Today, Explained - Jared and Ivanka’s accidental revolution

Episode Date: July 1, 2026

Jared and Ivanka Kushner thought they were investing in luxury resorts in Albania. Instead, they sparked the biggest protests the country has seen since the fall of communism. This episode was produced by Dustin DeSoto, edited by Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Gabriel Dunatov, engineered by David Tatasciore and Patrick Boyd, and hosted by Noel King. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner in Egypt last year. Photo by YOAN VALAT/POOL/AFP via Getty Images. Listen to Today, Explained ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members. New Vox members get $20 off their membership right now. Transcript at ⁠vox.com/today-explained-podcast.⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Georgia Senator John Ossoff has been going viral recently with these pithy anti-Trump speeches. You're seeing what I'm seeing, right? The president posting about the Obama's like a Klansman at 1 a.m. A lot of people seem to love him, the people in the crowd, the people who watch after. He's trying to put his face on the money. Did you see that? And therefore, a certain type of political watcher, me, always wants to know what Senator Ossoff is going to seize on next. Most recently, just a few days ago, it was this. There's this beautiful little island off the Albanian coast called Sazan.

And? And Jared Kushner wants it. He went to Jared. Yes, Jared and Ivanka have set their sights on some stretches of heretofore unspoiled land in Albania. They want to build luxury resorts upon that land. And Albanians are in the streets saying loudly, yo. That's no. Coming up on Today Explained.

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slash save. This is today explained. Jacob Weissman is a sustainability reporter for Politico. He's now based in Brussels, but he worked in the Western Balkans, including in Albania, for almost a decade. And so he has been following Lafair Kushner for years now. Yeah, so in 2024 in Albania,

they passed these very controversial amendments with brought about change to this law on protected areas, essentially is what critics and protesters stay opened the door for this luxury tourism resort from Jared Kushner. Kushner's investment firm Affinity Partners is involved in a potential 1.6 billion development of Sazan Island into a luxury resort as well as the nearby wetlands. In this stretch of kilometers of land of wildlife habitat, we plan to build a new city. And then earlier this year, they began construction, and it was met with fierce resistance from local residents and from activists.

This is the video that sparked the uprising people are now calling the Flamingo Revolution. Private security guards violently detained an activist protesting against a luxury development in a protected nature preserve that is a home for the iconic pink bird. You can visibly see they were beginning construction. there were excavators, there were diggers, there were fences being built up. And when I went there myself, you could see that there was a road already built. You could see the foundation from the fences. So that was really what kicked off everything. People saw that in Albania and they got really upset.

And they said, you know what? Enough is enough. We're going to take it to the streets. Across Albania, days of mass protests, with police turning the water cannon on demonstrators filling the streets of the capital. The protests keep growing into Rana, Albania, for days, thousands have gathered and at times have clashed with authorities. All over luxury real estate developments linked to Jared Kushner.

He's one of the investors. Albania belongs only to Albanians and Albania is not for sale. What's there right now? Yes, in this protected area along the southern coast of Albania near the coastal city of Vlora, there is this protected wildlife area, which is home to endangered species of monk seals, to flamingos, to, it's a very popular turtle nesting site. It's a migratory path for birds. And it's a special place that Albanians in that area hold dear to their heart. It's a place where people go fishing, it's a place where people go to the beach with their families. It's an untouched area where you can

really feel the beauty of Albania. And for that to be ruined by excavators and diggers and fences, it's basically that people are saying, no, this is not allowed to happen. How does Ivanka Trump get involved in all of this? Yeah, so on a podcast recently, Ivanka had described a story how she found the island when she was on a friend's yacht and they swam out to the island. We were on a friend's boat and we stopped for a swim. Effectively, that's how we found it. We swam to the islands. We went on a hike, barefoot all the way up to the top and we were just captivated.

And it stayed with us ever since. It's just a very unlikely story because, first of all, the island. Island used to be a military headquarters during the communist era. So there's a danger of explosive mines to remaining across the island. And also, there's a lot of glass everywhere. It's not well kept. And there is a danger of snakes. So when I told the locals about the story, they were like, it's a complete, it's completely false.

