While Trump is taking apart the systems that monitor oceans in America and cutting back on environmental protections at home, his son-in-law Jared Kushner is pushing to destroy protected wetlands in Albania to create a $4 billion luxury resort. Thousands of Albanians are protesting in the streets to stop him.
This project, connected to Kushner’s company Affinity Partners, would cover 2.5 square kilometers of the safeguarded Vjosa-Narta coastal area, which is home to flamingos, Mediterranean monk seals, and places where sea turtles lay their eggs.
The development is set to include around 10,000 hotel rooms and villas on Adriatic coastland that Albanian laws were specifically made to protect.
In early May, machines started clearing out pine trees and sand dunes.
Barbed-wire fences were put up, blocking locals and tourists from beaches they have enjoyed for generations. A video went viral showing private security guards forcefully dragging a peaceful protester along a cliff.
This incident sparked outrage.
Thousands took to the streets of Tirana for two days, chanting “Albania belongs to Albanians” and calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama, who has been supporting the project by changing laws about protected areas since 2024—changes that are now being looked into by Albania’s own anti-corruption prosecutors.
SPAK, the special anti-corruption office in Albania, has opened an investigation into how the protected status of Vjosa-Narta was quietly changed to allow Kushner’s resort to go ahead.
Two private security firms had their licenses taken away after the incident with the protesters, and fifteen demonstrators have been charged. The local police chief has lost his job.
This is the same Jared Kushner who got a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia’s wealth fund right after leaving the White House at the end of Trump’s first term.
He has been using his connections with the Trump family to strike deals abroad in the Middle East and Europe, while his father-in-law manages U.S. foreign policy.
Flamingos and monk seals don’t have lobbyists, and protected coastlines don’t donate to political campaigns.
But Kushner has a very well-known father-in-law, and it seems that the Albanian government believed that was enough reason to harm their own environment. Now, the people of Albania are making their voices heard—loudly.
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