President Donald Trump on Friday defended his son’s recent wedding party being partially bankrolled by a Russian oligarch, but also said he’d been told the money would be paid back.
ProPublica first reported this week that Umar Kremlev, who has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, helped pay to rent a private island and for a fireworks show when Donald Trump Jr. and socialite Bettina Anderson were married in the Bahamas in May. “It’s totally allowed.
And a lot of people have parties and all,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, before adding, “But, as I understand it, he paid them back. He also said, “I hear he paid them back” without elaborating. In the post, Bettina Trump said she and the president’s son were married in a private ceremony “surrounded ONLY by our family.”
Still, the president – who did not attend the wedding, saying at the time he was too busy – defended Kremlev’s involvement as part of the festivities.
Without providing details he said of his son, “a person that he knows – I guess a friend of his – gave him a wedding party. “That’s very common,” Trump said, adding, “I’ve given wedding parties to numerous people,” while also seeming to suggest that there was no background check done for these kinds of gifts. “With all of that being said, I understand that Don’s paying him back,” Trump said. ProPublica reported that the wedding was heavily funded by Kremlev, including that he “footed the bill for hundreds of thousands of dollars” in expenses like renting out one of two private islands where the three-day party was held. Earlier reporting noted: US President Donald Trump said Friday that his eldest son had reimbursed a Kremlin-linked Russian businessman who paid for two days of wedding celebrations in the Bahamas. Earlier reporting noted: “It’s totally allowed and a lot of people have parties… but as I understand it, he paid him back,” Trump said when an AFP reporter asked him in the Oval Office if it had been appropriate for Donald Trump Jr. to accept the gift.