There's no way she was able to do that. I mean, the island is a very rugged landscape and making it very difficult to hike barefoot to the top. Not only the island, but we have five miles. of beachfront directly across from the island, this beautiful peninsula with a lagoon on one side, the ocean on the other. I think when the protest began to start, that podcast really began to go viral because people started sharing and people started getting upset hearing what she had to say, you know, just treating Albania like it's her own, you know, personal luxury haven, that she can just

swim out to an island and say, hmm, I want that. And I think it pissed off a lot of Albanians and to the point where it kind of pushed them over the edge. because first you have Kushner and then you have his wife also talking about their country like it's just something that they can take like a toy. Tell me what the protests look like and who's involved? I remember a few years ago, it was really just a couple of hundred people from civil society, environmental organizations.

By the time I got to Albania, it started growing from 10,000 to 20,000, and then it just became this daily routine for Albanians. You would finish work and then you would just go out on the streets and try to Albania is a small country. It's 2.4 million. And now, I mean, there is going up to 100,000, maybe 200,000, and there are people driving from the UK, from Belgium, from Germany to join the protests, and people from driving from all across the country. All over Europe and all over the world, there are people wanting to come to Albania and to protest for Albania.

We want people to be happy and to be able to enjoy our coastline. We don't want to be tourist in our own country. It's the first time that the protest, the protest is at this scale. So I feel like it's just awakening of civic consciousness against this tourism boom in Albania and this foreign investments from Jerry Kushner and Ivanka Trump that they're just busy saying no to. And it's not just, it began with that, but it's now it's become so much more. This prime minister should leave and it's not about anymore flamingos. It's about health care. It's about education. All Albanians together are coming together to protest against corrupted regime.

I mean, if you compare Albania borders Greece, for example. And as we all know, Greece is a, it's a hotspot for Americans and Europeans during the summer, to visit Santorini, to visit Mekonos, to enjoy the island and the blue waters. Albania has a beautiful coast, but they don't have these kind of islands. What they do have is Sazon. So I do feel like if they're going to do something with the island, that belongs, that decision belongs to the Albanian people is what they're saying. So it's very important to understand that Albanians have been through a lot in the last 100 years. They were under a monarchy, they were under

the Nazi occupation, and then they went through a brutal communist regime for 50 years. And finally, their hopes had surfaced once more after the fall of communism. It was a very poor country. It was isolated from the entire world during communism. For more than 50 years, Albania, and its capital Tehrana was so hermetically sealed. They were named the Little North Korea of Europe. Albania was one of the most isolated and repressive communist regimes. People weren't even allowed to talk to foreigners. They were fed a propaganda diet suggesting that theirs was an exemplary society.

And Enver Hodger, who executed thousands, ruled them with an iron fist. And Albania was all alone. People were not allowed to leave the country. So the land is so important to the Albanian And when someone like Kushner comes along, it just wakes up the entire country and says, no, this is ours and you're not going to touch it. And then it becomes something so much more because then you look at the people who are responsible for bringing this investment into the country, who are responsible for the corruption and changing these laws to bring in shady investment deals. And it's basically the awakening of a country and the most historic moment in Albania since the fall of communism. And Albanians themselves, it's still one of the poorest countries in New York.

Europe, people I know and people that have spoken to in Albania, they cannot afford to go to the beach. It's not like in the U.S. where you have public beaches, right? You can go, you can go down the coast in New Jersey or Delaware and you could just plop your umbrella and chair. I mean, Albania doesn't have that kind of infrastructure. If you want to enjoy the beach, you have to pay money. And Albanians cannot afford to drive down to the coast to three hours and pay 20, 30 euros for an umbrella. And you have to order drinks and food. They can't. And they can't. And it's just, for me, it's ridiculous to even try to fathom that people from their own country cannot go and enjoy their own nature and beaches. Supporters of this project would take a look at the circumstances that you're describing.

This is a poor country with a lot of poor people. And what they would say is this is investment. Tourism is investment. It means you build things up. It means people get jobs. It means Albanian people working at the resorts then have money to spend. They would make the kind of trickle down and out argument. Is there a case here? You've been reporting on this. Is there a case that tourism and investment could actually be a boon to Albania's economy and these protests might be short-sighted?

To be fair, there are people I have spoken to who think that tourism is good for the country. I'm not going to say that all the people in Albania think that this is a bad thing, what Kushner is doing. But there is so much suspicion and there's so many allegations of corruption. I mean, the country's track record in the last 20, 30 years. years is not good and does not convince people that there's going to be trickled down economics where you build a resort and they will create jobs and that will add infrastructure and that will bring in investment and that will bring in money to the people people they don't believe that they don't think the money will come to them that's why so many Albanians are leaving the country the mass emigration from Albania is insane you talk to anyone in Albania their only dreams is to leave I mean it's it's depressing I mean you go to a country and all they can think about is leaving their country And Eddie Rama, the Prime Minister, is trying to bring this hope to the country.

