In Serbia, major controversies have been underway for more than a month linked to a building redevelopment project carried out by Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of former American president Donald Trump, in a place of particular historical importance in the center of Belgrade, the Serbian capital . Kushner, who is a construction contractor, has agreed with the Serbian government to build a series of skyscrapers on the site of the ruins of the old headquarters of the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces, which was bombed by NATO during a military operation to end to ethnic cleansing in Kosovo in 1999.
The problem is that in Serbia the ruins of General Staff, as the building is called by the Serbs (meaning General Staff), are considered a kind of memorial to the suffering suffered by the population during the NATO bombings, and enjoy some urban planning restrictions. For this reason, a significant part of the population is against demolishing them, especially if the new buildings were to be built by the United States, i.e. the country that led the bombing operation 25 years ago.
Then there are political problems linked to the fact that the involvement of the Trump family in a large investment project in Serbia could constitute a conflict of interest in the event that Donald Trump wins the presidency again in the US elections in November.
The ruins of General Staff, a large modernist-style building, occupy two blocks in the center of Belgrade, and are an important part of the Serbian nationalist narrative. The building (which was practically unused at the time) was bombed in 1999 during a NATO operation to stop the ethnic cleansing operations of the Serbian army and militias in Kosovo, which was a pro-independence province of Serbia.
The NATO bombings began after years of war between Serbia and Kosovo, during which Serbia was credibly accused of carrying out ethnic massacres and war crimes: around 13,000 Kosovar Albanians were killed in that period and hundreds of thousands were forced to leave their homes. own homes. The NATO bombings began on March 24, 1999, lasted two and a half months, and although amidst many difficulties and controversies they forced Serbia to withdraw from Kosovo, which was followed by the start of an international peacekeeping operation.
The death counts caused by the bombings are highly contested: according to the Serbian government, for example, the NATO operation killed more than two thousand civilians; according to estimates by some international organizations, the deaths there were around 500, of which however only 200 were Serbs. In any case, the NATO bombings have since become the center of the Serbian nationalist narrative, which presents the country as a victim of an unjustified attack by the West, obviously leaving aside ethnic cleansing and all other precedents.
Il General Staff in this sense it has become one of the fundamental elements of this narrative: for a good part of the Serbs, maintaining an enormous ruined building (and decorated with militarist posters) in the city center is proof that the country was the victim of aggression.
The Generalštab in 2024: the poster with the soldiers reads: «We serve Serbia!» (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
For the Trump family, however, a huge ruined building in the center of a large expanding city is an investment opportunity. Donald Trump had begun to take an interest in the General Staff in 2013, when he had not yet entered politics: then he put forward some proposals, which however were not followed up.
Negotiations resumed in 2020, this time between the Serbian government and the company of Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law who was part of his administration: Kushner would like to demolish a large part of the area and build in its place a complex that includes a luxury, apartments and a museum to commemorate the NATO bombings, among other things.
The project, initially secret, was revealed in February by opposition politician Aleksandar Jovanović Ćuta, who mounted a major political and media case by claiming that the government, led by nationalist Aleksandar Vucic, was selling out national memory to an American company .
Shortly thereafter, Kushner himself made public some representations of the project (as well as another development plan in Albania).
Tens of thousands of Serbs have signed an appeal to prevent the construction of the skyscrapers, and a dispute has also begun linked to the fact that the municipality of Belgrade has imposed urban planning restrictions on the area, which therefore could not be demolished without special permits. For now, however, Kushner and the Serbian government have only reached an agreement in principle and have not defined the details of the plan, which could still be cancelled.
The project for the General Staffas well as by Jared Kushner, is carried out by another famous member of Donald Trump’s former administration: Richard Grenell, already highly contested American ambassador to Germany and then envoy of the US government for the peace negotiations between Serbia and Kosovo.
Richard Grenell and Jared Kushner at the White House in 2020 (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
As an American envoy for negotiations, Grenell built friendly and fruitful relationships especially with members of the Serbian government, to the point that in that period he was accused of strongly siding with the Serbs and against the Kosovars, despite having a role that should have been neutral. : among other things, in 2020 tried to provoke his resignation of Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti, who he considered too hostile.
Grenell maintained excellent relations with Serbia even after the end of the Trump administration: in 2021, for example, he published a video on Instagram of him and Serbian Finance Minister Sinisa Mali partying in a club in Belgrade (curiously, the two sing Hello beautifulwhich in that period, especially thanks to the Netflix series The paper househad become a very popular song in some countries).
If Trump were to return to the presidency, Grenell is one of the possible candidates to become secretary of state, i.e. foreign minister. Also for this reason, the strong ties of two people very close to Donald Trump with the Serbian government are causing concerns related to a possible conflict of interest. Kathleen Clark, professor at Washington University in St. Louis, he said al New York Times that «the concern is that the Serbian government could try to influence a future President Trump by doing business with his family».