Ivanka Trump was criticized over her tone-deaf plans to develop Sazan Island, an off-grid island off the coast of Albania, into a private resort with her husband, Jared Kushner.
The development will reportedly include 10,000 hotel rooms and villas along a stretch of ecologically sensitive coastline encompassing the Vjosa-Narta lagoon and the nearby island of Sazan. According to Newsweek, the resort "spans wetlands and coastal habitats known for supporting bird migration routes and marine wildlife, which environmental groups say could be at risk."
Trump—a former senior adviser to her father President Donald Trump who's been more low-profile during his second term—told podcaster and entrepreneur David Senra that the idea for the resort, funded through Kushner's private equity firm, Affinity Partners, struck her during a boating trip with friends.
She said:
"I'm working on an incredible project with my husband in the Mediterranean. It's massive in scale. ... It's a wonderful, unbelievable 1,400 hectacre private island in the middle of the Mediterranean."
"We were on a friend's boat, and we stopped for a swim. Effectively, that's how we found it. We swam to the island, 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."
"Over the course of many years, we developed the opportunity to help realize its potential and transform it, 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."
"You know, it's not even a business for me, despite the scale of it. Not only the island, but we have five miles beachfront directly across from the island, this beautiful peninsula with a lagoon on one side, the ocean on the other, beautiful white sand beaches."
"For me, this feels more like a challenge than anything else. The culmination of all of my experience in real estate, all of my travel, a lot of reflection on how I want to live, how I think people increasingly want to live, and trying to really build something that's a tangible manifestation of that requires a lot of vision and the collaboration of some of the greatest masters that exist."
"I was there, walking the land, really just trying to be with it and experience it alongside some of the greatest living architects of our time, true masters of their craft, people with their integrity so absolute, there will be no compromise."
You can hear what she said in the video below.
Ivanka Trump's announcement of the project comes as Americans struggle with a nationwide affordability crisis that is hurting them in grocery stores and at the gas pump in particular as her father's widely unpopular war with Iran continues to worsen a global energy crisis.
She was swiftly called out.
As optimistic as Ivanka Trump sounds, the project is facing increasing scrutiny as Albanian authorities investigate land-use decisions tied to the development and protests continue to grow.
Albania's Special Prosecution Office Against Corruption and Organized Crime has launched an inquiry into 2024 decisions that changed the legal status of portions of the country's southern coastline, including areas near the Vjosa-Narta lagoon and Sazan Island.
Investigators are examining whether the reclassification of previously protected land helped pave the way for the tourism project, which received government approval in late 2025 from Edi Rama, the country's prime minister.
Demonstrations have spread across Albania. For instance, thousands gathered in the capital, Tirana, raising concerns about government transparency, environmental protections, and the approval process for major foreign-backed developments. While most demonstrations have been peaceful, some confrontations between protesters and security personnel have been reported.
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