So let me get this straight. The son of the President of the United States, a man Forbes says is worth $300 million, had his wedding secretly paid for by a Russian oligarch who hangs around Vladimir Putin. And we’re supposed to believe this is just “a personal friend.”
Donald Trump Jr. married Bettina Anderson on a private island in the Bahamas. Three days. Two private islands. Helicopters, seaplanes, a five-tier cake flown in from Florida, dancers in sailor caps, fireworks from a barge. The kind of party that makes a Monaco casino night look like a church potluck.
And who picked up the tab? Umar Kremlev. Head of the International Boxing Association, an outfit so dirty it gets bankrolled by Gazprom, the Russian state energy giant. A man Putin personally gave the Order of Friendship. A man the Ukrainian government sanctioned for being too close to Putin and Russian intelligence. A man who was in China as part of Putin’s traveling circle just days before the wedding.
That’s who bought your president’s son a wedding.
The money moved through a Dubai shell tied to the boxing association. Hundreds of thousands of dollars. Island rental, fireworks, planning, the whole production. ProPublica has the records. Trump Jr.’s own spokesperson didn’t deny it. Just said Kremlev is “a personal friend” and they “bonded over their love of boxing and the outdoors.”
Bonded over boxing. Sure. That’s what you say when a Putin-connected oligarch drops a fortune on your wedding and you can’t think of a better explanation.
Here’s what gets me. Fifty guests. “Really small, just really close friends,” Trump Jr. said on his podcast. Except some of those close friends were a large group of Russians who stood off by themselves speaking Russian, puzzling the actual friends and family who were there. One attendee recalled thinking, “What are they doing here?” Good question. The kind of question nobody in charge ever seems to answer.