Indictment omits February 2024 meeting with heritage officials
The Guardian’s investigation, drawing on interviews and leaked documents, reports that Vučić himself led the initial meeting at which the alleged scheme was discussed — a meeting that is not mentioned in the indictment, though the indictment refers to evidence from witnesses who were present and indicates the subject had “previously been broached.” According to two people with knowledge of the meeting, Vučić summoned Dubravka Đukanović, then director of Serbia’s institute for the protection of cultural monuments, and another heritage official to the presidency — a domed former royal palace — and told them he wanted the General Staff building’s legally protected status rescinded to make way for an unspecified “foreign investor.”
The General Staff building, the former Yugoslav ministry of defence in central Belgrade, had been an architectural landmark cherished as an emblem of resistance to the Nazis long before NATO forces bombed it in 1999 during the campaign to force Slobodan Milošević to withdraw from Kosovo. Vučić had himself reaffirmed the building’s legally protected status in 2016. Under Serbian law, stripping it of protection was not in Đukanović’s authority; her institute would have had to commission an expert opinion finding the protections no longer merited. The sources said Vučić’s tone toward the officials was “unpleasant” and that he called them “lazy and incompetent,” conveying that they should comply or resign.
A plausible explanation for the president’s intervention came the following month, when an agreement between the Serbian government and Kushner’s real estate company leaked showing that the Serbian authorities had granted Kushner’s company a 99-year lease over the General Staff site, free of charge. Kushner, whose spokesperson said he had been looking at the project since 2021, is a former White House aide during Trump’s first term who is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka. He posted an image of the design on X and said he was “excited.” The news drew sharp reaction in Belgrade. “Serbia is not a buffet, and Vučić is not a waiter,” said Aleksandar Jovanović Ćuta, an environmental activist who revealed the agreement. “This is not his private property.”
A contract dated 13 May 2024, seen by the Guardian, committed the Serbian government to removing the building’s “cultural heritage designation” “to the satisfaction” of Kushner’s company. The week after the contract was signed, Đukanović was summoned to a second meeting, this one led by Siniša Mali, the finance minister and, according to the Guardian, Vučić’s right-hand man. According to the indictment, Mali asked the heritage officials if they had “given it any thought” and whether they would initiate the procedure to remove the building’s protected status. When they refused, citing the absence of legal grounds, Mali repeated the president’s earlier ultimatum, and both women resigned. In her resignation letter, which the Guardian has seen, Đukanović wrote that she could not agree “to inappropriate interventions that would permanently destroy all the values of the complex, which testifies to the highest achievements of contemporary Serbian architecture and is of incalculable importance for preserving enduring creative values, the education of future generations, and the strengthening of the cultural identity of the Serbian people.” Đukanović and Olivera Vučković, Belgrade’s top heritage official, confirmed the accuracy of this account to the Guardian. Đukanović added: “I prefer not to make any statement on this matter while the court proceedings are ongoing.”
Little was heard of the General Staff plan for months. In November 2024, Trump won re-election, defeating Kamala Harris. Ten days later, Vučić’s government announced that the General Staff site had been stripped of its protected status.
By early 2024, Trump was storming to the Republican nomination and was favourite to win the coming election; if he took back the White House, Kushner would once more be one of the most influential people on the planet. One of the first things Trump did upon regaining the presidency was to ditch the pledge he made in his first term that his family business would refrain from doing deals abroad while he was in office. “The scale of corruption will be orders of magnitude greater than what we saw in the first Trump administration,” Kathleen Clark, a government ethics lawyer at Washington University School of Law, warned at the time. Trump had made it much easier, she said, to buy his favour.
The family business remained officially under the control of Trump’s two oldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric. In January 2025, four days after their father’s inauguration, Eric spoke about new projects: the Trumps and the Kushners, New York real-estate families united by marriage, had decided to embark on their first joint venture. Kushner’s Belgrade hotel and tower would bear the Trump name. “It’s going to be fun to bring the family together,” Eric told the New York Times. “Serbia is one of the fastest-growing countries in Europe, and we’re incredibly honoured to be there.” Kushner, who had travelled to Belgrade for what Vučić called an “inspiring” meeting with the Serbian leader, added: “Our research showed that the Trump brand would be the best for this market.”
According to the Guardian, Vučić has much in common with Trump: both are described as friendly with Russian President Vladimir Putin and contemptuous of the EU — in Vučić’s case, the paper notes, despite his country having applied to join. The Guardian suggests that a shared disdain for NATO may help explain why the one part of the General Staff building’s heritage that the redevelopment pledged to retain was a memorial to the alliance’s “aggression” against Serbia.
And there is much that Vučić could use US help with, not least the fate of Kosovo, which he says is still part of Serbia. The support of the first family came at a useful time. Days before his government stripped the General Staff site of its protection, the collapse of a canopy at Novi Sad railway station killed 16 people and triggered rolling protests against government corruption; the student organisers’ slogan has become “Serbia or mafia.” Not long after his father returned to office, Donald Trump Jr. landed in Belgrade. Vučić said that during their meeting he “emphasised the importance of the economic and political relations between Serbia and the USA and stressed the importance of strategic cooperation between the two countries and joint projects in the years to come.” When Donald Trump Jr. returned the following month, Vučić fed him a choice sucking-pig.
