Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić personally pressed officials to strip protected status from a landmark Belgrade military complex so Jared Kushner’s firm could build a $500 million Trump-branded tower on a 99-year, rent-free lease, the Guardian reported Thursday in an investigation that names a February 2024 meeting at the presidency not referenced in Serbia’s criminal charges.
The report lands two weeks before a snap election on 25 October in which Vučić is seeking to extend more than a decade of power while student-led protests over corruption continue to fill Belgrade’s streets. Prosecutors already indicted Culture Minister Nikola Selaković and others over the General Staff site; Kushner’s Affinity Partners withdrew the project in December 2025 after those charges. Representatives for the Trumps and Kushner told the Guardian they had no role in removing heritage protection and rejected any “pay to play” framing.
What the meeting allegedly changed
According to the Guardian, conservation institute director Dubravka Đukanović was summoned on 6 February 2024 to Vučić’s offices in the former royal palace. Two sources said the president demanded she rescind protection for the General Staff building — a Yugoslav-era ministry complex bombed by NATO in 1999 and later treated as a symbol of resistance. Serbian law required an expert opinion before any downgrade; the sources said Vučić told Đukanović and another heritage official they were lazy and should comply or resign.
A leaked government agreement the following month showed Belgrade had granted Kushner’s company a 99-year lease on the site without charge. A contract dated 13 May 2024, seen by the Guardian, committed authorities to remove the cultural-heritage designation “to the satisfaction” of Kushner’s company. Finance Minister Siniša Mali then pressed the same officials again, the indictment’s summary of their testimony says; when they refused, they resigned. Đukanović’s resignation letter, which the Guardian published, warned that political intervention would destroy architectural values “of incalculable importance” for Serbia’s cultural identity.
From indictment to election clock
Protected status was cancelled in November 2025, after Donald Trump’s return to the White House and days before Eric Trump and Kushner publicly tied the Belgrade plan to the family brand. Demonstrators rallied against both Vučić’s government and the tower; prosecutors later said forged expert paperwork cleared the way. Vučić has called the case a coup by corrupt prosecutors and threatened reprisals against those he blames for scaring off investment.
The organised-crime prosecution unit’s spokesperson told the Guardian it has evidence regarding the February meeting and is conducting pretrial work on other potential defendants. Vučić did not respond to the newspaper’s requests for comment. Because he called the election, a hearing where witnesses might elaborate on his role is now expected only after the vote, the Guardian noted — leaving voters to weigh the Trump Tower scandal against a protest movement whose slogan has become “Serbia or mafia.”