Hello from Rio, where I’m neck-deep in wedding planning. I was not prepared for how many hours (and brain cells and dollars!) I would find myself spending on a five-hour party eight months from now, especially considering all the varying apocalypses we’re being threatened with at once. My algorithm has become aware of my wedding and is suddenly teeming with unwanted wedding content, including first dance lift tutorials (no) and endless photos of the aesthetic choices other people made, which can feel very jarring alongside some of these terrifying headlines.
But today, other people’s wedding choices became the bad headline. Donald Trump Jr. and Palm Beach socialite Bettina Anderson, for some reason, decided to allow a Russian oligarch and alleged war criminal to pay for their lavish wedding in the Bahamas this weekend. ProPublica reported today that Umar Kremlev, a Vladimir Putin ally and relatively new “close friend” of Trump Jr.’s who’s been sanctioned for his involvement in the kidnapping and relocation of Ukrainian children, footed most of the bill for the wedding weekend. This included a two-day party on an ultra-exclusive private island and a fireworks show. Kremlev even appeared in the group photo, his little head poking out of the back row!
This raises so many questions. First: Why? Don Jr. is worth half a billion dollars thanks to his insider trading and could easily pay for a 50-person wedding himself. ProPublica reports that Don Jr. and Kremlev met only recently through their boxing connections, as Kremlev is the head of the International Boxing Association, and their “love for the outdoors.” But what obscenely wealthy man lets a new friend, or any friend, pay for his wedding? Especially when that friend is an incredibly sketchy Russian oligarch, and Don Jr.’s dad, the embattled sitting president, has fought for a decade to quiet both Russia collusion and child trafficking accusations and is supposedly trying to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. Just today, Trump was demanding that Ukraine stop bombing Russia’s oil refineries. Did the family not get together and discuss how it might look for one of them to accept a whole wedding as a gift from the Kremlin?
Don Jr. isn’t even disputing this reporting; he admits that Kremlev footed the bill and insists the wedding was just a no-strings-attached present from a pal. He and his new wife Bettina wrote this on Instagram today along with a carousel of wedding weekend photos: “It’s unfortunate that something so personal and happy can be recast as something political or sinister simply because of who someone is or where they come from. Friendship doesn’t require a political motive. Generosity doesn’t automatically come with an agenda. And sometimes a wedding gift is simply a wedding gift.”
Hilarious and delusional. Is this why big Trump didn’t attend his son’s wedding? Is this why little Trump has been on a year-long tirade against Zelenskyy and Ukraine, because he’s openly bought by Putin’s buddies? Are they just tired of hiding it at this point and know Trump’s supporters don’t give a shit who is bankrolling them?
A few years ago, Rachel Maddow was harassed into oblivion by the right and many on the left as well for propagating the so-called “Russia hoax,” though the facts very obviously spelled out ties between the Trump family and Russia. Trump admitted at the time that his son went to Russia under the guise of meeting about “Russian adoptions”—which looks extra creepy in retrospect—and actually went to collect dirt about Hillary Clinton. Everything Trump has done in his presidency has somehow benefitted Russia and Putin and damaged the United States and the EU. And now a Russian thug is literally paying for his son’s wedding?
Meanwhile a spokesperson for Eric Trump, who was at this intimate wedding with Kremlev on an island for several days, had the funniest possible thing to say when asked about the oligarch funding his brother’s wedding: “Eric has absolutely no clue who this person is, nor has never heard his name.” LMAO.