December in Washington is a busy time: White House Christmas parties. Vanity Fair profiles. Potential blockades.
Yet, it seems, there is still time for love.
Over the last few days, a series of major Trump-aligned figures have announced that they are engaged, news often cheered by President Trump, who knows a thing or two (or three) about getting married. (Melania Trump, the first lady, is his third wife.)
The nearest to the president is his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., who confirmed on Monday that he would marry Bettina Anderson, a Florida influencer and Palm Beach socialite, whom he began dating last year, apparently while still engaged to Kimberly Guilfoyle, who was soon named ambassador to Greece.
“Not often that I’m at a loss for words, because we usually do the ranting and raving really well, but this is a little different,” the younger Mr. Trump said, after his father broke the news at a White House Christmas reception on Monday, with Ms. Anderson standing nearby. He added: “She said yes. So that’s a big win for the end of the year.”
Mr. Trump, 47, then invited Ms. Anderson to speak, adding, “We’ll see if she’s any good at this,” according to a video posted by Laura Loomer, another prominent figure in the Trump orbit.
Ms. Anderson, 39, thanked Mr. Trump and the first lady, saying she gets to “marry the love of my life.”
“I feel, just, like the luckiest girl in the world,” she said.
It will be the first marriage for Ms. Anderson, and the second marriage — and the third engagement — for Mr. Trump; he divorced his first wife, Vanessa, a former model, in 2019. They have five children.
The holidays are often peak engagement season, with announcements as common as ugly sweaters and intoxicated Santas. But Mr. Trump — and Ms. Loomer — weren’t done: The president also announced at the same Christmas event that Ms. Loomer would be marrying her boyfriend, whose exact identity is unknown.
Reached on Wednesday, Ms. Loomer, a right-wing provocateur and powerful informal adviser to Mr. Trump, declined to comment on her fiancé, saying he wished to keep his name private. But in a post Tuesday night on X, she thanked the president, calling it “an honor to be recognized.”
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“I’m very excited to be getting married,” Ms. Loomer, 32, wrote, “and I am thrilled that the greatest President ever approves of the greatest man in my life.”
In his remarks from behind a lectern affixed with a gold eagle, President Trump also spoke glowingly of the bride-to-be, joking that she was “very low-key” and “not controversial at all.”
“People think she’s on the tough side — she’s not,” Mr. Trump said, after telling the unseen boyfriend that he “got a great woman.”
“She’s got a big heart,” the president continued. “She just cares a lot about the country.”
The president may have been less thrilled with some other nuptial news circulating around the capital this week. On Monday night, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene — the Georgia Republican and former close ally of Mr. Trump turned ardent critic — confirmed that she, too, would be tying the knot.
Her fiancé, Brian Glenn, 56, is also in the Washington swirl, working as chief White House correspondent for Real America’s Voice, a conservative network favored by the president and his supporters.
“Happily ever after!!!” Ms. Greene, 51, posted on X, showing a photo with Mr. Glenn in a corner booth, showing off a large diamond ring that The Daily Mail, the British tabloid, estimated could be worth as much as $400,000.
Ms. Greene’s recent congressional career, of course, has been a little less cheery: An acrimonious feud with President Trump over the Epstein files and other issues led her to announce last month that she planned to resign. (The congresswoman is expected to serve out the remainder of her third term, until early January.)
Her marriage to Mr. Glenn will be her second. Her first marriage, to Perry Greene, ended in late 2022 after nearly three decades of marriage; they have three children.
Like his ex-wife, Mr. Greene has also been in the news of late, for yelling at, and later apologizing to, several Muslim women who were praying in a Georgia parking lot.
Mr. Glenn was also divorced in late 2022; he and Ms. Greene began dating publicly in 2023. This month he told The Washington Post that he felt like “the little divorced kid in the middle” after his fiancée announced her resignation and continued battling with Mr. Trump.
Asked at the time whom he would favor, Mr. Glenn sided with his future wife.
“Well,” he told The Post, saying he would give up his White House job, “I’ve got to go with ‘Mom’ here.”
Ken Bensinger contributed reporting, and Kirsten Noyes contributed research.
Jesse McKinley is a Times reporter covering politics, pop culture, lifestyle and the confluence of all three.
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