BREAKING: The Trumps seek to expand their real estate empire in Europe | International
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Global attention remains focused on this evolving story as officials and analysts assess the broader implications.
An uninhabited island and a peninsula with beaches of exceptional beauty. A paradisiacal and little exploited terrain. Facilities of local authorities and multimillion-dollar investors. On paper, the strategy of Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump’s husband, to promote two exclusive luxury destinations on the coasts of Albania seemed like a masterstroke. Thousands of Albanians, however, had other plans. The Flemish revolution, as the protests that have confronted the son-in-law of the president of the United States and his associates in the last two weeks are known, has raised doubts about the future of the luxurious tourist developments linked to the Trump family—valued at more than 4 billion euros—and has increased pressure on the Albanian Prime Minister, Edi Rama. Now all eyes are on Albania, a small country that does not exceed three million inhabitants. But it has not been the only destination that has seduced the environment of the president of the United States. Since returning to the White House in January of last year, the Trump Organization, the conglomerate behind the family empire, has announced more than a dozen high-end real estate projects around the world. This is already more than what the company promoted during the entire first term of the Republican magnate (2017-2021). In Europe alone, the new investments announced – in Albania, Romania, Georgia and Serbia – amount to billions of euros. If completed, they would join two luxury hotels in Scotland and one more in Ireland, which have been part of the family heritage since before the tycoon started his political career in 2015. In addition, two towers in Turkey have an agreement to use the president’s brand, although they do not belong to or were developed by his family. The design of the Trump Organization’s real estate project in Belgrade. Studio GenesisThe Trumps, however, are not putting their chips in Paris, Rome or the Greek islands. The latest bets of the family clan, formally led by Eric and Donald Trump Jr. since their father returned to power, have been in places such as Tbilisi, Bucharest or Belgrade. Governments in the region hope that skyscrapers and exclusive resorts will trigger an avalanche of investments that will boost their economies. “Albania needs super luxury like the desert needs water,” Rama told the Financial Times last year. After Trump’s first term in the White House, Kushner has capitalized on the relationships he built as an advisor and right-hand man to the president to obtain contracts for Affinity Partners, his investment fund, founded in 2021 with Saudi and Qatari capital. The sudden interest of the Republican’s heirs in destinations such as Eastern Europe and the Caucasus has raised suspicions in the United States about possible conflicts of interest. “You cannot be a diplomat and a financial pawn of the Saudi monarchy,” reproached Democratic legislator Jamie Raskin last April, two months after Kushner was named special envoy for peace in Gaza, where Trump has fantasized about the idea of turning the Palestinian enclave into a luxurious tourist resort. On the other side of the Atlantic, the megaprojects have faced enormous resistance among those who denounce corruption of the local officials involved, irregularities in the negotiations and irreversible environmental damage. The massive protests that have taken place in Albania and Serbia, where last year Affinity Partners announced an investment of 750 million euros for the construction of a Trump Tower, are an example of this. “One morning we woke up and saw heavy machinery entering the area,” says Alexander Trajçe, director of the PPNEA association, which has documented the installation of fences and construction camps on the Zvërnec peninsula, where more than 10,000 hotel rooms on practically virgin land. The mistreatment of protesters by the security guards guarding the area was the trigger for the Flemish revolution in Albania, explains Trajçe, one of the organizers. “There was no public consultation, no environmental impact assessment or any normal procedure,” claims the activist. “People have put aside political divisions and said ‘enough’.” 00:36This is what Sazan looks like, the Albanian island that the Trumps covet. A protest against the real estate development announced by the Trump Organization in Belgrade last October. Photo: ANDREJ CUKIC (EFE)Change of strategyAfter winning the elections in 2024, the Republican sent crossed messages. On the one hand, he announced that he was going to stay away from the Trump Organization to draw a line between politics and business. But he criticized his critics for not recognizing the precautions he took during his first presidency in terms of managing his companies. Starting in his second term, the conglomerate that manages the family empire embarked on a much more aggressive campaign and has closed a dozen contracts abroad, including the construction of Trump Tower in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, announced this year. It is a 70-story skyscraper that aims to be the tallest building in the country, with an estimated investment of around 1,725 million euros, although only a fraction of the capital comes from the president’s family. The effort aims to be part of a broader strategy. In April of last year, Donald Trump Jr. visited Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania with the idea of building contacts and promoting investments from American companies on the continent, even though he does not hold any official position. Trump’s arrival has changed the rules of the game of international politics and he boasts of governing his country as if he were the CEO of a large corporation. While criticism multiplies for his style of mixing business and politics, in cases such as the guardianship of Venezuela and the peace negotiations with Iran, the president and his family environment have rejected any suggestion of possible conflicts of interest and corruption. Aerial view