Revealed: Serbian ruler’s secret position in ‘unlawful’ effort to assist Trump trade | Serbia

Serbia’s authoritarian ruler personally intervened to advance an allegedly unlawful scheme at hand over a protected web site in Belgrade for a Trump tower, the Guardian can reveal.

Aleksandar Vučić summoned officers to a gathering at his presidential workplaces concerning the venture, which has culminated in a landmark indictment of senior figures from his regime on fees of abuse of public workplace.

The prison case is believed to be the primary ensuing from the Trumps’ global moneymaking campaign, described by critics as a “pay to play” association the place the whole lot from sanctions aid to cutting-edge chips is out there to those that enrich the primary household and their associates.

The alleged scheme to override the protected standing of a historic constructing within the Serbian capital looms over an election scheduled for 25 October, when Vučić will search to increase his 12 years in energy within the face of a mass protest motion spurred by authorities corruption.

A nationalist former propaganda chief beneath Slobodan Milošević, Vučić hosted the US president’s son Donald Trump Jr and son-in-law Jared Kushner in Belgrade as they developed plans for a $500m resort and residential tower so as to add to their world property portfolios.

After the abuse of energy fees had been introduced final December, Kushner’s firm introduced the venture wouldn’t proceed “right now”. Vučić threatened reprisals, calling the prosecutors “corrupt gangs” who “fabricated instances”.

“We have misplaced an distinctive financial backing,” the Serbian president stated. “I’ll personally be certain that everybody who participated in inflicting this injury is held accountable.”

Vučić’s tradition minister is amongst these charged with abuse of energy. But a Guardian investigation, drawing on interviews and leaked paperwork, reveals that the Serbian president himself led the preliminary assembly the place the alleged scheme was mentioned. This essential assembly isn’t talked about within the indictment, elevating questions on what info the prosecutors are holding again and why.

Representatives of the Trumps and Kushner stated they’d no half within the removing of the constructing’s protected standing and that it might be “false” to say the Belgrade venture was a part of a “pay to play” scheme.

Vučić didn’t reply to requests for remark. His determination to name a snap election implies that a listening to at which witnesses would possibly reveal particulars of his involvement won’t happen till after the vote.

A free 99-year lease

On 6 February 2024, Dubravka Đukanović, a Serbian conservation professor in her 60s, arrived for a gathering on the presidency, a domed former royal palace. For three years, she had been the director of the nation’s institute for the safety of cultural monuments.

The matter was the General Staff constructing, the previous Yugoslav ministry of defence in central Belgrade. The constructing, an architectural gem seen as an emblem of resistance to the Nazis, was already cherished when Nato forces bombed it in 1999 throughout its marketing campaign to power Milošević to withdraw from Kosovo, deepening its resonance.

Vučić himself had reaffirmed the General Staff constructing’s legally protected standing in 2016. Now, the president stated he wished Đukanović to rescind it, in response to two individuals with data of the assembly. Some unspecified “overseas investor” was eager on the positioning.

Under Serbian legislation, stripping the General Staff constructing of its protected standing was not in Đukanović’s reward. Her institute must fee an knowledgeable opinion, which must conclude that there have been good the reason why protected standing was now not merited.

But the president wished it performed. At 6ft 6in and illiberal of dissent, Vučić might be intimidating. His tone in the direction of Đukanović and one other heritage official current was disagreeable, the sources stated. He advised them they had been lazy and incompetent. The message was clear: do what I would like or resign.

A believable rationalization for Vučić’s forceful intervention got here the next month, when an settlement between the Serbian authorities and Kushner’s actual property firm leaked.

Married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka, Kushner had been an influential White House aide throughout his father-in-law’s first time period. Since Joe Biden’s victory within the 2020 election, Kushner had been concentrating on his financial backing fund.

By early 2024, Trump was storming to the Republican nomination and was favorite to win the approaching election. If Trump took again the White House, Kushner would as soon as extra be one of the influential individuals on the planet.

The leaked settlement confirmed the Serbian authorities had granted Kushner’s firm a 99-year lease over the General Staff web site, freed from cost.

Kushner, whose spokesperson stated he had been trying on the venture since 2021, posted a picture of the design on X, professing himself “excited”.

The information was not universally welcomed in Belgrade. “Serbia isn’t a buffet, and Vučić isn’t a waiter,” said Aleksandar Jovanović Ćuta, an environmental activist who revealed the settlement. “This isn’t his non-public property.”

Yet Vučić’s regime proceeded to signal a contract, dated 13 May 2024 and seen by the Guardian, enterprise that the “cultural heritage designation” of the positioning can be eliminated “to the satisfaction” of Kushner’s firm.

