Trump says he will miss son’s wedding to stay in DC during ‘important time’

Get Me to the Church on Time, sang Alfred Doolittle in the musical My Fair Lady. But for Donald Trump, attending a wedding is not simple – even when it’s that of his son.

The US president will not attend Donald Trump Jr’s nuptials, he confirmed on Friday, blaming “circumstances pertaining to Government, and my love for the United States of America”.

Offering the couple his congratulations, he wrote on his Truth Social platform: “I feel it is important for me to remain in Washington, D.C., at the White House during this important period of time.”

Trump first admitted that he might skip the occasion, reportedly taking place in the Bahamas over the upcoming Memorial Day weekend, on Thursday.

“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,” the president, sounding decidedly unenthusiastic, told a gathering of reporters in the Oval Office.

His excuse? A full in-tray, notably his war of choice in Iran. “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.’”

The conflagration in the Middle East has not prevented Trump from attending an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event in Miami and a PGA tour championship at his golf club in Doral, Florida, nor stopped him from playing several rounds of golf himself.

Don Jr, 48, is the president’s eldest child and has a complex relationship with his father. When Trump separated from Don Jr’s mother, Ivana, after having an affair with the model Marla Maples, the 12-year-old Don Jr reportedly did not speak to his father for a year. In more recent years Don Jr has emerged as a leading campaign surrogate for Trump and has even been touted as a potential political heir.

Don Jr’s first wedding, to the fashion model Vanessa Haydon in 2005, was held at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, and was officiated by Trump’s sister, Judge Maryanne Trump Barry. The marriage produced five children.

Don Jr got engaged to Kimberly Guilfoyle in 2020, but ended the relationship in 2024; Guilfoyle is now the US ambassador to Greece. Don Jr’s latest fiancee is Bettina Anderson, a 39-year-old socialite and model from a prominent banking family in Palm Beach.

They made their debut public appearance as a couple at Trump’s inauguration in January last year. But it does not appear they were tempted to follow the example of Tricia Nixon, daughter of Richard Nixon, who married in the White House Rose Garden in 1971.

As for Trump, he has seemingly been losing his political touch in recent weeks. Opinion polls show his approval rating at an all-time low. Asked recently if the economic impact of the Iran war was motivating him to reach a deal, he proclaimed: “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation.”

But even the president seems to understand that partying the night away in the Bahamas might be a bad look when millions of Americans are feeling the pain of rising gas prices and food costs.

“That’s one I can’t win on,” Trump mused at the Oval Office event, where viewers were distracted by a guest with a protruding belly button. “If I do attend, I get killed. If I don’t attend, I get killed – by the fake news, of course, I’m talking about. No, but he’s got a very – a person who I’ve known for a long time, and hopefully they’re going to have a great marriage.”

A day later, Trump decided it was better to be “killed” by family. He announced on his Truth Social platform that, “while I very much wanted to be” with the couple, “circumstances pertaining to Government, and my love for the United States of America, do not allow me to do so.”

Not that anyone is keeping score, but Trump was very present at his daughter Ivanka’s wedding to Jared Kushner at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, in 2009. “Ivanka and Jared’s wedding was spectacular, and they make a beautiful couple,” he wrote on what was then Twitter. “I’m a very proud father.”