of the protests in Tirana, the capital of Albania, last Friday. Florion Goga (REUTERS) Dominik Massicotte, of the Center for International Security and Economic Strategy, in London, points out that one of the possible reasons behind the interest of the Trumps is that tourism is growing in the region. In addition, he suggests that regulation is usually less strict and labor cheaper than in the West. At the crossroads between Europe, Russia and the Middle East, the Caucasus has also aroused enormous geopolitical interest among the powers. “The Trump Organization is positioning itself in a region that may become increasingly strategic and economically important in the next decade,” she says by email. The researcher also indicates that the Trumps have built powerful contacts that have opened doors for them. One of them is Bidzina Ivanishvili, who was prime minister when the tycoon’s company announced a project in the city of Batumi in 2012, which never came to fruition. Ivanishvili is the founder of Georgian Dream, the ruling party, and the country’s richest businessman. In 2024, at the end of the Joe Biden Administration, the United States imposed sanctions on the leader for his authoritarian practices in power and his links with Russia. In exchange, Georgia projects the image that it is “open for business,” says Massicotte. This is not an agreement with Washington, but with the family company of the president of the United States. And that ambiguity offers advantages for the country, traditionally in the Russian sphere of influence. It allows it to have a certain “validation” that it is an attractive destination for Western investors without putting its relationship with Moscow at risk, says the specialist. From Bucharest to TransylvaniaHistory seems to repeat itself, although with some nuances, in other parts of the continent. The Trump Organization announced the launch of Trump Tower Bucharest in July last year. According to SDC Imobiliare, its Romanian partner, the idea is to replicate the model of Trump Tower in Chicago, a 92-story skyscraper. The tower planned for the capital of Romania would be considerably more modest, around 30 floors, although its developers aspire to turn it into one of the most exclusive residential complexes in Eastern Europe. The initiative is still in development and, for the moment, the amount of the investment has not been disclosed. This newspaper has contacted the Romanian real estate company, without receiving a response. It is also not the first time that Trump or his entourage have tried to invest in the country. In 1994, five years after the communist regime fell, the New York magnate offered $1.75 billion to buy the current Parliament Palace, the second largest administrative building in the world after the Pentagon. But the Romanian authorities ended up rejecting it. A decade later, Trump returned with the aim of buying land in Bucharest to build a high-rise tower. However, the financial crisis thwarted those plans. Last March, The New York Times revealed that the Trump Organization has an ambitious project in its hands in Cluj-Napoca, a city of about 400,000 inhabitants located at the foot of the Carpathians. Although it has not been officially presented, the City Council has already given the green light to a first phase of development and Bloomberg assures that the investment represents about 500 million dollars. The complex includes the construction of a tower and more than 10,000 homes, as part of a project known as Transilvania Smart City, promoted by the local authorities themselves. “It does not matter if the company is associated with Trump, the project complies with current law,” says Iulia Persa, spokesperson for the local government and insists that everything is in a very early phase. The real estate development is not without controversy as it is close to a sanitary waste landfill and a settlement of the Romani community, which has aroused criticism against the City Council as the promoter of the project and not so much because of the participation of the family of the American president. Unlike other countries, both initiatives have not generated significant controversy. In addition to the fact that they seem far from materializing, another reason is that 51% of Romanians have a favorable image of the American president, according to a Gallup poll in February. Present and future In Serbia, protests and a judicial scandal against a government minister who authorized the project led Kushner to reverse his project in Belgrade last year. In Albania, Flemish Revolution protesters also hope to stop projects linked to the Trump family in protected areas in the country and force the resignation of Rama and the opposition leader, former Prime Minister Sali Berisha. “It’s sad that the rich think they can buy all the beautiful places they see,” says Denisa Kasa, a 26-year-old protester, as she tours the Zvërnec peninsula, where the project promoted by Kushner threatens some 280 species. among them the flamingos who have given their name to the protests. The activist from the PPNEA association assures that now the most important thing is not whether Trump is behind it, but that this project and other similar ones do not come to fruition. After being accused by the Albanian Government of being “anti-American” and being promoted by “foreign agents”, the response of many has been to brandish American flags in the demonstrations. And although the focus of the protests has shifted to local politics to the detriment of environmentalist slogans, environmentalists have already managed to stop construction work in the wetlands of that protected area, one of the last wild ecosystems in southern Europe. “We are fighting for the future, but also for the present and the past, so that the lands where we live are not taken away from us,” says Kasa. While Trump’s entourage moves to conquer Eastern Europe, the Flemish revolution is preparing to take to the streets again. The next chapter is yet to be written.
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Source: This article was originally published by Internacional en EL PAÍS and adapted for our international English-speaking audience.
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