'It just stinks': Utah senator calls out Russian oligarch who paid for Trump Jr's wedding party

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Sen. John Curtis said a wedding after-party for President Donald Trump's son that was financed by a Russian oligarch was "corruption."
Umar Kremlev secretly paid for an after-party in the Bahamas where Donald Trump, Jr. was celebrating his May wedding.
Curtis called the payments "a big deal"; Trump said his son paid the Russian oligarch back.

SALT LAKE CITY — Sen. John Curtis, a Republican from Utah, said a wedding after-party for President Donald Trump's son that was financed by a Russian oligarch was "corruption."

"It just stinks," Curtis said in a social media video posted late Friday. "It's corruption. I don't like it."

ProPublica reported last week that Umar Kremlev, an oligarch with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, secretly paid for an after-party in the Bahamas where Donald Trump, Jr. was celebrating his May wedding.

Kremlev paid to rent out a private island, paid for a fireworks show and helped plan the event, covering hundreds of thousands of dollars of wedding expenses, according to the report.

"I want to be careful because I don't want to just talk about this passively," Curtis continued. "You'll hear more from me later on. This is a big deal."

He did not provide further details about that. The same day that Curtis released his video, President Donald Trump defended the party and said his son had paid Kremlev back.

"It's totally allowed, and a lot of people have parties and all, but it's totally allowed," Trump told reporters. "But as I understand it, he paid him back. He didn't want to have that, so I hear he paid him back."

"A person that he knows, I guess a friend of his, gave him a wedding party," the president added. "That's very common. I've heard of many people given wedding parties."

President Trump did not attend his son's wedding festivities in May. Several weeks later, Donald Trump Jr. and his new wife, Bettina Anderson, came to Utah to attend several days of the preliminary hearing of Tyler Robinson, who's accused of shooting and killing political activist Charlie Kirk last year.

Donald Trump Jr. and his wife Bettina Anderson look at each other at Deerfield Residence, Saturday, Sept. 12, in Dublin. (Photo: Julia Demaree Nikhinson, Associated Press)

Curtis is not the first Republican senator to criticize the wedding payments. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-North Carolina, said it was "beyond bad." Tillis is not seeking reelection, while Curtis is not up for reelection until 2030.

A spokesperson for Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the controversy.

Curtis, who was elected to the Senate in 2024 after serving several years in the U.S. House of Representatives, has occasionally spoken out against Trump during his second term, unlike many other GOP members of Congress. Yet, he also regularly votes in support of Trump and his policies.

The Utah senator's comments on Friday came as part of his weekly video highlighting the "highs" and "lows" of Washington, D.C. In addition to calling out the wedding party, Curtis bemoaned soaring gas prices and rising interest rates.

"The Fed raised interest rates a quarter of a point because inflation has worsened," Curtis said. "I think we all have to admit that."

His high of the week was a committee unanimously advancing his Wildfire Emissions Prevention Act, which he said would make it easier for states to conduct prescribed burns to prevent wildfires.

Curtis said the bill was an example of the type of bipartisan legislation "you want to see more of from us here in Washington."

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