Journalists were not granted access to the official signing of the document between Vesić and Asher Abehsera, a longtime Kushner associate who represented Affinity Partners in Belgrade.
Instead, a press release and one photograph of the signing were published on the ministry website. This was despite promises from Vesić before the signing that the process would be more transparent going forward.
Negotiations for reconstructing the Yugoslav army headquarters with Trump and his family date back to 2013. At that time, then-Prime Minister Ivica Dačić revealed Trump’s interest in building a luxury hotel on the prime Belgrade real estate.
The current government was forced to admit its negotiations with Affinity Partners after an opposition politician leaked details of the deal earlier this year.
“We will restore the building 25 years after it was destroyed in the bombing. In a quarter of a century, no one, before this government, thought of renovating the complex,” Vesić’s statement added.
Trump’s anti-establishment stances and his embrace of autocrats align well with Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, who recently organized a grandiose welcome for Chinese President Xi Jinping and refuses to participate in sanctions against Russia. Critics suspect that leveraging deals with his son-in-law might be a way to pay forward for potential favors in the event of a second Trump administration.
