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Trump Jr wedding: Why Donald Trump says his son will repay Russian oligarch
Trump says his son Donald Trump Jr. will pay back a wealthy Russian businessman who covered the cost of his wedding parties in the Bahamas, after Democrats opened an investigation into the payments.
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Trump says his son Donald Trump Jr. will pay back a wealthy Russian businessman who covered the cost of his wedding parties in the Bahamas, after Democrats opened an investigation into the payments.
4 min readSep 19, 2026 02:49 PM IST First published on: Sep 19, 2026 at 12:27 PM IST
US President Donald Trump and son Eric Trump. (Photo: AP)
US President Donald Trump says his son, Donald Trump Jr., has told him he plans to pay back a Russian businessman who covered the cost of his wedding celebrations in the Bahamas back in May.
Trump shared this with reporters on Friday, just days after Democrats in the US Congress opened an investigation into reports that a Russian oligarch had quietly bankrolled the festivities.
Who paid for the wedding parties, and Why is it a problem?
The man at the centre of the story is Umar Kremlev, a wealthy Russian businessman who also heads the International Boxing Association. Reports say he paid several hundred thousand dollars towards wedding celebrations for Trump Jr.
ProPublica first reported the disclosure, saying Kremlev spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the celebrations, including renting one of two private islands where guests stayed and staging a fireworks display. The report was based on financial records and interviews with people familiar with the event.
The couple later confirmed Kremlev’s involvement. In an Instagram statement reported by Associated Press, Bettina Trump described Kremlev as a “dear friend” who had “very generously hosted two incredible nights of celebrations” after their wedding. She called it an “extraordinarily generous wedding gift from a friend”.
Donald Trump Jr.'s Relationship With Umar Kremlev In September 2025, Donald Trump Jr., the sitting president’s son, appeared onstage in Istanbul with Umar Kremlev, a Putin-linked Russian oligarch who runs the International Boxing Association. This was not a random encounter or… https://t.co/uqnnGqL0tS pic.twitter.com/WF41mXfxQD— Resolute Titan (@ResoluteTitan88) September 15, 2026
According to Trump, he asked his son directly about the reports. He said his son replied simply that he was paying the money back, and that Trump himself had since heard the repayment was underway.
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A person close to the situation also confirmed to Reuters that Don Jr. does intend to reimburse Kremlev.
How has Trump himself reacted to the story?
Trump didn’t attend his son’s wedding. Earlier in the week, he said in a statement that he doesn’t personally know Kremlev, and brushed off the controversy as no big deal.
On Friday, he pointed out that he himself has thrown wedding parties for plenty of people over the years at grand venues, including his own Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida. As he put it, when people get married, he sometimes gives them a party and, with that in mind, he said he understood his son had already paid Kremlev back.
What has Kremlev or Don Jr.’s Wife said about it?
Kremlev and the International Boxing Association hadn’t responded to requests for comment by late Friday.
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Don Jr.’s wife, Bettina Trump, addressed the matter herself earlier in the week. In an Instagram post on Monday, she described Kremlev as a friend who gave them an extremely generous wedding gift. She was keen to point out that he paid for two after-parties, not the wedding ceremony itself.
Trump has confirmed his son is repaying the Russian businessman who funded his wedding celebrations, but the story is unlikely to fade quickly. Democrats’ investigation into Kremlev’s Kremlin ties and his financial links to the Trump family is still ongoing.
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