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Bloomberg
2 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Planned Belgrade Trump Tower Slammed by Europe Heritage Watchdog
Serbia must protect its monuments and defy plans by Donald Trump's son-in-law to raze downtown blocs in the nation's capital to make way for a large real estate project, said Europe's top cultural heritage organization. Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners wants to build a luxury hotel and residences on the site of the Balkan nation's former defense headquarters in Belgrade, badly damaged by NATO bombing in 1999 during the Kosovo War.
Boston Globe
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
A Trump family project spurs resignations and a criminal charge in Serbia
Advertisement In November, one week after Trump won reelection, the Serbian government greased the skids by declaring that the site — a bombed-out building that serves as an icon to Serbians' suffering during a 1999 conflict — was no longer considered a culturally protected asset. That paved the way for the Trump family project. Dozens of architects and cultural historians at the state-run Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments cried foul, accusing the government of violating the law. Several days after the government's decision, they fired off a letter saying the property's status as an 'immovable cultural property' could be revoked only if a team of the institute's experts approved it. And they hadn't. 'From the beginning, we knew it was a political decision,' said Estela Radonjic Zivkov, the institute's former deputy director. She said she was pressured by state intelligence officers not to challenge the government on this case, a clear sign of Serbian leaders' intense interest in the project. She did so anyway. Advertisement Now, seven months later, the Trump family project has become both a Serbian scandal and a glaring example of just how far a foreign government was willing to go to further the financial interests of Trump's family. And it underscores recurring concerns that the family's business dealings have become harder to separate from Trump's official decisions. Serbian college students who have been leading mass protests against Aleksandar Vucic, the country's strongman president, have seized on the development as an example of what they see as their government's corrupt ways. In late March, thousands demonstrated at the site. Last month, they and other critics celebrated a surprise victory. Serbia's organized crime prosecutor charged Goran Vasic, Zivkov's boss and the director of the cultural institute, with abuse of power. The prosecutor's office said Vasic had admitted falsifying a document to justify stripping the site of its protected status. No one knows how far the inquiry will go. But one question that has been publicly raised is whether Sinisa Mali, Serbia's powerful finance minister, pressured cultural heritage officials to either back the project or resign. Mali has ties to the White House through Richard Grenell, a longtime Trump ally and the current envoy for special missions. Mali has declined to comment on the project, citing the continuing investigation. Affinity Partners, Kushner's company, says the deal is under review. Vucic has minimized the criminal inquiry, saying that 'there was not any kind of forgery.' Advertisement Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, has said that 'everything President Trump does is to benefit the American people.' Vucic's office did not respond to a request for comment, but the Serbian leader said last year that he 'died laughing' at the notion that 'I used this for political influence on Trump.' As far back as 2013, Donald Trump was eyeballing the Belgrade site for a hotel. The idea arose again in his first term as president. Grenell, who then was Trump's troubleshooter for the fractious relationship between Serbia and Kosovo, encouraged Serbian leaders to consider redeveloping the site with American investment. After Trump lost reelection in 2020, Grenell urged Kushner to take up the project and served as an early intermediary. Grenell met with the Serbian president in 2022 and 2023 and posted images of himself on social media with Mali in 2021. Grenell could not be reached for comment. By May 2024, the Serbian government struck a deal with a company affiliated with Kushner. It agreed to give the developers a 99-year, no-cost lease that could be converted to ownership, also free of charge, according to a draft agreement reviewed by The New York Times. In return for contributing the land, the Serbian government will receive 22 percent of the development's profits, according to people familiar with the deal. There was a hitch: The Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments wasn't going along. Dubravka Djukanovic, an architect and college professor who led the institute, was opposed to changing the site's protected status. In an interview, she said the complex, which was designed by a renowned Serbian modernist architect, should instead be restored and put to public use. Advertisement Last June, she said, she was summoned to a meeting with Mali. Olivera Vuckovic, director of a parallel city institute, was also summoned, according to a person familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of job repercussions. Mali had a blunt message, that person said: Get behind the project or resign. Djukanovic said she swiftly resigned because of the meeting with Mali, but she declined to give further details because of the investigation. Vuckovic could not be reached for comment. The issue simmered for another six months, until after Trump won reelection. On Nov. 14, the Serbian government announced it had revoked the site's protected status. At the cultural institute, Zivkov, then the deputy director, said the staff immediately got to work on a letter saying that the government had 'grossly violated the Law on Cultural Heritage.' If the government trampled its own law in this case, the letter said, 'any cultural property that inconveniences an investor or poses a political or other obstacle may be erased in the same way.' It is unclear whether it was the letter from the institute's staff that prompted the criminal investigation. The institute's director was temporarily detained for questioning, then charged with abuse of power in mid-May. He has not yet appeared in court. Ian Brekke, the top lawyer for Affinity Partners, flew to Belgrade right after that news broke, according to a person familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe confidential business matters. Serbian officials told him the controversy boiled down to a simple administrative error, the person said, but Kushner's team is still assessing the situation. Advertisement This article originally appeared in .
