Russian ex-MMA fighter ‘raped Barron Trump’s friend and smashed up an air fryer in fit of jealousy when she called the US President’s son ‘sweetheart”, court hears

A former MMA fighter accused of raping a close friend of Barron Trump smashed up an air fryer in a fit of jealousy when he heard the woman call the US President’s son ‘sweetheart’, a court heard today.

Russian national Matvei Rumianstev, 22, told jurors it was ‘hard for (him) not to be jealous’ of Barron’s ‘persistent’ contact with his alleged victim during late 2024 and early 2025.

But Rumianstev denies raping and strangling the woman because he was furious about her contact 19-year-old Barron.

He allegedly raped her after spotting several missed calls on her phone from President Trump’s youngest son on the day of the alleged attack last year.

He ‘flew into a rage’ when he noticed Trump FaceTiming her in the early hours of January 18 before answering the call and attacking her as Barron watched in horror on FaceTime from across the Atlantic, it is said.

Barron would call 999 from America and spoke to the police, urging them to help his female friend, who he met online and became ‘very close’ to. 

She claims he saved her life, and that his FaceTime call to her that night was a ‘sign from God’. 

Wearing a blue suit, Rumiantsev continued his evidence today at Snaresbrook Crown Court in East London on Friday.

Prosecutor Serena Gates suggested he had ‘violently’ smashed up an air fryer on around two months before the rape because he was ‘upset’ about her referring to Barron Trump as ‘sweetheart’.

‘No’, he replied.

He also denied assaulting the complainant later that night and raping her on another occasion.

Ms Gates asked him about the events of January 17 last year, the night on which he answered a FaceTime call from Barron Trump.

‘(The complainant) was making an effort, cooking you dinner, being nice to you – but you say there was tension?’

‘There was a slight tension at times’, he said.

The Russian said he shared a bottle of wine with dinner and a few glasses of whisky before going on to order at least one bottle of cognac via Deliveroo.

Rumiantsev said he was ‘drunk’ but not ‘very drunk’ and denied raping the complainant on the evening of January 17.

The two continued drinking spirits for ‘several hours’ and the complainant cooked eggs for them both, the court heard.

Ms Gates asked: ‘When you become aware of the first missed calls from Barron Trump, what stage is that – after the eggs are cooked or before?’

‘I actually became aware throughout the day (that) she had missed calls from him, because the US is in a different timezone.

‘So, he was calling her in the morning and then apparently he went to sleep, and started calling her again in the evening.

‘She answered none of those calls but he was quite persistent’, Rumiantsev said.

‘You said earlier it was tense that day, is that because you were angry about the situation?’, asked Ms Gates.

‘No’, he said.

‘Because you acknowledged already in the evidence what happened on the 3 November, you were jealous of the communication with Barron Trump?’, the prosecutor said.

‘It was hard for me not to be jealous, but at that point – the point of 18 January – I was quite used to her receiving calls constantly from him, so I didn’t attach much weight’, he answered.

Ms Gates asked: ‘Is that why you raped her? Because you were angry she’d had calls that day from Barron Trump?’

Rumiantsev replied: ‘No.’

He denied hitting the woman on the back of the head and spitting in the food she cooked.

Rumiantsev conceded that she ‘ended up on the floor’ when the complainant ‘lunged towards me to grab the phone.’

‘Why was she trying to grab the from you?’, he was asked.

‘Because I’ve answered that call (from Barron Trump)’, he told jurors.

Ms Gates said whilst the complainant was on the floor Rumiantsev kicked her in the torso and rib area.

‘That never happened’, the Russian insisted.

He said he wasn’t ‘angry’ but ‘exhausted’.

Ms Gates continued: ‘You had been angry on the November 3 when there’d been a text from Barron Trump, hadn’t you, which was why you smashed up the air fryer?

‘Then you were upset on this occasion again, weren’t you?’

‘Yes’, Rumiantsev said.

‘And because you were upset that’s why you hit her and then kicked her, isn’t it?’, the prosecutor asked.

‘No, I was upset because she hit me’, he told.

Jurors were then played a video taken by the alleged victim who is heard loudly crying while Rumiantsev asks her if she ‘understands’.

‘What were you trying to make her understand?’, the prosecutor enquired.

He replied: ‘I’m not sure, it was just an expression in Russian, I was trying to make her understand that whatever she was doing was unreasonable – that’s why I answer that phone call.’

Rumiantsev told jurors he was asking her if she ‘understands that probably (she) won’t behave like that in front of other people, especially Barron Trump – hitting me, crying, shouting, screaming and threatening to kill me.’

Ms Gates added: ‘She’s upset, and you decide to grab her phone and answer a FaceTime call from Barron Trump?’

