Bill Kristol: It Always Comes Back to Trump/Russia

Donald Trump Jr.’s second wedding was paid for by a Russian oligarch named Umar Kremlev—the head of a scandal-plagued boxing organization, a close Putin ally, and a man whose “Healthy Fatherland” foundation is under Ukrainian sanctions for its alleged role in abducting Ukrainian children and relocating them under the guise of rehabilitation. Only 50 people attended. Eric Trump says he has never heard of Kremlev. Bill Kristol, joining Tim Miller on The Bulwark Daily, calls the revelation “astonishing and routine” at the same time: yet another Putin-associated grift, but also slightly more appalling than the regular grift because it is so tightly woven into the family’s inner circle.

The Kremlin connection that keeps coming back

Kristol’s central argument is that the Trump-Russia story was never a one-off scandal; it is a structural feature of the Trump family’s operations. The wedding payment is just the latest data point in a pattern that includes Jared Kushner’s mediation in the Ukraine war, Trump’s public criticism of Zelensky, and the administration’s refusal to confront China for aiding Iran. Kristol sees the family enterprise as the coherent thread: “The only coherent story is the oligarchy and the corruption,” he says. “It’s not like old-fashioned corruption where people just steal money from taxpayers. It’s all with dictators and really horrific enterprises.”