Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner slammed over plans to ‘transform’ tiny Albanian island with ‘massive’ resort

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner have been hit by a huge backlash after the couple revealed their plans to build a luxury resort on an uninhabited island in the Adriatic Sea.

Sharing the scale of the project on a recent episode of the Founders podcast, Donald Trump's eldest daughter dubbed the venture 'massive' as she outlined her vision for what the project hoped to accomplish.

“I’m working on an incredible project with my husband in the Mediterranean,” she told host David Senra. “It’s massive in scale.”

“I think that’s an understatement,” Senra replied.

“Yes,” Ivanka responded, laughing. “It is.”

The couple's plans have faced a major backlash in recent weeks ( Alex Wong/Getty Images)

The project took a major step forward in late 2024, just before Donald Trump’s second inauguration, when the Albanian government granted preliminary approval for the $1.4 billion luxury complex on Sazan Island, a former Cold War military base. Under the agreement with the Kushner-linked Atlantic Incubation Partners LLC, Albanian officials explicitly retained the right to revoke the decision.

Recalling how they discovered the island years earlier while sailing with a friend, Ivanka described swimming ashore and hiking barefoot to the summit, calling the experience “captivating.”

Kushner’s private equity firm, Affinity Partners, plans to develop the site into an 'eco-resort community.'

According to early renderings, the project will blend luxury villas, hotel rooms, and high-end amenities into the natural landscape.

Ivanka emphasized their commitment to transforming the island with 'restraint and care,' stating that the architecture should fully integrate into and rise from the environment.

“We developed the opportunity to help realize its potential and transform it,” Ivanka said of the island on Sunday.

“But with a lot of restraint and care, because the land is so beautiful that, really, the architecture has to be fully integrated into it, almost rise from it.”

Additionally, the couple is planning a second development on the Zvërnec Peninsula, an ecologically sensitive coastal wetland on Albania’s southwestern coast.

Protestors took to the streets to oppose the project over environmental concerns (Armend NIMANI / AFP via Getty Images)

While the project has been welcomed by Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, who views it as a lucrative opportunity to boost the nation’s tourism industry, critics are far less enthusiastic.

Many fear the devastating environmental impact of the proposed build on local ecosystems, which are home to several protected plant and animal species.

Public opposition has already triggered widespread unrest, as last month, thousands of people took to the streets of Tirana to protest, many carrying placards featuring cardboard cut-outs of pink flamingos—one of the protected migratory bird species along the Adriatic coast.

Further protests took place on Wednesday, June 3, outside Rama’s office, with demonstrators carrying signs bearing the slogan: “Albania is not for sale.”

Unrest has also spread to the southern coastline following the arrival of excavators clearing the land. Workers have since erected a barbed-wire fence around the beach, completely blocking local residents from accessing the shore.