Russian Businessman With Putin Ties Paid for Donald Trump Jr.’s Wedding Party
The payments, totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars, represented an extraordinary flouting of ethical norms for an American president’s family member.
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The payments, totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars, represented an extraordinary flouting of ethical norms for an American president’s family member.
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· 6:25 min
Sept. 14, 2026
A Russian businessman with ties to the Kremlin paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to help finance Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding after-party in the Bahamas this year, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.
The payments represented an extraordinary flouting of ethical norms for an American president’s family.
To avoid foreign influence, a president’s family is generally expected to steer clear of these sorts of personal and pricey gifts, particularly from someone in a country like Russia, an adversary known to surreptitiously push its geopolitical agenda. The concern, ethics experts say, is that a foreign actor could ply a president’s family member with gifts and eventually expect something in return.
Mr. Trump, the president’s eldest son, accepted the gifts from Umar Kremlev, the president of the International Boxing Association, according to the people with knowledge of the matter. The payments, reported earlier by ProPublica, included the cost of renting a private island and a fireworks display.
Mr. Kremlev reportedly stood out at the after-party. Some of Mr. Trump’s guests questioned who he was and why he was there, according to one of the people with knowledge of the matter.
After ProPublica reported on Mr. Kremlev’s payments, Mr. Trump and his new wife, Bettina Trump, posted a statement to Instagram acknowledging the gifts.
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Originally published by nytimes.com. Syndicated material does not necessarily reflect the views of Glamour Canada.