‘Something like that, yes,’ Rumiantsev replied.

The prosecutor asked: ‘What were you trying to demonstrate to him?’

‘I wasn’t trying to demonstrate anything to him’, he replied.

‘You took the phone and turned the camera onto (the complainant), didn’t you?’, Ms Gates said.

‘Yes’, he answered.

‘So you were trying to demonstrate something to him, weren’t you?’, she continued.

‘I was trying to demonstrate something to her’, Rumiantsev told jurors.

‘Were you trying to demonstrate to Barron Trump that this was your woman?’, Ms Gates asked.

Rumiantsev replied: ‘No. I was being hit for a long period of time, I was quite fed up with the situation, I was trying to perhaps find a solution.’

Ms Gates then put to him: ‘I suggest you weren’t being hit at this stage, it was you beating up the complainant, wasn’t it? You hit her during that FaceTime call to Barron Trump?’

‘No’, Rumiantsev stated.

‘You held the phone in one hand and hit her with another hand, hit her in the face?’, Ms Gates suggested.

‘No’, he repeated, adding: ‘I did not intentionally hit her in the face at any point, no.’

Ms Gates noted that it was the complainant who ‘terminated’ the FaceTime call with Barron Trump.

‘I suggest the reason you made no attempt to finish that call is because you wanted to physically show your dominance over the complainant, and you wanted to show that to the person at the other end of the phone’, she put to him.

‘No’, he again repeated.

Rumiantsev was then cross-examined on the complainant ringing the police and attempting to ‘escape’ from the situation.

‘She was trying to get help, that was obvious to you, wasn’t it?, Ms Gates asked him.

‘I’m not sure what she was trying to do,’ Rumiantsev said.

The Russian denied strangling the alleged victim during a ‘struggle’ in which he grabbed her phone and attempted to stop her from contacting the emergency services.

Jurors heard that he was arrested later that night and told police: ‘What’s the problem? There’s no problem’.

Ms Gates asked Rumiantsev a series of questions about his communication with both his close friend and the complainant while in custody following his arrest.

She said: ‘You say: ‘I realise that I deserve this’ – what were you referring to, what you did on the night of 17 and 18 January?’

‘No’, the Russian replied.

‘At that point I was naive to think that maybe the fact that I was unable to calm her down, or find the right words, or – I don’t know – de-escalate the situation in some way, maybe I deserve this.’

The prosecutor continued: ‘You go on to say: ‘I realise this is possibly the biggest mistake in my life’, what was the biggest mistake in your life?’

Rumiantsev replied: ‘My mistake, possibly, answering the phone call after which she turned completely out of her mind’.

Ms Gates asked: ‘When you grabbed her phone and showed her on FaceTime to Barron Trump?’

Rumiantsev said: ‘Yes.’

Concluding her cross-examination, Ms Gates put to him: ‘The reality of this case is that you were abusive to (the complainant) over the course of the relationship in the ways I’ve described, weren’t you?’

‘By no means’, Rumiantsev replied.

‘You could not control your anger?’, the prosecutor suggested.

‘No’, he replied.

Ms Gates said: ‘And that boiled over, culminating in the events of the night of 17/18 January when you saw those communications from Barron Trump?’

‘No’, the Russian repeated.

Rumianstev, who was living in a luxury Docklands apartment, denies raping the woman and strangling her later that night during a ‘struggle’ in which she attempted to phone police.

Mr Trump told police he is ‘very close’ to the woman, who claims he saved her life by calling 999 from the US last January.

Russian national Matvei Rumiantsev, 22, has admitted he was ‘upset’ about the woman’s friendship with the President’s youngest son.

The former MMA fighter is accused of answering a FaceTime call on the woman’s phone from Mr Trump before attacking her at his flat in London.

The couple had rowed earlier that evening about her relationship with the 19-year-old American, and the fact that she referred to him as ‘sweetheart’ in text exchanges.

‘I started to explain that I felt upset as well about her talking to Barron Trump,’ Rumiantsev told Snaresbrook Crown Court.

‘I was in no way controlling but I was trying to make her know that if she feels unwell seeing messages I had with girls 10 years ago, she could maybe understand how I felt when she was sat there this moment texting someone else.’

Mr Trump spent some time working out how to contact police in London and spoke directly with a call handler to report the alleged attack.

He told the operator: ‘I just got a call from a girl I know. She’s getting beaten up. It’s really an emergency, please’.

He later told a Scotland Yard officer in an email that he had been ‘racing with adrenaline’ when he made the call.

Rumianstev denies two charges of rape, intentional strangulation, perverting the course of justice, assault and actual bodily harm.

He is aided by a Russian interpreter despite speaking good English.

The trial continues.