Donald Trump claimed that his son paid back a Russian oligarch for bankrolling some of his extravagant wedding weekend, but the president couldn’t quite keep his story straight.
A bombshell report published by ProPublica on Monday revealed that Vladimir Putin ally Umar Kremlev paid for parts of Donald Trump Jr.’s ultra-lavish three-day wedding weekend in the Bahamas in May.
His wife, Bettina Trump, then confirmed the report when she insisted in an Instagram post that the Russian oligarch, whom she called a “dear friend,” had paid for some of the weekend but not the actual ceremony.
The president, 80, was asked in the Oval Office on Friday whether it was appropriate for his eldest son to accept such a gift. Trump rushed to defend his family, but also contradicted himself when he said his son paid the money back.
“It’s totally allowed, and a lot of people have parties and all, but it’s totally allowed,” Trump said. “But as I understand it, he paid him back. He didn’t want to have that, so I hear he paid him back.”
Moments later, Trump said he didn’t just “hear” his son paid the Russian oligarch back, but that Donald Trump Jr. had told him directly he would pay it back.
“I actually heard that when I heard the story, I asked about it. He said, ‘No, I’m paying him back, dad,’” Trump claimed. “So that was a while ago, so I heard he’s paid him.”
The Daily Beast asked a representative of Donald Trump Jr. to clarify whether he had paid the money back and, if so, how much, but did not receive an immediate response.
Trump’s claim came after his new daughter-in-law wrote on Instagram this week, defending letting Kremlev pay for some of her wedding festivities as a gift.
“Our dear friend Umar very generously hosted two incredible nights of celebrations for us AFTER our wedding,” she wrote on Monday. “It was an extraordinarily generous wedding gift from a friend, and something for which we were and remain incredibly grateful.”
According to the ProPublica report, Kremlev paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for the weekend, including for big-ticket items like a fireworks display and renting one of the private islands where guests slept.
Kremlev, the head of the International Boxing Association, which is financed by Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom, also attended the wedding festivities along with Trump’s other children Eric, Ivanka, and Tiffany, as well as their spouses.
The president did not attend the wedding, nor did Melania or Barron.
While the president on Friday claimed his son told him the money had been repaid, in a statement to the Daily Beast earlier this week, the president made no mention of it.
“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 [sic],” read a statement emailed by the White House’s press office. “It was an ‘after-party’ given in their honor. Not a big deal! I was not present at the party.”
The revelation that a close ally of Putin bankrolled and attended the wedding weekend of the president’s eldest son has raised national security concerns on Capitol Hill. Democrats launched an investigation and have demanded answers from both the eldest Trump child and the White House.
On Friday, Republican Senator John Curtis called an oligarch paying for the president’s son’s wedding after-party “corruption,” and said he would have more to say about it in the future, calling it a “big deal.”
While Trump insisted his son had told him he was paying Kremlev back, the president also insisted his 48-year-old son hadn’t done anything wrong by accepting the oligarch’s wedding “gift” in the first place.
“A person they knows [sic] pretty—I guess a friend of his—gave him a wedding party. That’s very common. I’ve heard of many people giving wedding parties,” Trump said. “I don’t know, maybe he didn’t do a background check, but I’ve given, I’ve given wedding parties for numerous people. They get married. I give them a party. I give them parties at beautiful places like Mar-a-Lago and others.”
“With all of that said, I understand that Don’s paid him back,” Trump said.
