Donald Trump Jr.and his wife, Bettina Trump, acknowledged Monday that a Russian oligarch with ties to President Vladimir Putin paid for their lavish Caribbean island post-wedding celebration in May.ProPublica reported that Umar Kremlev paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in wedding-related expenses for the newlyweds and dozens of guests for festivities on a private island in the Bahamas that started a day after the ceremony.
The festivities included a fireworks show, which ProPublica reported Kremlev also paid for.“Our dear friend Umar very generously hosted two incredible nights of celebrations for us AFTER our wedding.It was an extraordinarily generous wedding gift from a friend, and something for which we were and remain incredibly grateful,” according to a post on Bettina Trump’s Instagram page, which was signed “Don & Bettina.”It’s unclear why a member of the Trump family — who has made hundreds of millions of dollars during the first year of his father’s second term, some of it from cryptocurrency ventures that have involved foreign investments — would accept a gift from someone so closely aligned with Putin.President Donald Trump, who did not attend the wedding or the celebration, told NBC News in a statement that it was “not a big deal.”“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.
It was an ‘afterparty’ given in their honor.Not a big deal! I was not present at the party,” the statement said.The top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Robert Garcia of California, said on X that Kremlev, who has been sanctioned by the Ukrainian government, “spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the President’s son.
What did he get in return? We need answers.”On her Instagram page, Bettina Trump said the island vacation, which included other members of the Trump family, had “...