Donald Trump Junior mixes business and politics in Serbia, where protests are there

The protests against President Alexander Fuzic from Serbia were growing in intensity and size when an extraordinary guest appeared in his capital this month to meet the besieged European leader: Donald Trump Junior, the eldest son of President Trump.

The quick visit of Mr. Trump, which included a meeting with Mr. Vocic to talk about US foreign aid to Serbia, was at a time when the Trump and Jarid Kushner family, the American President’s son -in -law, was moving forward in plans to build the Trump International Hotel in Belgrade, the first such property in Europe.

The hotel is scheduled to be built on the site of the former Ministry of Defense headquarters in Yugoslawi, which NATO bombed 26 years ago on land now owned by the Serbian government. The opposition leaders in Serbia criticized the agreement and called for its termination, which raised the possibility that the deal to change the authority will be disposed of.

Mr. Trump has used the visit as an opportunity to express his support for Mr. Vocic – a journey that may be the most clear mixing so far in President Trump’s second state in US foreign policy and the financial interests of the Trump family.

Wednesday, The Serbian parliament accepted the resignation of the Prime Minister, as the ruling party brought down and forced Mr. Vochik to form a new government or hold new parliamentary elections later this year, creating more uncertainty there.

A Donald Trump Junior spokesman has rejected any suggestion that his visit had created a conflict of interests. The spokesman said the trip was driven by a plan to meet Mr. Vocic for Mr. Trump Bodcast, not to enter foreign relationship issues or real estate deal.

“Without one of the largest political podcasts in the world and was strictly in Serbia as a host of the podcast for an interview,” said Andy Surabian, a spokesman. “He was inside and outside the country in less than eight hours and there were no discussions with anyone related to Trump Org.”

The visit was arranged, according to two people who were briefed on the plan, by Brad Parskali, a Former campaign director For President Trump.

Mr. Perscale, an executive official at the conservative podcast and radio company, also established a politician Campaign Consulting Company. He had advised Mr. Vocic during his campaign to re -election for 2022, but he confirmed that he had not been appointed.

Mr. Vocic now faces one of the largest tests in nearly eight years as president. The protests against his administration erupted in November after a concrete structure collapsed over the railway station corridor that killed 15, an accident that the demonstrators partially threw in government corruption.

The visit of Mr. Trump last week had led to a temporary stoppage in those problems and immediately became national news in Serbia, where Mr. Vcic and his most important advisers pointed out as a sign that the Trump administration supports Mr. Vucic, despite the increasing protests in the streets of the capital.

“A friendly conversation with Donald Trump Junior, US President Donald Trump’s son about bilateral relations between Serbia and the United States of America and the current topics that make up the global political and economic scene,” Mr. Vocic Books In spreading social media after the meeting.

Marco Djorik, Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs, was added in A. TV interview After visiting Mr. Trump that the presence of President Trump’s son “provides a great momentum for an excellent start of relationships with the new administration.”

Others in the country had a completely different view.

“The son of President Trump here is here to try to give Fuchik a helping hand,” said Dingan Junouni, a member of Paribia in Parliament in the Serbia parliament. “It is clear that it is a conflict of interests, as Vocic tries to stick to power and Trump wants to maintain the real estate deal.”

The government of Mr. VCIC signed deal Last May with Affinity Global Development, established by Mr. Kushner. The company plans to invest 500 million dollars to build the Trump Hotel 175 rooms with 1500 luxury apartments and other facilities at the former Ministry of Defense website in Belgrade.

“We are pleased to expand our existence in Europe,” said Eric Trump, one of President Trump’s sons, in January, when the Trump International Hotel was announced. Eric Trump is a major family member who runs her real estate company.

But Donald Trump Junior is also Executive Vice President At Trump, which runs family hotels, golf and other assets, and helps in planning the Serbian hotel project.

