The couple’s statement came with 20 photographs from the weekend. The man who paid for the fireworks appears in none of them.
WASHINGTON—Asked about a ProPublica investigation into Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding celebrations in the Bahamas, the president and his son Eric Trump said they had never heard of Umar Kremlev, the Russian oligarch who paid hundreds of thousands of dollars toward the celebrations and attended them alongside Eric Trump.
Kremlev paid to rent the second of two private islands used in May, where the couple had their first dance and where guests slept, according to records reviewed by ProPublica and three people familiar with the event. That island can rent for around $100,000 a night. He also covered the fireworks launched from a barge on the last night, put on by a company that charges around $70,000 for such a show. The payments came from IB Challenger, a Dubai entity affiliated with the International Boxing Association, which Kremlev leads.
Neither Trump Jr. nor his wife has disputed the payments. A statement posted Monday to Bettina Trump’s Instagram account and signed “Don & Bettina” said the weekend “was never intended to be our wedding weekend” and that “our dear friend Umar very generously hosted two incredible nights of celebrations for us AFTER our wedding.” It described those nights as “an extraordinarily generous wedding gift from a friend,” adding that “friendship doesn’t require a political motive” and that “generosity doesn’t automatically come with an agenda.” The statement went on: “And sometimes a wedding gift is simply a wedding gift.” Newswax reported last week on an inspector general’s finding that at least five gifts to a former labor secretary, among them a scarf and some cowboy hats, appear nowhere in department records.
Who in the Family Has Heard of Umar Kremlev
Trump Jr. shared a stage with Kremlev at the association’s Sport + Business Forum in Istanbul in September 2025. “I am proud to call Umar not only a leader but a friend,” he said at the time. His spokesperson told ProPublica that “Umar is a personal friend of Don,” and that the two met through a mutual friend in the hunting world. Kremlev’s press office dated their first meeting to “a couple of years ago.”
A spokesperson for Eric Trump offered a different account. “Eric has absolutely no clue who this person is, nor has never heard his name,” the spokesperson told ProPublica. The guest list ran to around 50 people, according to the investigation, and included Eric Trump, Kremlev and Jared Kushner, who has been helping lead the government’s negotiations with Russia over Ukraine. Kremlev skipped the ceremony itself, an 18-guest affair held on the first day, according to Trump Jr.’s spokesperson.
A Different Day From the Wedding
The president, who did not attend, addressed the timeline in a statement Monday evening. “I have no idea who Umar is, never heard of him, and he didn’t pay for Don and Bettina’s wedding, which took place at a totally different location, and on a different day from the wedding,” the statement said. “It was an ‘afterparty’ given in their honor. Not a big deal! I was not present at the party.” The ceremony was held on a private island that appeared in the 2006 James Bond film “Casino Royale,” according to ProPublica. The totally different location was a second private island nearby.
Umar Kremlev has written to the president before. In January 2025, shortly after the inauguration, he sent Trump an open letter asking him to look into the International Olympic Committee’s actions before the 2028 Los Angeles Games. The committee had stripped his association of its role running Olympic boxing two years earlier. “We look forward with great optimism to the possibility of working together to make the Olympic movement great again,” the letter said.
Trump Jr. has emphasized the event’s privacy. On his podcast, “Triggered,” he later described it as “really small, like, just really close friends,” and said of the guests that “if you’re on that list, you weren’t talking.” None of the photos and videos the Trumps have released since May show the Russian guests, according to ProPublica, though the top of Kremlev’s head is visible at the back of one group photo posted by a friend of the bride. Monday’s statement went up with 20 photographs. Kremlev is not pictured in any of them.
More Joint Initiatives Will Follow
In April, a month before the wedding, Vladimir Putin awarded Umar Kremlev the Order of Friendship, a Russian state honor. The Ukrainian government has sanctioned him personally, citing his closeness to Putin and to Russian security services. He does not appear on public U.S. sanctions lists. His association has been financed by Gazprom, the Russian state-owned energy company, though his press office told ProPublica that the sponsorship contract “expired long ago.”
A few of Trump Jr.’s closest business partners also made the guest list, including executives from World Liberty Financial, the Trump family’s cryptocurrency company, and from the venture capital firm 1789 Capital. Forbes has estimated Trump Jr.’s net worth at roughly $300 million. “If I’m paying for your wedding, at some point, you’re going to owe me something,” Frank Montoya Jr., a retired FBI official who held senior counterintelligence roles, told ProPublica.
After the Istanbul forum, the boxing association issued a release saying its president and Trump Jr. had made clear that their alliance “will not remain symbolic.” It went on: “More joint initiatives will follow, uniting continents, generations, and industries under one bold vision.” Umar Kremlev’s press office told ProPublica that he “has never discussed political matters with any of his American friends and acquaintances.” It was not immediately clear which of the two categories includes Eric Trump.
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