Kushner’s Trump Belgrade plans crushed, Paramount deal ditched

Maybe Jared should read The Art of the Deal, he’s not very good at this.

Jared Kushner, private equity firm manager and son-in-law to President Trump, has ended his efforts to redevelop a Serbian historical monument into a luxury hotel complex after weeks of protest and controversy.
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The land in question is the site of the 78-day NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999. The attack by NATO was part of an effort to end then-President Slobodan Milosevic’s violent ethnic cleansing of Albanians living in Kosovo, which resulted in the death of 13,000 people (mostly ethnic Albanians). NATO bombed bridges, military buildings, and government buildings.

I am sure it is just a coincidence that anyone involved with this administration wants to eradicate a culturally-protected site that is a memorial to the fight against genocide.

In May, Kushner’s company and the Serbian government signed a deal for a 99-year lease of the land under the bombed-out buildings, promising “revitalization”—meaning a high-rise hotel, office space, and stores. It was set to be a $500 million project, with Kushner’s company building a separate memorial for the bombing elsewhere.

And if you believe that, you’ll believe these lip kits sold by Melania Trump’s makeup artist are worth $90 and are made in America.

This set off widespread protests and triggered the indictment three Serbian government officials who were involved in the deal.

According to Serbian organized crime prosecutors, however, the Serbian agencies empowered to lift the designation on the property refused to do so. Serbian officials, prosecutors allege, then forged documents claiming that the property was no longer culturally protected.

The allegation was first made public in May 2025, when prosecutors announced “the arrest of Goran Vasic, the acting director of the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, and said he had admitted fabricating an expert’s opinion.” Vucic was undaunted. He said there were no forgeries and vowed that the Kushner development would continue.

In November, in an effort to circumvent the forgery issue, the Serbian parliament passed emergency legislation to remove the cultural designation and allow the Trump Tower project to proceed. The passage of that legislation prompted a wave of youth protests. Thousands “symbolically formed a human shield… around a bombed-out military complex, vowing to protect it from redevelopment.”

Nevertheless, the Trump Tower project continued until Monday when prosecutors criminally charged Nikola Selakovic, one of Vucic’s closest political allies, and three other officials. Selakovic and the others were accused of “falsification of an official document” and other crimes.

At which point JK brave Sir Robined the hell out of there. But don’t worry, none of his money was harmed in the making of this fiasco.

His firm is also backing out of Paramount’s attempt to buy Warner Brothers.

Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners is exiting the takeover battle for Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. in a political and financial blow to a foundering hostile takeover bid for the fabled studio.

The private equity firm withdrew its backing of Paramount Skydance Corp.’s proposal to buy Warner Bros., which the studio plans to reject.