Trump Jr wedding celebrations partly funded by Putin-linked Umar Kremlev

Newyork,UPDATED: Sep 15, 2026 00:10 IST

Donald Trump Jr's wife, Bettina Trump, said on Monday that two nights of celebrations after their May wedding were funded in part by Umar Kremlev, a man with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. In a post on Instagram signed by the couple, she described Kremlev as a "dear friend" who "very generously hosted two incredible nights of celebrations for us after our wedding".

Her statement came after ProPublica reported that the Bahamas wedding celebrations for Trump Jr and Bettina Anderson were heavily funded by Kremlev, a Russian oligarch who heads the Boxing Association. The outlet said Kremlev "footed the bill for hundreds of thousands of dollars of wedding expenses", including the rental of one of the two private islands used for the three-day event and a fireworks display.

In the Instagram post, Bettina Trump said the support was "an extraordinarily generous wedding gift from a friend, and something for which we were and remain incredibly grateful". She also said she and Trump Jr were married in a private ceremony "surrounded only by our family".

She said the weekend celebrations had been planned earlier as "a fun weekend with friends" and "it was never intended to be our wedding weekend". According to the post, when their original wedding plans changed, "we simply decided to get married before it and arrived at an already planned weekend as newlyweds". She added: "It's unfortunate that something so personal and happy can be recast as something political or sinister simply because of who someone is or where they come from. Friendship doesn't require a political motive. Generosity doesn't automatically come with an agenda. And sometimes a wedding gift is simply a wedding gift."

The disclosure comes as Russia remains at war after its invasion of Ukraine and as the president has failed to broker a promised peace deal between the two countries. According to the Boxing Association, Kremlev was recently honoured with Putin's Order of Friendship. ProPublica also cited Chinese state media as saying he accompanied Putin to China as part of a Russian delegation.

Trump Jr has previously faced scrutiny over his Russian ties. During the 2016 campaign, his meeting at Trump Tower with Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya was examined by federal and congressional investigators looking into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia to interfere in the election. The meeting had been presented as a chance to discuss potentially damaging information about Hillary Rodham Clinton as part of the Russian government's efforts to help Trump Jr's father win the White House. Taken together, Bettina Trump's statement and the ProPublica report centre on the funding of the post-wedding celebrations and the links of the man who helped pay for them.

With PTI Inputs

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