Al-Ahram Weekly
21-05-2025
- Business
- Al-Ahram Weekly
Trump's Gulf dealmaking tour - World - Al-Ahram Weekly
When US President Donald Trump kicked off his Gulf tour in Saudi Arabia last week, he promised that his trip to the Kingdom and two other wealthy Gulf states would herald an optimistic future for the Middle East. On his arrival in the Gulf not only did Trump hail the 'gleaming marvels' of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE, but he also showered their leaders with praise, describing them as 'incredible' and 'outstanding' men of 'vision.' In return, Trump not only received a lavish welcome in each of the wealthy countries, but also and more importantly he received pledges of business investment deals that will give him a big boost in his hunt for $2 trillion and a tremendous win to tout back home. Yet, on each stop of his 'historic' tour serious questions were also raised as to how much Trump's charm offensive in the Gulf will contribute to establishing stability in the Middle East, which is reeling under multiple conflicts. In a world of bloody confrontations, every Middle East watcher has long learned that what really matters is geopolitics, not dealmaking, not attentive hosts, and certainly not rhetoric. During his profit-making Gulf tour Trump may have succeeded in reimagining alliances on the world stage and shed his 'Make America Great Again' (MAGA) isolationism at home, but whether what he has come away with is a geopolitical game-changer remains in doubt. The trip has yielded, Trump claims, more than $2 trillion in pledges, including Saudi Arabia's commitment to investing $600 billion in the US, Qatar's agreement to buy up to 210 US-made Boeing planes at a cost of $96 billion, and a partnership with the UAE that will bring in billions worth of deals with the US. These deals could be good for business and economic investments in the United States, but many questions about how the Gulf countries will benefit remain unanswered. A quick look at the Gulf countries' sovereign wealth funds shows that their investments in the US have largely served personal and sometimes financially dubious enterprises like Affinity Partners owned by Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law. Moreover, even if there are geopolitical objectives behind the generous gifts that the Gulf countries have made to Trump, a number of recent trends may begin to challenge conventional Gulf investment attitudes, including lower energy prices and budgets strapped by colossal domestic spending that could impact these countries' costly megaprojects. While American investors including Trump's family, which is already expanding its footprint in the Gulf, will reap massive rewards from the trip, it remains uncertain what the Gulf countries will get out of it. Expectations about the main goals on the Gulf countries' wish list, including security and artificial intelligence technology agreements with the United States, have thus far remained low. Despite the win for Trump's personal business interests and his fascination with his hosts, his administration has not showed any commitment yet to help Saudi Arabia build a nuclear industry or to assist the UAE's ambition to acquire advanced semiconductor chips. Saudi Arabia is eager to fulfil a long-standing desire to enrich its own uranium as part of an ambitious nuclear programme, and the UAE hopes to join the world's AI giants. On the political side, the trip glossed over numerous regional conflicts and crises that have been rocking the Middle East, leading to widespread instability and violence. Trump met with Syrian Interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa during the trip and decided to lift the US' punishing sanctions on his country. Trump, who has said that he has 'no interest in Syria,' claimed that his encounter with the former jihadist once imprisoned by the US Army in Iraq was at Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman's request. The meeting is important because it marks a détente between the US and Syria and also a major diplomatic win for Saudi Arabia. It helps to shield the new regime in Syria, which Saudi Arabia and other Sunni Gulf powerhouses believe could curb Shia Iran's influence in the region. Yet, it was the on-going genocidal war in Gaza that was most pushed to the sidelines of Trump's Gulf diplomacy in a show of disdain for the Strip's population who are facing starvation and suffering from a further wave of Israeli airstrikes. After Hamas released Edan Alexander, the last known living American hostage held in Gaza, as a goodwill gesture, there had been widespread hope that Trump's visit to the Gulf could lead to a fresh pause in the hostilities or a renewal of humanitarian aid to Gaza. This has not