Karma in Albania: Kushner's Land Grab Sparks Anti-American Uprising

"Color revolutions" have long been an American specialty. Many countries have been thrown into turmoil and suffered greatly because of them. Yet history has a way of turning the tables. Albania has now erupted in a "Flamingo Revolution." Tens of thousands have taken to the streets to protest what they call American "economic hegemony." 

The movement targets Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, and the anger is fast spreading to Prime Minister Edi Rama, Trump’s close political ally. Protesters want the government brought down. 

The uprising has also exposed Kushner's disturbing track record. He allegedly attempted an illegal land grab in Serbia to build a "Trump International Hotel." Critics argue this reveals the ugly face of American influence. Although Kushner eventually dropped the development, Anti-American "color revolutions" may now be on the verge of spreading far and wide.

Albania's "Flamingo Revolution" puts Jared Kushner in the crosshairs — accused of using American muscle to seize land.

What began as a small environmental protest soon snowballed. This crisis began as a nonpolitical environmental protest against a real estate project for damaging local nature. But it has rapidly escalated. Once word spread that Trump's son-in-law was the project's biggest backer — and that he had transplanted Trump-style money politics into Albania, with suspiciously open ties to Prime Minister Rama — public fury ignited beyond control.

Kushner and the Trump family made their fortunes in real estate. Immersed in that environment, Kushner is portrayed as having inherited a willingness to pursue profit at all costs. The current controversy traces back to 2021, when he and his wife Ivanka Trump traveled to Albania. They sailed near Sazan Island along the country's southeastern coast and were captivated by the untouched natural scenery. A luxury resort idea was born on the spot.

Kushner and Ivanka: profit over everything — even another country's natural environment.

At another yacht gathering, Kushner met Prime Minister Rama alongside several local tycoons. He pitched a plan to transform the area into a large-scale luxury resort and pledged substantial investment. Rama saw lucrative prospects and quickly showed interest.

Kushner is not short of capital. In recent years he established private equity funds in the Middle East and, with Trump's backing, reportedly raised over $3 billion — primarily from sovereign wealth funds in Gulf states.

Armed with deep pockets, Kushner partnered with Albanian business elites. In 2024, he submitted a proposal for a coastal mega-resort, with total investment reaching 4 billion euros — approximately HKD 36.1 billion. Eyeing the massive rewards, Prime Minister Rama fast-tracked the project, clearing every obstacle and rubber-stamping approval at speed.

The plan immediately alarmed environmental groups and local residents. The target area contains pristine beaches and wetlands, serving as habitat for around 70 endangered bird species — including the iconic flamingo — as well as seals and sea turtles. Large-scale construction would severely damage the ecosystem. Scattered protests began almost immediately.

By late May, developers erected fences around protected zones, barring public entry, and brought in bulldozers to begin construction. Environmentalists and residents flooded in. As more people learned that Trump's son-in-law was the project's chief backer, anti-American and anti-Trump sentiments surged. The protest fire spread fast, driving angry crowds into the streets.

Further allegations about Kushner then surfaced. In 2025, he had pursued another real estate project in Serbia. Through high-level government connections, he reportedly secured prime land in the capital to build a six-star "Trump International Hotel". The government fast-tracked approval. But the deal was caught up in a corruption investigation involving officials, prompting Kushner to withdraw.

As the scandals linking the Albanian government with Kushner continued to unfold, street protests escalated. Organizers named the movement the "Flamingo Revolution," adopting the flamingo as its symbol. They deliberately echoed earlier uprisings like the "Rose Revolution" and the "Tulip Revolution" — with one critical difference: those movements targeted anti-American regimes, while this one points squarely in the opposite direction.

The protests target not only corrupt authorities but also what participants describe as the Trump family's "economic hegemony." The reality is that Kushner and Trump never shed their real estate developer instincts. Their minds run on profit calculations — proposing luxury housing and seaside resorts in Gaza to cash in on the conflict, and eyeing land in Greenland for large-scale development.

The "Flamingo Revolution" is still gathering momentum, and the movement continues to escalate. If Trump and his family keep aggressively pursuing profit abroad, similar anti-American "color revolutions" will erupt in more countries.

Karma has a long memory. The very nation that perfected the art of toppling governments may now find itself on the receiving end.

