Donald Trump Jr travelled to a remote region of western Mongolia in August for a hunting trip that included two days with Umar Kremlev, a Russian businessman who helped pay for his wedding celebrations and has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. During the trip, Trump Jr shot and killed an Altai argali, an endangered wild sheep prized for its large horns, according to a hunting guide cited by the Financial Times. The encounter has intensified scrutiny of the relationship between the US president’s son and a figure whose career has brought him close to Russia’s political and security establishment.
The Financial Times reconstructed the trip using accounts from guides and local officials, flight-tracking data, social media posts and public records. The meeting took place several months after Kremlev contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars towards celebrations surrounding Trump Jr’s wedding to Bettina Trump, formerly Bettina Anderson, on private islands in the Bahamas. The combination of a substantial personal gift and subsequent private contact has prompted questions about the relationship, although Trump Jr’s representatives maintain that the two men are friends whose interests include hunting, fishing and the outdoors.
Trump Jr flew into Mongolia’s capital, Ulaanbaatar, in late August before travelling hundreds of miles to a hunting camp in Uvs province. On 27 August, Kremlev, president of the International Boxing Association (IBA), left a press conference in Kazakhstan and travelled overnight to Ulaanbaatar on a chartered jet before continuing west to join the camp. He was accompanied by Arthur Martirosov, a Russian businessman who is a partner in Voskhod, a venture capital fund sanctioned by the United States. Neither Kremlev nor Martirosov responded to requests for comment from the Financial Times.
A person familiar with the trip told the newspaper that Trump Jr and Kremlev were cautious about being photographed together at the camp. Kremlev subsequently posted a video on Telegram showing his group preparing for a hunt around sunrise, although Trump Jr did not appear in the footage. Two of Trump Jr’s hunting organisers were visible. After spending two days at the camp, Kremlev returned to Ulaanbaatar and travelled to Yakutsk, a Siberian city, for another boxing event. In a video recorded as he left a helicopter, he described the mountains as “amazing” and said the group had been so active that they had “basically haven’t slept”.
Trump Jr remained in Mongolia for another week, travelling from Uvs province to Bayan-Ölgii to hunt Altai ibex, a wild goat described in the report as less endangered than the argali. The trip formed part of a broader hunting expedition involving guests and participants connected to organised hunting events. Safari Club International, which hosted Trump Jr at a charity auction in January 2025, confirmed that one of the two winners of an auction for a week-long hunting trip joined him on the ibex hunt. The winning bid was $140,000. Another guest was Kevin Small, a longstanding Republican donor who had hunted with Trump Jr previously. Dastan Mukhamedrakhim, a Kazakh travel influencer, also joined the group and posted footage of their activities in the Mongolian mountains.
The charity auction had offered participants the opportunity to accompany Trump Jr on a week-long hunting trip in western Mongolia. As bidding progressed, the auctioneer encouraged higher offers, telling the audience, “Will you beat $225,000? I’m giving you a bargain.” Trump Jr offered to include a stay at Mar-a-Lago and joked: “I’m very sexy in camo.” The event has attracted scrutiny over the sale of access to a member of the president’s family. Lauren White, of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said: “Buying access to power is an ethics concern, whether it’s through a charity, a wedding, a campaign donation or a lavish gift.”
Kremlev’s relationship with Trump Jr became publicly contentious after his financial contribution to the wedding was reported. The celebrations took place in May, after a private ceremony attended separately from the Bahamas gathering, which brought together about 50 family members and friends, including Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, Eric Trump and Tiffany Trump. Kremlev helped pay for event planning and a fireworks display but, according to Bettina Trump’s account on Instagram, did not attend the ceremony itself. Days before the wedding, he had joined Putin on a trip to China.
Bettina Trump described his contribution as an “extraordinarily generous wedding gift from a friend”. President Donald Trump, who did not attend the wedding, subsequently told reporters that, as he understood it, his son had repaid Kremlev and “didn’t want to have that”. The Wall Street Journal separately reported that the president had privately complained to aides that his son had shown poor judgement in accepting the gift. Democrats in Congress have launched an investigation into Trump Jr’s relationship with Kremlev. Representative Robert Garcia of California, the leading Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, wrote that the relationship “may be the most serious allegation against you to date” and demanded that Trump Jr preserve all records and communications concerning the businessman.
Kremlev’s background adds to the scrutiny. Born Umar Lutfulloyev, he was convicted of extortion and battery in his younger years, according to leaked criminal records obtained by the Financial Times. He changed his Tajik surname to Kremlev in 2010, later building a career as a boxing promoter. He became head of the Russian Boxing Federation in 2017 and was elected IBA president in 2020, bringing substantial sponsorship from state-backed Gazprom to the organisation. His role has taken him into Putin’s international delegations and brought him into contact with senior figures in Russia’s security establishment.
Trump Jr and Kremlev first met publicly at an IBA event in Istanbul in 2025, where Trump Jr appeared on a panel with Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao and described Kremlev as “not only a leader, but a friend”. Their shared connection to Turkish hunting organiser Kaan Karakaya was also visible at the event. Kremlev appointed Karakaya the IBA’s official representative in Turkey, describing him as “a bridge between worlds, a friend who brings people together”.
Trump Jr’s spokesperson said the men had been introduced by a mutual friend in hunting circles and that their relationship was personal rather than commercial. “The moment the Russian security and intelligence services figure out someone has a relationship with anyone of high value, they will try to weaponise that,” said Holden Triplett, a former counter-intelligence director on the US National Security Council during Trump’s first term. The spokesperson’s explanation does not establish whether the relationship has been exploited, but the meeting in Mongolia has placed the personal ties between the president’s family and a Kremlin-connected businessman under renewed examination.
