Don Jr. smacked by vicious reminder on CNN as his camp blasts ex’s ‘embarrassing’ scandal

CNN anchor Dana Bash on Friday turned the cash-for-access allegations against Kimberly Guilfoyle back on Donald Trump Jr., reminding viewers that a Russian oligarch helped pay for his wedding celebrations.

The jab came after White House correspondent Betsy Klein reported that allies of President Donald Trump and of Trump Jr., Guilfoyle’s former fiancé, see the episode as “embarrassing.” Guilfoyle is now the U.S. ambassador to Greece.

Bash called it “interesting that Don Jr. says this is embarrassing,” noting that his wedding was “paid for at least at the time in part by a Russian.”

“It’s all very interesting,” Bash said. “Let’s just leave it there.”

ProPublica reported last month that Umar Kremlev, a Russian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin, footed hundreds of thousands of dollars in bills for the festivities around Trump Jr.’s May wedding to Bettina Anderson in the Bahamas. Anderson called it “an extraordinarily generous wedding gift from a friend.” Republican Sen. John Curtis of Utah later urged the Senate Judiciary Committee to subpoena Trump Jr. Kremlev said this week that Trump Jr. had paid him back, adding that he didn’t understand why.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Guilfoyle asked Eric Deters, a Kentucky Trump donor, to wire $100,000 toward her American Express bill shortly before her July 2025 confirmation hearing.

“It won’t show up anywhere if you wire money to American Express,” she allegedly wrote. Deters never sent the money, and he told CNN’s Jake Tapper there was “no question” it was a quid pro quo.

Guilfoyle’s attorney, Jesse Binnall, said she disputes the messages' authenticity. CBS News reported, citing sources, that White House officials were told the texts are real.

Separately, the Daily Mail reported that the State Department’s inspector general is now investigating her tenure in Athens. Binnall has said that “any implication of wrongdoing by the Ambassador is unsupported.”