Comply or resign

The week after the contract was signed, Đukanović was summoned to a different assembly. The president was not there this time. Siniša Mali, his finance minister and right-hand man, took cost.

Mali urged Đukanović and Olivera Vučković, Belgrade’s high heritage official, to cancel the General Staff web site’s protected standing, in response to the indictment’s abstract of testimony the 2 girls would later give prosecutors. It makes no reference to the sooner assembly with the president however signifies that the topic had beforehand been broached.

“Mali requested them if they’d given it any thought,” the indictment says, “and if they’d provoke the process to take away the constructing’s protected standing.”

The girls refused, “believing that the authorized circumstances for it weren’t met”. In that case, Mali advised them, repeating his boss’s ultimatum from February, they need to resign. They did.

In her resignation letter, which the Guardian has seen, Đukanović wrote that she couldn’t agree “to inappropriate interventions that will completely destroy all of the values of the advanced, which testifies to the very best achievements of latest Serbian structure and is of incalculable significance for preserving enduring artistic values, the training of future generations, and the strengthening of the cultural id of the Serbian individuals”.

Approached by the Guardian, Đukanović and Vučković confirmed the accuracy of this account. Đukanović added: “I desire to not make any assertion on this matter whereas the court docket proceedings are ongoing.”

Little was heard of the General Staff plan for months. In November, Trump beat Kamala Harris to win re-election. Ten days later, Vučić’s authorities introduced that the General Staff web site had been stripped of its protected standing.

Keeping it within the household

One of the primary issues Trump did upon regaining the presidency was to ditch the pledge he made in his first time period that his household trade would chorus from doing offers overseas whereas he was in workplace.

“The scale of corruption will likely be orders of magnitude higher than what we noticed within the first Trump administration,” Kathleen Clark, a authorities ethics lawyer at Washington University School of Law, warned on the time. Trump had made it a lot simpler, she stated, to purchase his favour.

The household trade remained formally beneath the management of his two oldest sons, Don Jr and Eric. In January 2025, 4 days after their father’s inauguration, Eric spoke about some new initiatives. The Trumps and the Kushners, New York actual property households united by marriage, had determined to embark on their first enterprise collectively: Kushner’s Belgrade resort and tower would bear the Trump identify.

“It’s going to be enjoyable to convey the household collectively,” Eric told the New York Times. “Serbia is among the fastest-growing international locations in Europe, and we’re extremely honoured to be there.” Kushner, who had travelled to Belgrade for what Vučić known as an “inspiring” assembly with the Serbian chief, added: “Our analysis confirmed that the Trump model can be one of the best for this market.”

That model has loved a surge in demand across the international stage throughout Trump’s second time period, accompanied by allegations that it comes with a quid professional quo.

In Vietnam, Eric was showered with confetti on the groundbreaking ceremony for a £1.5bn golf resort, the permits for which had been granted with uncommon pace. Then Trump halved Vietnam’s tariffs. The Saudis poured cash into Kushner’s fund, and plans emerged for a Trump plaza in Jeddah. Then Trump agreed to promote the dominion new US fighter jets. A cryptocurrency baron’s firm and senior Emiratis reduce a profitable transaction with World Liberty Financial, the digital forex enterprise Don Jr and Eric based. Trump gave the crypto baron a pardon and the Emiratis entry to restricted US chips.

Asked about such offers final yr, Kushner, now a presidential envoy to Russia, Israel and elsewhere, stated: “What individuals name conflicts of pursuits … I name expertise and trusted relationships that we’ve all through the international stage.”

Those who strike up “trusted relationships” with the Trumps, even when there’s not an apparent quid professional quo, achieve one thing much less tangible however possibly nonetheless extra helpful: the aura of friendship with a president who’s pleased to wield his superpower to make or break smaller nations and their leaders.

Vučić has loads in widespread with Trump. Both are pleasant with Vladimir Putin and contemptuous of the EU – in Vučić’s case, regardless of his nation having utilized to affix. A shared disdain for Nato might assist clarify why the one a part of the General Staff constructing’s heritage that the redevelopment pledged to retain was a memorial to the alliance’s “aggression” towards Serbia.

And there’s a lot that Vučić may use US assist with, not least the destiny of Kosovo, which he says continues to be a part of Serbia.

Not lengthy after his father returned to workplace, Don Jr landed in Belgrade. Vučić stated that in their assembly he “emphasised the significance of the financial and political relations between Serbia and the USA and confused the significance of strategic cooperation between the 2 international locations and joint initiatives within the years to come back”. When Don Jr returned the next month, Vučić fed him a alternative sucking-pig.

