Donald Trump told reporters on May 21 that the war in Iran could keep him away from Donald Trump Jr. and Bettina Anderson’s Bahamas wedding this weekend, calling the situation “not good timing” and describing the impossible tradeoff he says he faces if he atte
For a weekend that was supposed to mark one of the biggest moments in his eldest son’s life, Donald Trump sounded like a man already weighing the fallout.
On May 21, the president told reporters that the ongoing war in Iran could prevent him from attending Donald Trump Jr. and Bettina Anderson’s wedding in the Bahamas this weekend. The private ceremony had already been pushed back earlier this year as the couple reportedly waited for the conflict to resolve.
The president’s attendance, he said, is still up in the air. “Ughhh, he’d like me to go,” Trump said, adding that it would be “just a small little private affair” and that he would “try and make it.”
Then came the conversation he says he had with his son. “I said: ‘You know, this is not good timing for me. I have a thing called Iran and other things,’” Trump said.
He also described the pressure he believes the situation puts him under. “That’s one I can’t win on,” he said. “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 … Hopefully they’re gonna have a great marriage.”
The president’s dilemma is tangled with his own decisions. Despite pledging to stay out of foreign affairs after winning the election, Trump ordered strikes on Iran on February 28. The conflict he expected to be short has since stretched toward its third month.
In that time, 13 U.S. service members have been killed. countless Iranians have died. and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has pushed gas prices to a national average of $4.56 a gallon. Trump’s approval on the economy has also hit record lows. with many Americans blaming the war for their financial strain.
When reporters asked about progress in the Strait, Trump said, “We want it open, we want it free, we don’t want tolls.” He added that he expects Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions and that he would not hesitate to strike the country again.
“We will get it. We don’t need it, we don’t want it. We’ll probably destroy it after we get it, but we’re not going to let them have it,” he said, referring to Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile, which the U.S. suspects is intended for weapons.
For Donald Trump, the wedding in the Bahamas remains a personal milestone running up against a war he ordered—and continues to frame as far from resolved.
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