What Say You?

** 博客文章文責自負,不代表本公司立場 **

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang stormed through South Korea like a rock star, setting off a media frenzy. Before that, he spent 14 days in Taiwan — the island where he grew up — putting on a one-man show that generated its own storm of buzz. Sharp-eyed local political commentators zeroed in on one telling detail: across five separate visits, Huang never once met with Lai Ching-te. 

They say this was no accident. It was a deliberate move to sidestep political entanglement — a clear signal that the mainland Chinese market remains firmly in his sights. Some analysts go further, arguing that Huang simply does not regard Lai as someone who is building Taiwan up. The mainland's Global Times weighed in too, calling Huang's conduct a weighty "non-spoken statement."

Five visits. No meeting with Lai Ching-te. Commentators say Huang is avoiding the "independence" camp — with the mainland market firmly in mind.

The record backs this up. Since Lai Ching-te assumed office as Taiwan's leader, Huang has visited the island multiple times without engaging with him in any form. Back in 2023, when Tsai Ing-wen was still in office, Huang appeared at the same venue during COMPUTEX Taipei — though no formal meeting took place.  

When a reporter asked what he thought of Tsai, Huang offered a brief "She is fantastic" and nothing more. Even then, the distance from the Democratic Progressive Party's leadership was unmistakable.

Taiwanese political commentators offer varying interpretations of Huang's repeated snubs. Former legislator Shen Fu-hsiung believes Huang is steering clear deliberately. Shen argues that Huang has never stopped eyeing the mainland market and remains confident that Beijing will eventually come back to embrace NVIDIA. That calculation, Shen says, is precisely why Huang refuses to court political trouble.

Political commentator and online personality Kuo Cheng-liang takes a different view. He suggests Huang is unwilling to meet Lai not for strategic reasons, but because he does not see Lai as someone who is building Taiwan. "This," Kuo says flatly, "is Lai's greatest crisis."

Kuo also notes that Huang does not keep all Taiwanese politicians at arm's length. His clear favourite is Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an, with whom he has met three or four times and built considerable rapport. Chiang is a rising figure within the Kuomintang, has previously visited the Chinese Mainland, and holds a position on cross-strait relations that is diametrically opposed to Lai's. Huang's choice to associate with Chiang sends its own signal on where he stands on the question of unification versus independence.

Huang is a tech titan who has already committed to building AI and supercomputing infrastructure in Taiwan on a major scale. Lai naturally regards him as enormously important — a meeting would undoubtedly burnish Lai's own profile. Yet to Huang, such an encounter would be a "kiss of death," something to be studiously avoided. The situation has the flavor of an old Chinese saying: the goddess is willing, but the king has no such dream.

Legislator Wang Hung-wei believes Lai clearly wants very much to meet Huang, and may feel considerable regret that it has not happened. In a recent television interview, Lai floated the idea of inviting Huang, on his next visit, to tour a power plant alongside Taiwan Power Company Chairman Tseng Wen-sheng. The move was widely read as an attempt to engineer a face-to-face encounter.

Lai wants the meeting. The power plant invite is his play to make it happen.

The backdrop matters here. During Huang's visit, a journalist asked him about the government's claim that power supply would be problem-free by 2032. His response was a flat "Maybe" — a tone that conveyed unmistakable skepticism. Lai promptly extended the power plant invitation, seemingly hoping to use the Taipower chairman as a bridge to bring about a "Lai–Huang summit."

The scheme seems unlikely to succeed. Huang is a shrewd operator, and his sights are set firmly on the vast mainland market. He knows he cannot afford a political misstep. When larger interests are at stake, he is not about to walk into a trap.

The mainland's Global Times also picked up on this dynamic. In a commentary, it noted that while Huang has repeatedly and publicly acknowledged Taiwan's pivotal role in global tech manufacturing and the AI ecosystem, he has conspicuously avoided Lai Ching-te and kept a deliberate distance. The paper concluded that, in the eyes of those with genuine global industry standing, political theatrics are no substitute for governing competence, and cannot buy future development.  

The commentary called Huang's refusal to meet Lai a weighty "non-spoken statement" — a phrase that hits the nail squarely on the head. Make no mistake: Jensen Huang may be a tech figure, but his political acumen is anything but low.