Donald Trump Jr. and Bettina Anderson plan to wed over Memorial Day weekend in a small, private ceremony, scrapping earlier plans for a larger celebration and opting instead for an intimate gathering of close family and friends, the Daily Mail reported.
The New York Post reported the wedding will take place in the Bahamas. An unnamed source told the Daily Mail the event will be deliberately small, tightly controlled, and far from the public spotlight.
The 48-year-old eldest son of President Trump and the 39-year-old Palm Beach socialite have moved quickly since going public with their relationship in late 2024, and the decision to keep the wedding quiet reflects both personal preference and political awareness. The couple reportedly feared that a lavish celebration during heightened tensions over Iran would hand critics an easy line of attack against the president.
The source described the couple's approach in blunt terms:
"It's going to be tiny, only family and perhaps some old college friends will be there, the people who are especially tight with them. A very small group. Because where it's happening, there's not much space for a grand occasion with a lot of people."
That same source said even President Trump is "not planned to be among the guests", though the source added, "But you never know with him, of course. Maybe he will drop in. He's been known to do those kind of things."
A separate White House celebration may follow. The source told the Daily Mail there will likely be "a small celebration at the White House where clearly President Trump will be involved."
The couple had originally pushed the wedding date to the fall before deciding not to wait any longer. The source framed the shift as practical rather than sentimental.
"I think this is something they just want to get through, get it done. So they can get on with their lives, move on to the next chapters for all the things they want to achieve."
Trump Jr. proposed at Camp David in December 2025 while celebrating Anderson's birthday. The couple then announced their engagement at the White House holiday party that same month. Anderson's ring, an eight-carat emerald-cut diamond, was designed by Dallas jeweler Sue Gragg Precious Jewels.
Last month, Anderson held a bridal shower at Mar-a-Lago. Ivanka Trump, 44, led the group of presidential family women at the event, posting photos on Instagram and writing she was "so grateful to share this joyous moment." Lara Trump, 43, Tiffany Trump, 32, and Don Jr.'s 18-year-old daughter Kai all attended, along with Ivanka's 14-year-old daughter Arabella.
Kai, who has carved out her own public profile as a college golfer, was among the younger Trump family members present. She recently made headlines of her own after describing an allergic reaction scare during a Masters trip to Augusta.
Marla Maples, the president's second wife, also attended the shower. First Lady Melania, 55, was notably absent from the celebration.
During the shower, Don Jr. dropped in carrying a massive red floral bouquet and kissed Anderson, who wore a strapless tea-length white dress and $1,500 Manolo Blahnik satin slingback pumps. She also wore a 19-inch, Y-shaped necklace in 18-carat white gold, set with more than 100 jewels weighing a total of 28.27 carats. The Daily Mail noted similar necklaces fetch well over $100,000.
The Daily Mail first spotted Trump Jr. and Anderson together in August 2024, during what it described as an intimate brunch at The Honor Bar in Royal Poinciana Plaza, Palm Beach. An unnamed witness said Anderson "was seen reaching over three times to plant a kiss on her new beau's lips."
"She seemed totally smitten with Don, and he with her. They were definitely on a date. They weren't exactly making out, but the kisses were romantic and you could tell they were intimate with each other."
The timing was striking. The day after that brunch, Trump Jr. was seen with then-fiancée Kimberly Guilfoyle at their six-bedroom, 11-bathroom home in the Admiral's Cove community in Jupiter, Florida, roughly 20 miles north of Mar-a-Lago, as the MAGA Boat Parade passed by. That $17.5 million waterfront property was the couple's shared residence.
By late 2024, Trump Jr. had broken off his engagement to Guilfoyle, the former Fox News host who is now serving as U.S. Ambassador to Greece. She took up her diplomatic post in Athens in November 2025. Friends of Guilfoyle, 57, told the Daily Mail she had been caught off guard by the split.
One unnamed pal of Guilfoyle, who has drawn attention in her new role in Athens, put it this way:
"Kimberly either didn't know about Bettina, or didn't want to know. Did she hear whispers that Don Jr was fooling around with someone else? Probably. She's no fool, but it's easy to deceive yourself when you're so committed to someone and believe he's committed to you."
Anderson comes from one of Palm Beach's established philanthropic families. Her late father, Harry Loy Anderson Jr., became the country's youngest bank president when he took the helm of Worth Avenue National Bank at age 26. Her mother, Inger Anderson, 75, still lives in an $11.5 million home in Palm Beach.
Anderson attended Palm Beach Day School and St. Andrew's School in Boca Raton, where tuition runs to more than $72,000 for the most senior boarders, before earning a BA in Art History, Criticism and Conservation from Columbia University. She lived in New York City for three years after college before returning to Florida.
In 2005, she co-founded The Paradise Fund with her brothers Kent Anderson and Harry Loy III. The organization supports children worldwide through humanitarian aid and disaster relief.
After the December 2024 reveal of the relationship, Anderson shared social media posts marking the occasion. During a birthday dinner that included a bottle of 2013 Salon champagne, which typically costs $1,300, she posted an image of the wine being poured with the caption "S is for Spoiled." She later shared the message "How sweet it is to be loved by you," accompanied by the James Taylor song, and added a follow-up: "IYKYK."
By December 2024, the couple were photographed leaving Buccan restaurant in downtown Palm Beach just before 10 p.m., walking hand in hand during Anderson's 38th birthday celebrations. The Daily Mail reported the couple had been spending nights at Anderson's $860,000 townhouse in West Palm Beach, about a mile from Mar-a-Lago.
The wedding's small scale is a deliberate choice, not a logistical accident. The unnamed source emphasized that the couple modeled their approach on the Camp David engagement, which was "really controlled." They want the same level of control for the ceremony itself.
President Trump's broader political circle has seen its own share of personal milestones and complications in recent months. Trump recently welcomed Erika Kirk to the stage in Phoenix in an emotional moment that underscored how tightly personal and political life overlap in Trump's orbit.
Whether the president ultimately attends the Bahamas ceremony or waits for the reported White House celebration remains an open question. So does the exact date and venue, details the couple has kept under wraps.
For now, what's clear is that the first son and his bride-to-be want a wedding that belongs to them, not to the news cycle. In a family where nearly everything becomes public, that impulse is easy to understand, and, for their critics, probably impossible to respect.
