Jared Kushner Faces Backlash Over New Luxury Hotel

Protests sparked in Belgrade on Thursday after the Serbian government announced it had reached a deal with Jared Kushner to develop a luxury hotel complex on the site of a former army headquarters in the country's capital.

Serbia's Ministry of Construction, Transportation and Infrastructure (MGSI) said in a press release that the government had approved a contract with an affiliate of Kushner's investment fund, Affinity Partners, for the complex to be built on the site of the former Yugoslav Ministry of Defense, which was destroyed in a NATO bombing campaign in 1999.

Kushner, son-in-law of former President Donald Trump, has faced backlash from Democrats in the past over his foreign business deals. His firm has drawn particular attention over a $2 billion investment that he received from a fund led by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, which Kushner collected six months after he left the White House in his role as senior adviser on Middle Eastern policy.

According to MGSI, the site of the luxury complex will be leased to Kushner for "99 years," meaning that the land will remain as property of the Serbian government. Kushner has also agreed to build and finance a "memorial complex dedicated to all the victims" of the NATO bombing at the site, according to the release.

Kushner confirmed approval of the deal in a statement shared with The New York Times, saying that the "economic progress in Serbia over the past decade has been impressive."

"This development will further elevate Belgrade into the premier international destination it is becoming," he added.

A handful of protesters gathered at the site of the planned construction on Thursday, according to the Times report, blocking traffic and holding signs that read, "Stop Giving Army HQ as a Present to American Offshore Companies."

In a video shared to X, formerly Twitter, by Serbian parliament member Dragan Jonic, four lawmakers of the progressive political movement Ecological Uprising are shown interrupting traffic at the site and holding up signs.

Jonic told the Times that some Serbians object to the deal with Kushner due to America's role in the bombing at the site in 1999.

"Somebody is trying to clear up the mess that they did, and they are not those who should do anything in this place," Jonic told the outlet. "We'll use all the legal means and civil disobedience to stop this."

Newsweek reached out to Kushner's firm for additional comment via email on Thursday.

Democrats previously attacked Kushner's foreign development deals as "corruption," given that his father-in-law is campaigning for a second term in the White House. Kushner is also looking to build two luxury buildings on the coast of Albania.

"Jared Kushner is back to brokering major deals with foreign governments per new reports today," Democratic Representative Robert Garcia said in a post to X in March. "We've already exposed his $2 billion investment fund with the Saudis, and we are pushing hard to ensure this grift gets the attention it demands. This is real corruption."

An opposition group in Serbia also petitioned the government in March, seeking to block the deal with Kushner, arguing that under law, the site of the former army building can only be restored to its original function, according to a report by the Associated Press.