Trump Associate Corruption in the Balkans is Harming America’s Reputation and Diminishing Us.

America is playing small ball.

Jared Kushner, Rod Blagojevich, Richard Grenell, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Rudy Giuliani all have three important things in common: 

1. Fealty to Donald Trump. 

2. Pay-to-play business deals that cash in on reversing American security interests.

3. An affinity for the Balkans – specifically, corrupt Serb nationalists. 

More is happening with their activities in Serbia than the usual grift of the Trump inner circle. Saudi, UAE, Chinese, Russian, and Hungarian money has appeared there conspicuously. Serbian President Aleksander Vučić has put out the welcome mat for capital from corrupt and authoritarian sources, and several associates of the president of the United States appear to be at the very center of this payday. 

Why Serbia? 

In the late 1990s, when the five families of New York were under legal assault from, ahem, Rudy Giuliani, they began to retreat from their ostentatious clubs and flashy lifestyles into darker establishments. A similar phenomenon is underway as corrupt, authoritarian capital gathers in the Balkan hinterlands. Members of Autocracy, Inc. seek out this lawless sanctions-evasion oasis. Of course, now, Autocracy, Inc. is on the rise, and, instead of the US government trying to shut this down, Americans tied to the administration are right in the middle of it.  

The Corrupt International

Belgrade is becoming an authoritarian Switzerland. Chinese, Saudi, Emirati interests – you name it, they’re all here. The former propaganda minister for Slobodan Milošević convinced the Biden administration into believing he was a reliable partner. This resulted in the US agreeing to his ethno-nationalist policy proposals in Bosnia and Kosovo that destabilized the region for Moscow’s benefit. Now, the Trump administration is his ally. 

The MAGA Hustle

President Donald Trump has assembled a strong delegation to help him.  

Jared Kushner

I’ve written twice about Jared’s Affinity Partners. To recap, the Saudis funded it with $2 billion. The Saudis are also bankrolling Affinity’s Partners’ tower in Belgrade, which naturally is leasing the Trump name and has drawn fierce opposition because the Serbian government gave him the lease to build a hotel on top of a national symbol for free. He has two other projects in Albania—one in a former ecological preserve and the other near another major Emirati investment on the Balkan coast. 

Rudy Giuliani

America’s Mayor, whom you can hire for no more than $50,000, recently surfaced in Banja Luka, Bosnia, where he met with Milorad Dodik, previously sanctioned by the US, and declared, “Let’s make Republika Srpska [RS] great again.” Here, it’s necessary to point out that Dodik was placed under US sanctions and charged by the Bosnian government for his rhetoric stoking secession, the last attempt at which led to the 1990s Bosnia War and the first genocide in Europe since the Second World War. 

Giuliani traveled to Bosnia with an arms dealer and the founder of the Serbian-American Political Action Committee, just after having been spotted at Mar-A-Lago alongside Donald Trump. 

Rod Blagojevich

I’ve also written about former Gov. Blagojevich. Fresh off his recent pardon from President Trump, he landed a new job as RS’s lobbyist in Washington. Recall, Dodik, the RS President, is under sanctions. That means for Blagojevich to register legally (and, to be clear, he has), he would need a license from the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). The RS has at least one more lobbyist, which means OFAC gave at least one more license. Zell and Associates lists one goal of the contract as: “To eliminate the sanctions imposed by the Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).” That Trump 2.0 entered office intending to lift Serbian sanctions and scratch the back of a lobbyist with an office in Moscow really isn’t surprising. However, his FARA registration was executed on January 13th. So, I have questions. 

Trump, Jr. 

During fierce student protests, Donald Trump Jr. made a conspicuously public trip to Belgrade in March. During the visit, which gave Vučić breathing room and talking points about American support, he interviewed Vučić for his “Triggered” podcast. And during that interview, Trump Jr. compared Serbia’s brave students protesting for democracy to the January 6 seditionists. Serbs appear to want Vučić gone. But a son of the president of the United States thinks a guy who, among many other things, reportedly used a sonic weapon on peaceful protestors, should stick around. 

Eric Trump 

Eric supposedly runs the company that leases its brand to the Belgrade hotel, being developed by Kushner’s Affinity Partners and Emirati billionaire Mohamed Alabbar. As Serbian MP Aleksandar Jovanovix said, “Can you imagine an American president, any president, giving West Point as a gift to an offshore company, only to demolish it and build a hotel?” He failed to point out that it will be built in the style of authoritarian chic. Eric Trump runs the company that will carry the Trump brand – and America’s. That hotel will, among other things, have a memorial to “victims of NATO aggression," a reference to the soldiers killed in the Serb Army barracks on the site that NATO bombed to stop the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo in 1999. 

Just three months ago, Kosovo, one of the most pro-American countries in the world, was an ally. Now, the US has begun cozying up to a Serbian regime known for its anti-Americanism, led by the former propaganda minister for the Serbian president, Slobodan Milošević – the man who committed that ethnic cleansing – and that manages an economy, 20% of which is estimated to be illicit.  

Ric Grenell

The only American of these six decorated by the Serbian government, Grenell has a close relationship with Serbian Foreign Minister Marko Djurić, who called Kosovo, “Our southern province.” In 2020, Grenell was involved in and encouraged the collapse of the Kosovar government. Maybe that’s why? Of course, he collaborated with Kushner’s developments in the region, including in the Albanian development project in the former national park. According to a Carnegie analyst, “The Balkans, for Grenell, is a hot zone to manage and profit from rather than a key frontier region to engage strategically, especially in light of Russia’s ambitions.”

Which pretty much sums up America’s new brand. 

Instead of standing with the brave democracy protestors in Belgrade, our government’s cronies instead stand behind Vučić as he builds an authoritarian playground with cash from China, Saudi Arabia, Russia, UAE, Qatar, Hungary, and surely others – a lot of it funneled through America’s First Son-in-Law.

This makes America small. 

And unpopular. 

And on the wrong side of history. 

We used to support democratic movements and stand for freedom. Now our nation strives for gaudy real estate deals in Russian proxies. The silence of Congress and our business community speaks volumes. When my co-authors and I wrote our Foreign Affairs essay about strategic corruption, we had in mind authoritarians like Putin buying off smaller, developing countries, not those developing countries buying us. 

But we sold out for a tacky hotel.  

Call to Action

I’m committed to shining a light on the agency that we can all take to change things. This is the scandal hiding in plain sight that you should really care about. I know Americans have become immune to the endless litany of President Trump’s dealings, some shady, others overtly corrupt in our eyes. But this is different. This is Trump's sons and enablers profiting off what your country has spent decades building. This is your heritage. Your reputation. And Jared Kushner is cashing it in. 

Call your representatives and tell them to start holding the administration to account. Call journalists. It seems almost impossible that the Republicans will control the House in 18 months. And at that point, the Democrats should spend every day for the next two years investigating this and highlighting how corrosive these actions have been to our democracy and reputation around the world. The pro-democracy coalition needs to point to what’s going on in Serbia and make sure the princelings know there will be hearings and accountability. Where is everyone? 

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