Vučić personally pushed protected Belgrade site for Trump tower, Guardian reports
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić personally intervened to advance an allegedly illegal plan to hand over a protected site in Belgrade for a Trump-branded tower, according to a Guardian investigation.
The report says Vučić summoned officials to a meeting at his presidential offices about the project. That meeting, which the investigation identifies as the initial discussion of the alleged scheme, is not mentioned in the subsequent indictment against senior officials. The Guardian
The plans, developed by Donald Trump Jr and Jared Kushner, called for a $500 million hotel and residential tower. The proposed site was the General Staff building, the former Yugoslav ministry of defence in central Belgrade. Vučić had reaffirmed the building's legally protected status in 2016.
On 6 February 2024, Dubravka Đukanović, director of Serbia's institute for the protection of cultural monuments, attended a meeting at the presidency about the building. At that meeting, Vučić asked Đukanović to rescind its protected status, according to two people with knowledge of the meeting.
Serbian prosecutors later charged senior figures from Vučić's administration with abuse of public office over the project, including the culture minister. Prosecutors have alleged the minister used his position to influence or falsify documents to revoke the building's cultural heritage status. The minister was identified in earlier court reporting as Selakovic. There was no indication of wrongdoing by Kushner or his firm, Affinity Global Development, in the prosecutor's case. Reuters
After the charges were brought last December, Kushner's company said the Belgrade project would not proceed "at this time". Vučić rejected the case, calling prosecutors "corrupt gangs" who "fabricated cases" and threatening reprisals. He previously said those who opposed the Belgrade Trump Tower wanted to "destroy Serbia".
Serbia established a joint venture with Kushner's firm in February 2024 to build a hotel, apartments and museum complex on the site. Parliament later passed legislation to allow faster administrative procedures for the firm, a step opposition leaders questioned on constitutional grounds. Thousands of people protested the development and the fast-track law.
The case is pending against a wider political backdrop. Vučić will seek to extend his 12 years in power in an election scheduled for 25 October, and a hearing in the case will not take place until after the vote.
