President Donald Trump will not attend the wedding of his eldest son to socialite Bettina Anderson this weekend in the Bahamas.
Donald Trump Jr., 48, and Anderson, 39, will have a small ceremony attended by friends and family—not including the president, who will instead take plenty of “executive time” at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, according to the White House Press Pool report.
Two people familiar with the plans also confirmed to CNN that the president would not be attending. Trump was “long expected” not to attend, one of the sources noted.
Despite Donald’s absence, other members of the Trump family are expected to attend, the sources said.
When asked earlier Thursday about his plans, Trump, 79, said the timing was difficult.
“He’d like me to go, but it’s going to be just a small little private affair, and I’m going to try and make it,” he told reporters.
“I said: ‘You know, this is not good timing for me. I have a thing called Iran and other things,’” Trump said. “That’s 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… Hopefully they’re going to have a great marriage.”
Trump also referred to his son as someone he has “known for a long time”—an odd remark that drew mockery.
Trump Jr. and Anderson initially showed interest in having a White House wedding—once the war in Iran had concluded. But with no end to the conflict in sight, they decided to set a date for the occasion to take place elsewhere.
Trump Jr.’s first marriage was to Vanessa Trump (née Pergolizzi). They exchanged vows in 2005 at Mar-a-Lago, where his father and Melania had married months earlier. The future president attended that occasion, as did his ex-wife, Ivana Trump.
Four years later, Trump was present when his daughter, Ivanka, married Jared Kushner at his Bedminster club.
In 2014, the president’s younger son, Eric Trump, married Lara Trump (née Yunaska) at Mar-a-Lago, with his father in attendance.
Most recently, in November 2022, the then-former president and ex-wife Marla Maples oversaw Tiffany Trump’s wedding to Michael Boulos, also at Mar-a-Lago.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.
