Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner's secret resort deal on Albania's only island has sparked a mass revolt that now threatens to bring down the country's entire government.
Kushner's private equity firm, Affinity Partners, quietly secured rights to build a $1.6 billion luxury resort on Sazan Island — a protected Adriatic nature preserve — and a $4 billion coastal development on a nearby wildlife reserve.
The Albanian government granted the project special investor status, bypassed public tenders, and stripped the land of its protected status — all without disclosing the deal to parliament or the public, WIRED reported.
Heavy machinery rolled in without permits, private security guards dragged away environmental protesters on video, and what critics describe as an alleged "land grab" went viral overnight, the report said.
Hundreds of thousands of Albanians have since flooded the capital, Tirana, under signs reading "Albania is not a Gucci bag on sale," according to WIRED. The movement calls itself the Flamingo Revolution, named after the birds whose protected habitat is under threat of destruction.
Now protesters aren't just demanding the resort be stopped, they want Prime Minister Edi Rama's resignation, a caretaker government, and early elections — a full governmental reset that would put every elected official's job on the line.
Ivanka Trump told a podcaster she and Kushner stumbled onto Sazan by accident during a 2021 yacht trip.
"We were on a friend's boat, and we stopped for a swim. Effectively, that's how we found it," she said, according to PBS NewsHour. Dea Dervishi, an Albanian student, had a pointed response: "She said she discovered the island, but the island belongs to us."
A U.S. Senate investigation found Affinity has pocketed roughly $157 million in fees from foreign governments — including $87 million from Saudi Arabia — while generating zero return for investors.
Kushner simultaneously serves as the president's Middle East envoy. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) called it "a glaring and incurable conflict of interest."
Albania's special anti-corruption prosecutors have opened a formal probe and frozen developer assets. It's a pattern critics recognize: Kushner ran the same play in Serbia, where four government officials were charged with corruption to enable his resort deal. He withdrew from that project in December 2025.
Protesters are organizing a nationwide mobilization on Saturday and are demanding early elections that would put every elected official's job on the line.