Okay, look, we're going to build these resorts. The money's going to come down to you. We're going to keep investing. You have this 750-page document called his plan for Albania, called the Albania Files, where there's several different projects that are spread across the country. But for me and for many people, it just looks like his personal ego art project. And what I mean by that is that it contains all these projects that he has for Albania, for this vision that he has of Albania, for the future, for it to be come into a tourist haven,

a tourist hotspot where many people across the world will flock to. But for me, really, it just seems like he's trying to turn into Dubai. And I think for many people and for Albanians, they don't really trust the fact that these kind of development will be able to feed back into the country. We'll be able to create new jobs. We'll be able to make the country richer because the scale of the scale of the country. corruption that's going on in the country is forcing people to lack trust in the government. And so Rama's vision and the agreement that the Albanian people have with that vision are just not in line anymore.

Politico's Yakub Vizeman. When we return, the protesters say they want Albania's prime minister out. Prime minister's a really interesting guy. Stay tuned for that. Support for today. Explain comes from Service Now. Service Now says AI was supposed to handle the parts of the job that you hate. Instead, it just describes them, suggests what to do about them, and then leaves you to do it.

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You've arrived. Adventure in comfort with Volvo. Whether you prefer gas, plug-in hybrid. or fully electric. There's a Volvo for everyone. Learn more at VolvoCars.ca. This is today explained. We're back with Politico's

Jacob Vizeman. Jacob, tell me about Albania's prime minister. Yeah, Eddie Rama, he's quite a character. And he tries so hard to be funny and he tries so hard to be relatable. When Albany will join the EU, there are three things you can't predict. Three, right?

God, sex, and the EU. mess with the Albanians because if the Albanians curse you, you just disappear. Yeah, I know something about order. I have had several divorces, you know. All right. And he has his own podcast.

Mim Jets. Episodi Zeta Cater. Sezoni in charge, podcasting Flasim. He used to be a basketball player and he was a painter and then he became a teacher. In my previous life, I was an artist.

I still paint. I love art. I love the joy that color can give to our lives. His grandfather was the chauffeur for the King of Albania back in the 1930s. His father was a famous sculpture that had connection with the communist regime. And Eddie Rama, what can you say? I mean, he's iconic for his white basketball sneakers that he wears to meetings with European leaders. He's been cursing nonstop in interviews.

This is an ideological bull-h-h-st... At the same time, he's striking these billion-dollar deals or negotiating. He is not striking. No, again, you have to understand again. And based on this character that I'm describing, he's this six-six tall basketball player who turned politician.

Listen, I'm the Prime Minister of Albania. I'm the tallest among them, but I represent a small country, so it's not up to me to think about all the big things. who's been in power for 13 years. You describe Albania as a country in which a lot of people are still very poor. What is his vision for Albania? What's he done for the economy? Well, he kind of has this dream of Albania of becoming the Maldives of Europe.

He wants Albania to become the next hot spot for tourism. Have you ever heard of a law of the land that proclaims our houses belong to God and the guys? Well, such a law was written in medieval Albania and has since become an integral part of the Albanian way of life. He wants people to continue visiting the country. And the tourism boom has been enormous in the last 10 years. I mean, it has tripled in size from 4 million to now 12 million, maybe even 13 million. This is one of the countries that have been with the highest increase in tourism across Europe. And he has this vision for Albania and he feels, he feels frustrated that people don't see that.

This has come as one of the culminations of a long, long, long, tortuous path to turn Albania from a place where no investors wanted to come. The only way to create this tourist paradise of Albania is to bring in this foreign investment like Kushner. This is a blessed for the country, an investment of 4 billion euro in a country that has 27 and a bit more billion euro GDP speaks by itself. You interviewed the prime minister. What did he tell you about these protests? He said that they wouldn't give a shit if it wasn't for Jared Kushner, which is basically, you know, devoid. himself of any blame for what is happening. He's saying that the reason why people are so upset

is because it's linked to Jared Kushner and the Trump family, and that these protests are designed as some kind of anti-Trump revolution. And he's saying that there's been foreign interference from Iranian hackers and the government. I'm not saying that who is protesting in the street is an Iranian agent. I'm saying that there is a lot of manipulation. There is a lot of, a lot of,

a lot of half-truths that become bigger and bigger lies by the hour. And then the Iranian foreign ministry themselves responded, saying as a joke, that the flamingos must be the secret agents. And then he's also, because Jared Kushner is Jewish, he was involved in the Abraham Accords. And he's trying to say that there's also this narrative of anti-Semitism that is also going on at the moment. and his Jericho's ties with Israel.

