparently involving the pilots had occurred inside the cockpit, although investigators were still working to establish exactly what happened.

“The crew have been questioned as part of the investigation,” the regional official said, according to The Associated Press, without specifying whether anyone had been detained.

Passengers told Israeli media that shouting could be heard near the front of the aircraft shortly before the plane suddenly descended.

Capt. Meidan Barr, former chairman of the Israel Airline Pilot Association, said a rapid loss of altitude of that magnitude would ordinarily resemble an emergency maneuver used after a serious problem such as cabin depressurization.

“Losing like 15,000 feet in two or three minutes, that is something that you do in, like, an emergency descent when you lose pressure,” Barr said.

Barr noted that the aircraft’s successful landing was particularly important because investigators would now have access to the plane and its systems as they attempt to reconstruct exactly what occurred.

After touching down in Tabuk, passengers reportedly remained aboard while Saudi security forces surrounded the aircraft.

The incident also prompted an immediate response at the highest levels of the Israeli government.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened security consultations and cleared the remainder of his schedule while officials worked to determine whether the incident was connected to a broader security threat.

Israel’s airspace was temporarily closed before reopening after the Flydubai aircraft landed safely.

Flydubai subsequently acknowledged the diversion while stopping short of confirming the more serious allegations surrounding what happened inside the cockpit.

“Our teams are working closely with the relevant authorities,” the carrier said. “Further updates will be issued as additional confirmed details become available.”

The motive behind the reported cockpit attack remains under investigation.

Israeli officials are examining whether the episode could constitute a terror incident, while Flydubai has so far publicly confirmed only that an in-flight incident occurred, the aircraft diverted safely to Saudi Arabia and the passengers were safe.

Investigators must now determine what triggered the confrontation, exactly what happened between the two pilots and whether the incident was an isolated act or something more serious.