Senator Thom Tillis called Donald Trump Jr.'s wedding gift from a Russian oligarch "stupid on stilts" on CNN Sunday morning, the fourth Republican senator in eight days to refuse to defend the Trump family's Russian money.
"This is a man who's worth somewhere between $300 million and $400 million," Tillis, the North Carolina Republican, told CNN. "You would think somebody would have gotten a memo of a bad look to have a Russian oligarch who's actually traveled in a delegation to Beijing to fund a wedding, and some sort of island wedding, for a very wealthy family that also happens to be related to the president of the United States." He called it "amateur hour."
The oligarch is Umar Kremlev, 43, who runs the International Boxing Association, the federation Gazprom finances. Putin pinned the Order of Friendship on him in April. In May, Kremlev rented a private island in the Bahamas at roughly $100,000 a night and paid about $70,000 for fireworks, two nights of parties after Trump Jr.'s wedding, ProPublica reported on September 14. Kremlev paid through a boxing-linked company in Dubai. Ukraine has sanctioned Kremlev. The United States has not.
Trump Jr. and his wife confirmed it that afternoon. "Our dear friend Umar very generously hosted two incredible nights of celebrations for us AFTER our wedding," she wrote on Instagram. "It was an extraordinarily generous wedding gift from a friend."
The president told a different story. Then another one.
