Trump has skirted concerns about corruption. Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding could change that.

Cathal McNaughton/Reuters

President Donald Trump has spent the last 20-plus months thumbing his nose at conflicts of interest .

He, his family and his businesses have used his power to enrich themselves to the tune of billions of dollars — and rather openly so .

And yet, corruption isn’t generally considered to be among Trump’s biggest political problems.

But Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding could be changing that dynamic somewhat — to the point where even some Republican senators are finding the stench difficult to ignore.

And there is increasing reason to believe this could be a significant subplot of Trump’s presidency moving forward — especially if Democrats retake one or both chambers of Congress.

To recap: ProPublica reported last week that Russian oligarch Umar Kremlev, who is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses for parts of Trump Jr.’s wedding celebration in the Bahamas in May.

Trump Jr.’s wife soon confirmed in a statement from her and Trump Jr. that their “dear friend Umar very generously hosted two incredible nights of celebrations for us AFTER our wedding,” while downplaying the idea that there was anything amiss with the arrangement.

But it’s difficult to see how accepting such a large personal gift from a close ally of an adversarial foreign leader wouldn’t be problematic — especially given how weirdly solicitous Trump has often been with that foreign leader.

Thickening the plot was a comment to ProPublica from a spokesperson for the president’s other son, Eric Trump, saying, “Eric has absolutely no clue who this person is, nor has never heard his name.” (Attorney General Todd Blanche also said the president “doesn’t know who this person is.”)

How on earth could Kremlev be so close to Trump Jr. that the Kremlin-connected businessman paying large sums for parts of Trump Jr.’s wedding celebration expenses is no big deal — but also that he’s completely unknown to Trump Jr.’s brother and business partner?

That would seem to be among the valid questions here. And the big news this week is that even some Senate Republicans are starting to ask them.

Sen. John Curtis of Utah got the ball rolling. After flatly labeling the arrangement “corruption” last week, he on Tuesday sent a letter requesting an investigation by the Senate Judiciary Committee and a subpoena for Trump Jr.

(The letter also called for more investigation of former President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden — though the House already investigated him extensively in its impeachment probe last Congress.)

And now three other Senate Republicans have signaled varying degrees of support for the idea of a Trump Jr. probe:

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said he “would support Sen. Curtis’ request.” (The president helped defeat Cornyn in a primary runoff in May.)

Retiring Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said he would have no problem with a probe and called Kremlev’s involvement “colossally bad judgment, at best.”

Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska told the AP of Curtis: “I’m glad he said what he said.”

And all of this comes after Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana — who like Cornyn lost his primary to a Trump-backed challenger — told CBS’ “Face the Nation” last weekend that the gift was “wrong” and said the “ appearance of it is really bad .”

Not all of these comments are as gung-ho about investigating the matter as Curtis’. Tillis suggested the limited Senate calendar ahead of the 2026 midterm elections made such a probe impractical, while Cassidy indicated he was somewhat mollified by President Trump’s claim that Trump Jr. had repaid Kremlev . (Though even Cassidy acknowledged that was unverified.)

Curtis also signaled Wednesday that others more quietly share his concerns, saying it’s his “responsibility to say what others are thinking” and adding that includes both his colleagues and constituents.

It’s virtually unthinkable that the GOP-controlled Senate would investigate the president’s son. That might have happened in decades past, but it would be extremely provocative with Trump and risk open internal warfare in the GOP.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley was noncommittal about a probe on Tuesday, while other GOP senators like Ohio’s Bernie Moreno and Indiana’s Jim Banks have defended Trump Jr.

“The last Russia hoax cost this country years of progress,” Banks said on X. “We are not doing it again over a private citizen’s wedding.”

But the comments from the other senators do at least legitimize the issue and could matter if Democrats win control of a chamber of Congress — a victory that would come with subpoena power and the chance to press the issue.

One of Democrats’ dilemmas if they get that power will be choosing precisely what to focus on. The first two years of the Trump administration have provided a bevy of potential investigative targets . But pursuing lots of them would risk failing to train the public’s attention on any of them.

Some of the other attractive targets for Democrats would seem to be:

Trump accepting a new jet from Qatar that he’s using as Air Force One despite security concerns , and planning to transfer it to his personal library after he leaves office.

Trump making more than $1 billion off of cryptocurrency as he returned to power.

Trump’s social media company selling early access to his market-moving social media posts in ways that give those who pay a strategic advantage over regular Americans.

Trump repeatedly promoting companies on social media just days after buying their stock, as a CNN investigation showed.

The Trump family’s overseas business deals and their proximity to official US government actions .

Investigating any of these issues could force uncomfortable questions that Republicans have largely been able to skirt, thanks to the breakneck pace of Trump’s second term.

Where the Trump Jr. wedding story differs is how simple and easy to understand it is. And apparently even some members of the president’s party are pretty concerned about it.