materialised, and Trump has swept aside efforts to end the war in Gaza, allowing Israel to continue its 19-month campaign in the enclave that has so far killed more than 53,000 people. As Trump was wrapping up his visit to the Gulf states, Israel intensified its brutal incursions and bombardments of Gaza, killing hundreds of people and forcing the displacement of tens of thousands of others. This week, Israeli forces began extensive attacks in the Strip as part of the beginning of what the army called 'Operation Gideon's Chariots.' Israel said the operation was intended to achieve the goals of the war, including the release of the hostages and the overthrow of the Hamas government. Israeli media said the offensive, which involved huge numbers of ground troops, aims at expanding its campaign in Gaza, further advancing in the Strip, expelling more people, and seizing more territory. The UK Sunday Times newspaper published a map showing an Israeli Army plan to force civilians in Gaza into three tightly controlled strips of land separated by four occupied zones. Israel's operation came amid warnings of an imminent risk of famine in Gaza, with UN humanitarian agencies saying that around half a million Palestinians face starvation as the months-long aid blockade by Israel grinds on. Yet, as Gaza faced a critical famine, and Israel continued its siege of the Strip, Trump only paid lip service to the situation during his tour of the Gulf. He reiterated his desire to take over Gaza, saying in Qatar that the US would 'make it a freedom zone' and arguing there was nothing left to save in the Palestinian territory. Just as he left the Gulf, the US media outlet NBC News disclosed that the Trump administration is working on a plan to permanently relocate up to one million Palestinians from the Strip to Libya. The plan is under serious enough consideration for the administration to have discussed it with the Libyan leadership, NBC said, offering the North African country the release of billions of dollars of funds that the US froze more than a decade ago as an incentive. Iran remains another challenge to Trump's muddled Middle East policy, which he boasts is a manifestation of his 'peace through strength' pledge. During every stop on his trip, Trump threatened Iran with strikes if a deal is not reached in the ongoing talks about its nuclear programme. While such rambling remarks could be part of the salesmen's tricks Trump has enjoyed playing during his lucrative tour, they nevertheless remain incoherent and self-contradictory from the geopolitical viewpoint. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quick to react to Trump's threats, saying that 'the US should leave the region, and it will leave.' The exchange and the administration's insistence that Tehran cannot maintain ability to enrich uranium showed that Trump is not closer to a genuine deal on Iran that will bring peace, and instead is further complicating tensions in a Middle East already spooked by other conflicts. On the wider world stage, the Trump-friendly US media and think tanks claimed that the trip has sent the strong message that the Gulf is no longer a 'playground' for China and Russia. But in a region marked by shifting allegiances and strategic uncertainty, this seems more rhetorical proclamation than reality. Both China and Russia will remain consequential economic, political, and security actors in the Middle East. The slew of multibillion-dollar deals that Trump has made in the Gulf has shed light on one of the region's acute problems, its socio-economic inequality and the impact of this on political stability. According to various reports, the Middle East is one of the most unequal regions in the world, with half of its population earning nine per cent of the national income while the richest 10 per cent earns almost 57 per cent, which is concentrated in the wealthy Gulf nations. The trillions of dollars that were pledged to Trump on his recent tour and that stand to enrich him and America's CEOs while bombings and famine flare in Gaza have highlighted this widening disparity in the region. When William Shakespeare's play 'Much Ado About Nothing' appeared in Arabic some years ago, the title of the play, meant to say that 'assumptions can and often do lead to tragedy,' was literary translated as 'Grinding Without Flour.' Like in the famous comedy, the metaphor of an empty grain mill grinding on regardless during Trump's whirlwind tour was obvious enough, though it is a lesson not learned by the region's leaderships. As the famous Saudi commentator Abdul Rahman Al-Rashid wrote in a column in the Saudi-owned Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper in November 2018, 'perhaps it was us who Shakespeare has in mind in his play 'Much Ado About Nothing.'' * A version of this article appears in print in the 22 May, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Follow us on: Facebook Instagram Whatsapp Short link:
