Trump wasn't banned from son's Bahamas wedding over rule barring convicted rapists from entering country

In May 2026, after U.S. President Donald Trump said on Truth Social that he would not attend his eldest son's wedding ceremony, a claim (archived) circulated that the president would not be present for the nuptials because the Bahamas does not allow adjudicated or convicted rapists to enter the country.

Donald Trump Jr. celebrated his marriage to model Bettina Anderson with a ceremony and vows exchange in the Bahamas over Memorial Day weekend 2026. The U.S. president posted on Truth Social on May 22 that "circumstances pertaining to Government, and my love for the United States of America" kept him from attending the festivities.

The claim about the Bahamas barring the president's entry appeared to stem from a Community Note on a Threads post (archived), which read, "Donald Trump is not attending his son's wedding, because the Bahamas do not allow entry to adjudicated rapists from America."

The note and its claim about why Trump did not attend his son's wedding also circulated on Facebook (archived), Threads (archived), Reddit (archived) and Bluesky (archived). Snopes readers contacted us to ask about the claim.

Bahamian law allows immigration officers to turn away convicted murderers or people with criminal convictions that would result in more than three years of imprisonment in the country. Rape carries a prison sentence of 15 years to life in the Bahamas.

While a civil jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse, he never faced criminal charges for or was convicted of rape. That means the Bahamas could not turn him away based on a rape adjudication, or conviction, and resulting prison sentence, as the posts claimed. As such, we've rated this claim false.

In 2023, a jury in a New York civil trial found Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming the writer E. Jean Carroll, but it did not find him liable for rape. Unlike a criminal conviction, civil liability does not determine guilt or impose a prison sentence.

Separately, in May 2024, a New York jury found Trump guilty on 34 felony counts in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through a hush-money payment to the porn actor Stormy Daniels. He received a no-penalty sentence and did not serve any prison time. That case was unrelated to Carroll's lawsuit.

As of this writing, there was no evidence that the Bahamas barred Trump's entry for any other reason. We contacted country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ask whether it had recently turned him away at the border and for the country's guidance for U.S. travelers with criminal convictions and await a reply.

According to the ministry's website, people traveling on U.S. passports can enter the country without a visa. This generally means that travelers do not face additional screening aside from routine passport checks.

The Bahamas' Immigration Act lays out various conditions that must be fulfilled for immigration officers to grant entry to travelers, including those who enter without a visa. One of these is that the immigration officer must be satisfied that a traveler (Chapter 5, section 22 (1, g):

has not, since attaining the age of fourteen years, been convicted in any place of murder or an offence of a nature punishable in The Bahamas with imprisonment for a term of three years or more who by reason of such conviction is deemed by the Board or an Immigration Officer to be undesirable;

Rape is punishable by 15 years to life in prison in the Bahamas, according to the country's Sexual Offenses Act. Therefore, while Bahamian authorities can turn away convicted rapists, this would not apply to Trump, who was accused of rape in a civil trial but never faced a criminal charge.

Trump said on Truth Social on May 22, 2026, that he "very much wanted" to be in the Bahamas for his son's wedding, but "I feel it is important for me to remain in Washington, D.C., at the White House during this important period of time."

The Trump administration reportedly spent much of Memorial Day weekend in talks to end the war in Iran. By May 25, both the Trump administration and Iranian officials reportedly said a peace deal was not imminent.

Trump did not say that travel restrictions were the reason he stayed in the U.S. while his son celebrated his marriage abroad. Snopes contacted the White House for a response to the claim that the Bahamas barred Trump's entry and will update this story if we receive a response.

For further reading, Snopes has previously investigated other claims about the Bahamas.