Donald Trump Jr.’s destination wedding to Palm Beach socialite Bettina Anderson this Memorial Day weekend will be missing its most notable invitee: his father.
President Donald Trump announced Friday that he will not be attending his eldest son’s wedding, which is reportedly taking place in the Bahamas this weekend, citing “circumstances pertaining to Government” and his “love for the United States of America.”
“While I very much wanted to be with my son, Don Jr., and the newest member of the Trump Family, his soon to be wife, Bettina, circumstances pertaining to Government, and my love for the United States of America, do not allow me to do so,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
“I feel it is important for me to remain in Washington, D.C., at the White House during this important period of time,” the president said, before congratulating his son on his impending nuptials.
The New York Times reported Friday that Trump Jr. and Anderson were married on Thursday in West Palm Beach, Fla., citing Palm Beach County marriage records, and that a larger event reportedly would be held in the Bahamas.
On Thursday, the father of the groom cited the increasingly unpopular Iran war as the reason he might not be watching his son tie the knot. The Middle East conflict has tanked Trump’s approval ratings in recent polling as Americans grapple with the rising cost of gas caused mainly by Iran’s enduring closure of the crucial oil choke point, the Strait of Hormuz.
“I’m in the midst — I said: ‘You know, this is not good timing for me. I have a thing called Iran and other things,’” Trump told reporters Thursday in the Oval Office in response to a question about whether he would attend.
The president painted the dilemma as “one I can’t win on.”
“If I do attend, I get killed. If I don’t attend, I get killed, by the fake news, of course,” Trump said.
The president’s acknowledgement of the uneasy political situation he has found himself in is a departure from his handling of past partisan binds.
During the longest federal government shutdown in the country’s history, which left thousands of federal workers without pay ahead of the 2025 holiday season, Trump made multiple golf trips to his Florida properties. He also hosted a Great Gatsby-inspired Halloween party at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach hours before federal funding for critical food assistance programs was set to expire.
But this time around, he says he is drawing the line at his son’s wedding. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters Friday that indirect negotiations between the U.S. and Iran to end the war had “a little bit of movement, and that’s good.”
Trump enthusiastically announced Trump Jr.’s engagement at a White House holiday party in December.
Trump Jr. was married to Vanessa Trump, with whom he shares five children, for more than a decade and was briefly engaged to Kimberly Guilfoyle. Trump appointed Guilfoyle as U.S. ambassador to Greece after the engagement ended.
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