For Vučić, the assist of the primary household was well timed. Days earlier than his regime stripped the General Staff web site of its safety, the collapse of a canopy at Novi Sad railway station, which killed 16 individuals, triggered rolling protests towards graft. The scholar organisers’ slogan has develop into “Serbia or mafia”.

Don Jr’s go to got here on the eve of the largest demonstration in Serbia’s historical past. He invited Vučić on to his podcast, Triggered, and declared that the Serb ruler’s opponents had been “weaponising” the Novi Sad catastrophe, simply as Trump’s had performed with the Capitol riots after his 2020 election defeat.

But the protesters maintained their momentum, and commenced to rally towards the Trump tower. In May 2025, Vučić went to the US, hoping to go to Trump at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida members’ membership. He acquired to see Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s disgraced lawyer, however not the president. State media reported this was as a result of Vučić fell in poor health.

No sooner was Vučić dwelling than police arrested Goran Vasić, the person who had been put in as head of the heritage institute to switch Dubravka Đukanović following her resignation. To obtain the cancellation of the General Staff constructing’s protected standing, prosecutors stated, Vasic had forged a supportive knowledgeable opinion.

More arrests adopted. In December 2025, Vučić’s tradition minister was indicted for abuse of workplace for his alleged half within the General Staff scheme. Within days, Kushner’s firm introduced the venture was off.

Coup or cover-up?

Vučić’s menace of reprisals was not idle.

His allies attacked Đukanović, claiming that she had tried to revenue personally from her time as a heritage official. Her deputy, who acquired a go to from the state safety service after she went on tv to denounce the cancellation of the General Staff constructing’s safety, has been accused of unrelated misconduct. The Serbian conservators’ trade physique stated this had “the plain purpose of discrediting her”. Both are anticipated to offer proof within the prison proceedings.

For the specialist unit of organised-crime prosecutors who introduced the fees, it is a watershed case. Never earlier than has a serving Serbian minister been indicted.

Vučić accuses the prosecutors of staging a coup. Others, although, worry they’re pulling their punches. That concern elevated when Nikola Selaković, the indicted tradition minister, used a court docket look in April to reveal that, whereas police had been raiding his ministry, he was in his workplace sipping plum brandy and smoking cigarettes with Mladen Nenadić, the pinnacle of the organised-crime prosecutors’ unit. The unit’s spokesperson stated there was “no dialogue relating to the course of the case”.

“In the whole lot that occurred relating to potential investments, I noticed an opportunity for our nation and residents,” stated Selaković, who faces three years in jail if convicted.

Vučić has not been charged. Neither has his lieutenant, Mali. Both deny wrongdoing.

The indictment refers to proof from witnesses who had been current on the Vučić assembly in February 2024 however doesn’t point out it, elevating questions concerning the obvious determination to omit what would look like a key a part of the narrative.

The spokesperson for the organised crime prosecutors’ unit stated that it had proof relating to Vučić’s February 2024 assembly with the heritage officers. Beyond these already indicted, prosecutors had been “conducting pretrial proceedings on this case to find out potential prison legal responsibility of different individuals as nicely”, the spokesperson added.

Vučić has stepped down and can’t search one other time period however is predicted to retain his management over the regime if he’s elected prime minister on 25 October. In one in every of his final acts as president, he issued 49 pardons. Some of the recipients haven’t been recognized and it’s not clear whether or not they embrace defendants within the General Staff case.

The White House referred inquiries to the Trumps’ firm. Its consultant stated: “The Trump Organization has no plans to develop any venture in Belgrade, was by no means, at any level, concerned in any discussions or negotiations to amass any web site in Belgrade and denies any involvement in or data of the alleged claims.”

Kushner’s spokesperson stated: “The suggestion that Jared Kushner pursued the Belgrade venture as a part of any political association or ‘pay to play’ scheme is categorically false.” Rather, it was “a possibility to remodel a web site related to a painful chapter in Serbia’s historical past into a logo of therapeutic and reconciliation, whereas bringing substantial non-public financial backing, jobs and financial alternative to Belgrade”.

The spokesperson added: “Jared had no involvement within the Serbian authorities’s inside processes regarding the web site’s protected standing.”

For all Vučić’s difficulties, the story of the Trump Tower Belgrade doesn’t seem to have put others off doing trade with the primary household. Trump retains stakes in dozens of his firms, even when his sons nominally run them. In July, he launched his monetary disclosure for his first yr again on the White House. It confirmed he had made $2bn.