Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are currently leading the pack for their respective parties in the 2016 presidential race. But according to genealogical research website geni.com, the candidates, who agree on very little, may, in fact, be distant cousins.
When comparing both candidates' family trees, the two are revealed to have family ties from centuries past, with both Clinton and Trump being descendents of the 1st Duke of Lancaster.
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton Are Related – And This is How http://t.co/TKsEB0Nzz0
— Geni (@geni) August 25, 2015
"John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, married Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster, and John and Katherine are Donald and Hillary's shared 18th great grandparents," Extra reports.
Perhaps Trump and Clinton's shared interest in leadership can be traced back to their great-grandparents.
"Their 19th great grandfather is King Edward III so there is precedent for ruling a country, it's in their genes," researcher AJ Jacobs told Extra.
This isn't the first time a common ancestor has been found between political rivals. Back in 2007, former Vice President Dick Cheney and President Barack Obama turned out to be 8th cousins, as the former vice president's wife discovered while conducting her own research.
Of course, according to the most royal candidate theory, all US presidents can trace their linage back to King John Lackland Plantagenet. Discovered by a 12-year-old girl in 2012, the theory suggests that every US president, except for Martin Van Buren, can trace its ancestry to European royalty.