Two people who were informed of Donald Trump Junior said, but they spoke provided that his identity was not disclosed because they were not allowed to discuss it publicly, that Mr. Trump had not paid for the journey. But Joan, his girlfriend, Betina Anderson, was covered with Mr. Parskali, who had a commercial partner in Serbia. Mr. Perscale refused to comment or reveal the name of his Serbian commercial partner.

Virginia Cantry, a former ethics advisor to the International Monetary Fund, said that the Donald Trump Junior meeting with the Serbian president reminded us of the activity by Hunter Biden, who was accused by the Republicans of taking advantage of his father’s position, Joseph R. Biden Junior, as the Vice President to conclude a lush excessive work deal.

“It is a kind of hypocrisy that they were concerned about Hunter Biden’s foreign work.

From Mrs. Cantry’s point of view, the conflict of interest in the Donald Trump Junior case is more clear.

She said, “Don Junior is not used, as an alternative to his father, the General Office of the President of the United States to help the President of Serbia to stay in office – while strengthening the financial interest of the Trump family,” she said. “It is immoral. It’s offensive.”

It is still unclear how much the presence of Mr. Trump in Serbia has helped Mr. Vocic.

After several days of the visit, the streets of central Belgrade were crushed with more than 100,000 demonstrators, as the organizers called one of the biggest protests in the country’s history.

The government of the Trump family offered to the Trump family last year, as President Trump was running for his re -election, to reach the main real estate development site in central Belgrade.

The government is renting the site to Mr. Kushner Real Estate partnership for 99 years, according to Serbian officials. Affinity Global Development, affiliated to Kushner, agreed to build the hotel and luxury apartments in partnership with Mohamed Alabbar, CEO of Business from the United Arab Emirates.

Donald Trump, before his election as president for the first time, while he was still running the real estate family work, first thought about building a hotel in this The exact location in 2013 Trump’s partners Travele to to examine the location. The project did not meet before the election of Mr. Trump in 2016, but Mr. Kushner returned him last year while Mr. Trump was running again to positions.

The hotel project generated large -scale smaller protests in Belgrade even before the deadly railway umbrellas of the railway station collapsed late last year.

Opposition leaders like Mr. Junouni argued that the former Ministry of Defense website was symbolic because he was attacked by the US -led NATO forces in 1999 when Serbia and its current mountain were part of Yugoslavia. The opposition leaders said that he should not be delivered to American real estate developers looking for profit.

“Can you imagine an American president, that is, a president, West Point offers a gift to an external company, just to demolish it and build a hotel?” Alexander Jovanovich, a member of the Serbian parliament, said last year where the deal was negotiated, with a reference to the American Military Academy.

He said at that time: “One must have a vital imagination to imagine it. Unfortunately, what cannot be conceived in America is a tragic fact in Serbia.”

Donald Trump Junior, in addition to a planning presentation in the center of Belgrade by the President of Serbia, conducted an interview for nearly an hour with Mr. Broadcast in recent days On the podcast of Mr. Trump, “I grew up.”

During the conversation, Mr. Trump compared the protests in response to the collapse of the railway station in November to criticism on January 6, 2021, an attack by his father’s supporters on the Capitol in Washington.

“Like us, January 6 has turned into something that was not, until you incite a revolution,” said Mr. Trump during the interview, before continuing the theories that Trump’s allies raised regarding events in Washington.

Mr. Trump and Mr. Fuzic also talked about Russia, the war in Ukraine, and Mr. Fuzic with President Trump during his first term.

Both confirmed separately that funding from the United States Agency for International Development, which has reduced the Trump administration over the past two months, has been used by some incorrectly non -profit groups in Serbia to play a role in the protests, although it has not provided evidence of this claim.

The Serbian president explained the clear support of the Trump family to Mr. Vocic, adding that he believed that he is part of the reason that President Trump is very popular in Serbia.

“This was the country where Trump was enjoying the largest popularity in the entire entire Europe,” said Mr. Vocic. “I do not expel him or not expel you. I say what people think here.”

Andrew Higgins The reports contributed.