卡塔尔·麦克诺顿/路透社

在过去的20多个月里，唐纳德·特朗普总统一直对利益冲突嗤之以鼻。

他、他的家人和他的企业利用他的权力，为自己敛财数十亿美元——而且是明目张胆地敛财。

然而，腐败通常并不被认为是特朗普最大的政治问题之一。

但小唐纳德·特朗普的婚礼可能会在某种程度上改变这种局面——甚至一些共和党参议员也觉得这种丑闻难以忽视。

越来越多的理由相信，这可能是特朗普总统任期内的一个重要副线剧情——尤其是在民主党重新掌控国会两院或其中一院的情况下。

回顾一下：ProPublica 上周报道称，与俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京关系密切的俄罗斯寡头乌马尔·克里姆列夫为小特朗普 5 月份在巴哈马举行的婚礼庆典支付了数十万美元的部分费用。

小特朗普的妻子很快在她和小特朗普的一份声明中证实，“亲爱的朋友乌玛尔非常慷慨地在我们婚礼后为我们举办了两晚精彩的庆祝活动”，同时淡化了安排上有任何不妥之处的说法。

但很难想象接受敌对外国领导人的亲密盟友赠送的如此巨额的私人礼物不会有问题——尤其考虑到特朗普经常对这位外国领导人表现出的异常殷勤。

令案情更加扑朔迷离的是，总统的另一个儿子埃里克·特朗普的发言人向ProPublica表示：“埃里克完全不知道这个人是谁，也从未听说过他的名字。”（司法部长托德·布兰奇也表示，总统“不知道这个人是谁”。）

克里姆林列夫究竟是如何与小特朗普关系如此密切的？这位与克里姆林宫有联系的商人为小特朗普的婚礼庆典支付巨额费用，这难道不是一件大事吗？但与此同时，小特朗普的兄弟兼商业伙伴却对他一无所知。

这似乎是这里值得探讨的问题之一。而本周最大的新闻是，甚至一些参议院共和党人也开始提出这些问题了。

犹他州参议员约翰·柯蒂斯率先采取行动。上周他直言不讳地将这种安排称为“腐败”，周二他致信参议院司法委员会，要求对此事展开调查，并向小特朗普发出传票。

（信中还呼吁对前总统乔·拜登的儿子亨特·拜登进行更多调查——尽管众议院在上届国会的弹劾调查中已经对他进行了广泛的调查。）

现在，另有三名共和党参议员也表示不同程度地支持对小特朗普展开调查的想法：

德克萨斯州参议员约翰·科宁表示，他“将支持柯蒂斯参议员的请求”。（总统在五月份的党内初选决胜轮中帮助击败了科宁。）

即将退休的北卡罗来纳州参议员汤姆·蒂利斯表示，他不会反对进行调查，并称克里姆林宫的介入“往好了说是极其糟糕的判断”。

阿拉斯加州参议员丽莎·穆尔科斯基告诉美联社记者，柯蒂斯“很高兴他说了那些话”。

此前，路易斯安那州参议员比尔·卡西迪（他和科宁一样，在初选中输给了特朗普支持的挑战者）上周末在哥伦比亚广播公司“面对国家”节目中表示，这份礼物是“错误的”，并称“它看起来真的很糟糕”。

并非所有评论都像柯蒂斯那样热衷于调查此事。蒂利斯认为，鉴于2026年中期选举前参议院议程有限，这样的调查并不实际；而卡西迪则表示，特朗普总统声称小特朗普已偿还克里姆林宫的款项，这让他稍稍安心了一些。（尽管卡西迪也承认这一说法未经证实。）

柯蒂斯周三也暗示，其他人也私下里表达了同样的担忧，他说，他“有责任说出别人的想法”，并补充说，这包括他的同事和选民。

共和党掌控的参议院调查总统之子几乎是不可想象的。这种事在几十年前或许会发生，但对特朗普而言，这将极具挑衅性，并可能引发共和党内部的公开冲突。

参议院司法委员会主席查克·格拉斯利周二对是否展开调查不置可否，而其他共和党参议员，如俄亥俄州的伯尼·莫雷诺和印第安纳州的吉姆·班克斯则为小特朗普辩护。

“上次的‘通俄门’骗局让这个国家损失了多年的发展成果，”班克斯在X频道上说。“我们不会为了一个普通公民的婚礼而重蹈覆辙。”

但其他参议员的评论至少使这个问题合法化，如果民主党赢得国会的一个议院的控制权，这可能会产生影响——这场胜利将带来传唤权和推动该问题的机会。

如果民主党人掌握权力，他们面临的难题之一是如何精准地选择调查重点。特朗普执政的头两年提供了大量潜在的调查目标。但如果调查范围过广，可能会导致公众的注意力无法集中到任何一个目标上。

民主党人其他一些颇具吸引力的目标似乎包括：

尽管存在安全隐患，特朗普还是接受了卡塔尔赠送的一架新飞机，并将其用作空军一号。他还计划在卸任后将这架飞机移交给他的私人图书馆。

特朗普重返政坛后，通过加密货币赚取了超过10亿美元。

特朗普的社交媒体公司以某种方式出售提前访问他那些能左右市场的社交媒体帖子的权限，使付费者比普通美国人获得战略优势。

CNN的一项调查显示，特朗普在购买某公司股票几天后，就多次在社交媒体上为其宣传。

特朗普家族的海外商业交易及其与美国政府官方行动的密切联系。

调查这些问题中的任何一个都可能迫使共和党人面对一些棘手的问题，而由于特朗普第二任期的飞速发展，共和党人基本上能够回避这些问题。

小特朗普的婚礼故事之所以与众不同，在于它的简单易懂。而且显然，就连总统所在政党的一些成员也对此相当担忧。