Ivanka Trump appeared on a podcast Sunday and shared the story of discovering a remote Albanian island from a friend’s yacht, swimming ashore and hiking barefoot to the summit. “We were just captivated,” she said. Around the same time, thousands of Albanians were taking to the streets of Tirana chanting “Albania is not for sale” and calling for their prime minister’s arrest.
What followed was part of a larger debate already building around Kushner and Ivanka’s plans in Albania.
What They’re Actually Building and Where
Kushner’s Affinity Partners plans to build a $1.4 billion luxury resort on Sazan, an uninhabited former Soviet military base that still contains unexploded ordnance in some areas. The Albanian government is actively clearing the remaining munitions as part of the project’s preparation, a detail that has not featured prominently in Ivanka’s podcast descriptions.
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Nearby, a separate $4.7 billion development is planned for the Vjosa-Narta coastal wetlands near Zvërnec, a protected habitat home to flamingos, Mediterranean monk seals and sea turtles. Both locations received strategic investor status from the Albanian government in December 2024, weeks after Trump’s reelection. That sequence is precisely what prosecutors are now examining.
Why Albanians Have Been in the Streets for Four Days
The protests had been building since spring, when construction fencing and barbed wire appeared around Sazan Island and the protected wetlands. What accelerated everything was the combination of Ivanka’s podcast interview and videos circulating online of private security guards physically removing demonstrators from the construction site.
Thousands gathered in Tirana for four consecutive nights, chanting “Thieves!” alongside “Albania is not for sale” and demanding Prime Minister Edi Rama’s arrest. Albania’s Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutors opened a formal investigation into the project on Monday, giving the unrest institutional weight it had not previously carried.
The Environmental Case Against the Project
The opposition has become organized and increasingly vocal. 41 environmental groups across Europe sent a letter to the Albanian government in January asking for an immediate suspension of all decisions connected to the project. Their concern centers on the coastal wetlands, which sit within a protected national park and serve as critical habitat for species that cannot relocate while construction proceeds.
The legal changes that allowed construction in environmentally protected areas were made in 2024 under legislation critics say was drafted specifically to enable this project. That legislation is now part of the formal corruption investigation.
How a Podcast Interview Made Everything Worse
Ivanka’s description of the development generated its own reaction entirely separate from the environmental debate. “I’m working on an incredible project with my husband in the Mediterranean. It’s massive in scale,” she told host David Senra. She went further, describing it as “the culmination of all of my experience in real estate, all of my travel, a lot of reflection on how I want to live.”
Daily Show anchor Michael Kosta responded: “And for those of you who are thinking, hey, before buying a private island, shouldn’t billionaires maybe read the room? What you don’t understand is, the island doesn’t have rooms yet. They can’t lay the foundation for those rooms until they burn down all those stupid trees.”
The Prime Minister Who Won’t Back Down
Edi Rama has not moved despite four nights of protests and a formal corruption investigation. “There is absolutely no chance that the investment will stop as long as I am here,” he said Tuesday. His government stripped two private security companies of their licenses and arrested one guard after the footage of protesters being physically removed spread online.
The Saudi Money, the Trump Envoy and the Belgrade Precedent
Questions around Kushner’s business activity extend well beyond Albania. Nearly all of Affinity Partners’ funding comes from foreign government wealth funds, primarily Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE. Kushner was introduced to the Albanian opportunity through Richard Grenell, Trump’s envoy for special missions, who The Guardian has described as acting as Affinity’s business broker in the region.
A previous Kushner development in Belgrade, Serbia collapsed in December 2025 after four government officials were charged with abuse of power connected to the project. Affinity said it withdrew “out of respect for the people of Serbia.” The Albanian investigation remains open while protesters continue filling the streets, and the flamingos, for now, still have not released a statement.
Featured image via X screengrab