There's been these conspiracy theories that have been circulating online, that this resort will become a place where Palestinians will be repopulated from Gaza or it will become an Israeli safe haven. He's saying that there is foreign interference. This is the same kind of thing that the former communist dictator, Albania and Verhocho used to do and say that there is foreign interference from the West and from China

and that we are being infiltrated by Stalinist agents. This is the same thing. he's doing now, pointing on Iran, pointing at anti-Semitism, pointing at, you know, anti-Trump. It's the same kind of tactics. What do you think about this guy's political future? Is it at risk now? Well, for one, for starters, Albania had elections last year. He won by an overwhelming majority. If you look at the report on these elections from these, these independent observers that are launched by these international organizations, there have been reports of intimidation, vote buying, meddling.

I mean, there have been so many issues, people taking issues of how the elections were held. And I'm not disputing that he is the popular leader that was elected. But you can see that there have been accusations of how he has kept his power. The people around him have been sent to jail. You know, the person that was primed to take over from him, Erion Velia, he was brought into jail on corruption allegations. still sitting in jail. Then the deputy minister of Albania was dismissed because of allegations surrounding corruption as well. And then before that, a few years ago, their former deputy prime minister, he fled the country and is now in exile in Switzerland. So you can see that

everyone around him is just linked to corruption in some kind of way. And this is really, I think, he's starting to feel the heat. But he's also confident that he has the support of the country. It doesn't matter if it's 500,000. He thinks that the rest of the two million people in the country are still in favor of him, and that he has the backing of Israel, and he has the backing of the U.S., and there is no viable opposition, so he can do what he wants. Why does he have the backing of Israel in the United States? What's the relationship there? Yeah, that's a fair question. Albania was one of the only, if not the only country in during World War II that actually had an increase of Jewish population. We know that the people,

of Albania, where are not merely good friends today of the people of Israel, but in the crucial period of the Holocaust. They saved Jews during World War II, where they gave them fake identities, dressed them with Albanian clothing. And so the connection between Israel and Albania has been very strong for many, many years. And this comes to blows when someone who is Jewish like Kushner and has connection with Israel, and I'm not sure how as far as we can argue that his connection when Israel goes, other than the fact that he was involved in the Abraham Accords.

So you have this triangle, right? And it's kind of closing in on Rama to the point where he's saying that he needs to preserve these relationships. So I think he views the relationship with Israel and the U.S. as a priority. And he thinks that he needs to keep this project that Kushner is involved in going in order to preserve that relationship with the U.S. Ultimately, whether Rama keeps his position or not would seem to depend on whether these protests burn out or not.

So as you observe people going out into the streets and making demands, do you get the sense that they are in this for the long haul? Or do you think that this is something that, you know, burns itself out? I really want to say it doesn't burn itself out. I really don't. Because I do think that albanes have been frustrated

for so many years. You know, there was so much hope for the future of the country when communism fell in 1991. The Albanian people have been through so much, you know, older generations and younger generations. And you can really feel the frustration when you talk to the protesters. But at the same time, these protesters don't have a clear leader.

It's people's movement. It's not as if they're looking to someone and saying, you are going to be the one to lead us, you know, you're going to be the one to part. the Red Sea and lead us out of the waters. They have a list of demands. They want Roma and the opposition, the opposition in Saudi-Bedish,

have both of them to leave because they've both been the same two people in power since the fall of communism. And they want their projects to be cancelled. But at the end of the day, where's the direction that they're headed? There are very small opposition parties that barely have any power in the government.

Is this the time? Is this creating the space for someone else? to emerge and say, I'm here to lead the way for Albania into democracy and enough with this corruption and democratic backsliding. I want to believe that that eventually will happen, but I don't know what direction in the protests are headed in now because Rama has refused to resign. That was Jakub Weissman of Politico. Thanks so much to him. Dustin Dissota produced today's show and Amina El Sadi edited David Tadishore and Patrick Boyd engineered and Gabriel Donatub checks the facts. I'm Noel King. It's today explained.