Donald Trump Jr.’s visit came on the eve of the biggest demonstration in Serbia’s history. He invited Vučić onto his podcast, Triggered, and declared that the Serbian ruler’s opponents were “weaponising” the Novi Sad disaster, just as Trump’s opponents had done with the Capitol riots after his 2020 election defeat. The protesters maintained their momentum and began to rally against the Trump tower. In May 2025, Vučić went to the United States hoping to visit Trump at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida members’ club. He met with Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s former lawyer, but not the president; state media reported the meeting did not happen because Vučić fell ill.
The Guardian’s account also offers context for the broader international business activity of the first family, which critics have described as a “pay to play” arrangement in which everything from sanctions relief to cutting-edge chips is available to those who enrich the first family and their associates. In Vietnam, Eric Trump attended the groundbreaking of a £1.5bn golf resort whose permits were granted with unusual speed; Trump later halved Vietnam’s tariffs. Saudi money flowed into Kushner’s investment fund, and plans emerged for a Trump plaza in Jeddah before Trump agreed to sell the kingdom new US fighter jets. A cryptocurrency baron’s company and senior Emiratis cut a lucrative transaction with World Liberty Financial, the digital-currency venture Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump founded. Trump gave the cryptocurrency baron a pardon and the Emiratis access to restricted US chips. Asked about such deals, Kushner, now a presidential envoy to Russia, Israel and elsewhere, told the Guardian: “What people call conflicts of interests … I call experience and trusted relationships that we have throughout the world.”
Then came the indictments. In May 2025, Goran Vasić, whom the government had installed to replace Đukanović at the heritage institute, was arrested on charges he had forged a supportive expert opinion to justify cancelling the building’s protected status. In December 2025, Selaković was indicted on abuse-of-office charges for his alleged role in the General Staff scheme — the first time a serving Serbian minister has been indicted, according to the specialist organised-crime prosecutors’ unit that brought the case. The indictment does not mention Vučić’s February 2024 meeting but refers to evidence from witnesses who were present and indicates the subject had “previously been broached.” Within days of the indictment, Kushner’s company announced that the project would not proceed “at this time.” Vučić responded by calling the prosecutors “corrupt gangs” who “fabricated cases” and saying: “We have lost an exceptional investment. I will personally ensure that everyone who participated in causing this damage is held accountable.”
In an April court appearance, Selaković — who faces three years in prison if convicted — revealed that, while police were raiding his ministry, he was in his office sipping plum brandy and smoking cigarettes with Mladen Nenadić, the head of the organised-crime prosecutors’ unit. The unit’s spokesperson said there was “no discussion regarding the course of the case.” Selaković told the court: “In everything that happened regarding potential investments, I saw a chance for our country and citizens.” Vučić, who accuses the prosecutors of staging a coup, has not been charged. Neither has Mali. Both deny wrongdoing.
Vučić did not respond to requests for comment from the Guardian.
Vučić’s allies subsequently attacked Đukanović, claiming she had tried to profit personally from her time as a heritage official, and her deputy, who received a visit from the state security service after going on television to denounce the cancellation of the building’s protection, has been accused of unrelated misconduct that the Serbian conservators’ industry body said had “the obvious aim of discrediting her.” Both are expected to give evidence in the criminal proceedings.
For all Vučić’s difficulties, the tale of the Trump Tower Belgrade does not appear to have put others off doing business with the first family. Trump retains stakes in dozens of his companies, even if his sons nominally run them. In July, he released his financial disclosure for his first year back at the White House; it showed he had made $2bn. His decision to call a snap election means that a hearing at which witnesses might reveal details of his involvement will not take place until after the 25 October vote. Vučić has stepped down and cannot seek another term but is expected to retain control of his political establishment if elected prime minister on 25 October. In one of his last acts as president, he issued 49 pardons, some to recipients whose identities have not been disclosed; it is not clear whether they include defendants in the General Staff case.
Representatives of the Trumps and Kushner pushed back on the Guardian’s account. The Trump Organization said it “has no plans to develop any project in Belgrade, was never, at any point, involved in any discussions or negotiations to acquire any site in Belgrade and denies any involvement in or knowledge of the alleged claims.” The White House referred questions to the Trump Organization. A spokesperson for Kushner said “the suggestion that Jared Kushner pursued the Belgrade project as part of any political arrangement or ‘pay to play’ scheme is categorically false,” describing the development as “an opportunity to transform a site associated with a painful chapter in Serbia’s history into a symbol of healing and reconciliation, while bringing substantial private investment, jobs and economic opportunity to Belgrade.” The spokesperson added that “Jared had no involvement in the Serbian government’s internal processes concerning the site’s protected status.”
The spokesperson for the organised-crime prosecutors’ unit told the Guardian that the office had evidence regarding Vučić’s February 2024 meeting with heritage officials and, beyond those already indicted, was “conducting pretrial proceedings in this case to determine potential criminal liability of other persons as well.”