Daily Tribune
17-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Tribune
Trump family hotel project in Serbia in doubt after forgery probe
The future of a luxury property development by Donald Trump's son-in-law in Belgrade has been thrown into doubt over suspicions that documents used to revoke the site's protected status were forged. Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners signed a 99-year land deal with the Serbian government last year to redevelop the former Yugoslav Army Headquarters, just months after its designation as a "cultural asset" was removed. No work has yet started at the site, which has not been rebuilt since it was bombed several times in 1999 during the NATO air campaign that ended the war in Kosovo. But on Tuesday, the prosecutor's office said it had opened an investigation into whether the document used by the government to revoke the building's protected status was forged. The head of Serbia's Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, Goran Vasic, was arrested on suspicion of "forgery of an official document" and admitted the charge in court. He was given a restraining order barring him from contacting witnesses, the court told AFP in a statement on Friday. The government has so far kept tight-lipped about the case but President Aleksandar Vucic, at a European leaders' summit, denied "any halt to the project plans". "There was no forgery of any kind and we will discuss everything with everyone," he told a news conference in Tirana on Friday. But Kushner's company Affinity Partners told AFP they had played no role in the review of the site's cultural status and that the fate of the project was now unclear.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump family hotel project in Serbia in doubt after forgery probe
The future of a luxury property development by Donald Trump's son-in-law in Belgrade has been thrown into doubt over suspicions that documents used to revoke the site's protected status were forged. Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners signed a 99-year land deal with the Serbian government last year to redevelop the former Yugoslav Army Headquarters, just months after its designation as a "cultural asset" was removed. No work has yet started at the site, which has not been rebuilt since it was bombed several times in 1999 during the NATO air campaign that ended the war in Kosovo. But on Tuesday, the prosecutor's office said it had opened an investigation into whether the document used by the government to revoke the building's protected status was forged. The head of Serbia's Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, Goran Vasic, was arrested on suspicion of "forgery of an official document" and admitted the charge in court. He was given a restraining order barring him from contacting witnesses, the court told AFP in a statement on Friday. The government has so far kept tight-lipped about the case but President Aleksandar Vucic, at a European leaders' summit, denied "any halt to the project plans". "There was no forgery of any kind and we will discuss everything with everyone," he told a news conference in Tirana on Friday. But Kushner's company Affinity Partners told AFP they had played no role in the review of the site's cultural status and that the fate of the project was now unclear. - Opposition - The New York Times has reported that Kushner's $500 million plan involved turning the former army headquarters into a luxury hotel and 1,500 residential units. The Serbian government has said it would also include a memorial to the victims of the 1999 bombing, which still evokes strong feelings among Serbs -- and resentment to NATO -- today. The buildings, completed in 1965 and given protected status in 2005, were designed by Nikola Dobrovic as a brutalist homage to the Sutjeska River canyon, where the Partisans won a decisive battle against German forces in 1943. Respected Serbian architect Slobodan Maldini described the distinctive, red-bricked buildings, which cascade to street level, as "a monumental composition designed to evoke a strong sculptural impression". "It represents a leading work of post-war modernist architecture, not only in the former Yugoslavia but also more broadly in the region," he added. Maldini was one of 350 architects and engineers to call for the army headquarters to be restored to their former glory after the deal with Affinity Partners was signed. He said redevelopment would be a "loss of the finest architectural work of its kind" and the "damage caused by its demolition would be irreparable". oz-al/phz
