We haven't been able to take payment
You must update your payment details via My Account or by clicking update payment details to keep your subscription.
Act now to keep your subscription
We've tried to contact you several times as we haven't been able to take payment. You must update your payment details via My Account or by clicking update payment details to keep your subscription.
Your subscription is due to terminate
We've tried to contact you several times as we haven't been able to take payment. You must update your payment details via My Account, otherwise your subscription will terminate.

Why Don Jnr toured Eastern Europe on the eve of Romania’s elections

President Trump’s eldest son’s trip to Romania, Hungary, Serbia and Bulgaria appeared to be linked to property and crypto deals involving his own family
Poster of Donald Trump in Bucharest; text reads "Republicans for Freedom!" and "The Romanian Republican Party".
The slogan on the Trump poster in Bucharest reads “Republicans for Freedom”
ANDREI PUNGOVSCHI FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES

There is a giant portrait in central Bucharest of one of the key figures in Sunday’s Romanian presidential election: Donald Trump.

The image, on a wall a few minutes from the prime minister’s office, was said to have been put there by friends of the far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians party whose presidential candidate, George Simion, a big fan of the American leader, is predicted to win the first round.

“My first priority is co-operation with the Trump administration,” the stocky 38-year-old, known for nationalist activism and Eurosceptic views, told me last week over lunch.

He is not the only one courting the White House: one of the other candidates is already working with the Trump family. Victor Ponta, a disgraced former prime minister, went from social democrat to nationalist firebrand almost overnight after being invited to Mar-a-Lago in Florida where he, the president and his eldest son Donald Trump Jr played golf.

Victor Ponta, Romanian presidential candidate, smiling during an interview.
Victor Ponta at campaign headquarters in Bucharest
ANDREI PUNGOVSCHI FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES

“I came back from there with a clear opinion that a huge change is coming,” Ponta said in his campaign headquarters, an ornate mansion with carved wooden fireplaces, formerly the Indonesian embassy in Bucharest. He went on: “I cannot say if it will be for good or worse but change is coming. And nobody can stop this change, nobody. This will be a troubled year, the world divided like in 1945. I wish Romania to be on the winner’s side, not the loser’s.”

Advertisement

Ponta, who resigned as prime minister in 2015 over corruption allegations and public outrage about government negligence, helped organise the Romanian leg of a brisk tour through central and eastern Europe undertaken by Trump Jr at the end of last month.

The trip was billed as a business mission but loaded with political and cultural significance. Trump Jr has roots in this part of the world. As the son of Ivana, Donald Trump’s first wife, a former model from the Czech Republic, he spent long summer holidays in the region. He learnt to shoot an air rifle and drink slivovitz (plum brandy).

Victor Ponta and Donald Trump Jr. discussing economics and partnerships.
Ponta and Trump Jr in discussion in Romania

He invoked this background last week, telling a Romanian television interviewer how patronising western Europeans used to be towards their counterparts in the east.

Now, though, “hard-working and intelligent” easterners were on the ascendant over lazy, unproductive and over-regulated western European countries. “They [easterners] aren’t trying to do the three-month vacations that you have in western Europe,” he said.

“You look at western Europe — and a lot of Americans wouldn’t even think of investing there. There’s too much regulation, no value for money, no-one wants to work, it’s a two-hour work week and you never know when you’re going to get shut down because of nonsense.”

Advertisement

His remarks echoed the tone of JD Vance, America’s vice-president, who accused western European countries of muzzling free speech earlier this year after Romania, a member of the EU and Nato, cancelled a presidential election held in November. The original first round was won by Calin Georgescu, an ultra-nationalist, Moscow-friendly independent who, despite insisting he had spent “zero” on his campaign, surged from less than 5 per cent days before the vote to finish first on 23 per cent. Romania’s constitutional court annulled the result after intelligence documents revealed an alleged Russian influence operation using cyber attacks and “massive” social media meddling in Georgescu’s favour.

The latest poll shows Simion, Georgescu’s replacement, winning Sunday’s re-run first round with 31 per cent ahead of Crin Antonescu of the ruling Social Democratic Party (25 per cent), Nicusor Dan, centrist mayor of Bucharest (23 per cent) and Ponta (11.6 per cent). The second-round run-off would be won by Antonescu with 47 per cent to Simion’s 37 per cent.

Romania bars Calin Georgescu from presidential elections

Trump Jr’s European tour included a string of private dinners, business roundtables and discreet meetings with local powerbrokers, not all of them wholly respectable.

The first stop was Hungary. Its authoritarian leader, Viktor Orban, is a hero to the American president — and Trump Jr hailed him in a speech to local businessmen on April 25 as “one of the last bastions of light” in Europe, referring to the country’s hardline stance on immigration.

Advertisement

It is not clear if Trump Jr, who has no official role in his father’s administration, met Orban in Budapest or if he bagged any new deals there. But Aleksandar Vucic, the nationalist strongman in neighbouring Serbia, rolled out the red carpet for him, inviting him to a private dinner the next day in Belgrade.

Donald Trump Jr. and Aleksandar Vučić meeting in Belgrade, Serbia.
Trump Jr with Vucic in Belgrade
ALEKSANDAR VUČIĆ/FACEBOOK

Vucic is accused of fostering a climate of cronyism and corruption and undermining press freedom and democratic institutions in his country. But none of this was on the agenda. Instead, business deals already progressing are thought to have dominated the conversation.

The Trump family is building a luxury hotel complex on the site of the former Yugoslav ministry of defence in Belgrade which was bombed by Nato in 1999. The deal involves a property magnate from Abu Dhabi as well as Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, and Richard Grenell, Trump’s former ambassador to Berlin.

It is one of several recently announced new outlets of the Trump brand, with other projects in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam. The deal with Serbia comes as the nation seeks support from America for its long-stalled attempt to join the EU.

Prior relatives of US presidents have drawn accusations of profiteering — including Billy Carter’s Libyan dealings during his brother Jimmy’s presidency and Hunter Biden’s work in Ukraine — but few have conducted their business with as much insouciance as Trump’s family.

Advertisement

“President Trump treats the presidency as though it were simply a business opportunity to be exploited rather than a public service to be honoured,” said Kathleen Clark, professor of law at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri. “So Americans should be worried that a foreign leader, such as the president of Serbia, who meets with Donald Trump Jr may attempt to influence our country’s foreign policy by granting favours to the president’s son.”

After supping with the Serb authoritarians, Trump Jr saddled up with Bulgaria’s crypto cowboys: he went to a gathering in Sofia, the Bulgarian capital, on Sunday hosted by Nexo, a Bulgarian company which has faced accusations of money laundering and fraud. Among those attending was Delyan Peevski, a Bulgarian media mogul and political figure sanctioned for corruption in the US under the Magnitsky Act.

Nexo had to pay $45 million in penalties to the US Securities and Exchange Commission and state authorities over allegations that it broke security rules. It left the US in 2022, citing the lack of regulatory clarity. Now it says it’s returning in the expectation that Trump, who has launched his own “Trump Digital Trading Cards”, or collectible digital assets, will tilt the regulatory field in its favour. Trump Jr seemed to encourage them in this belief.

“The key to everything is going to be the regulatory framework,” he told the businessmen. “A lot is going to change in the very near future, and I think my father’s administration is going to try to do that effectively.”

Trump Jr also met Boyko Borisov, a former karate coach, bodyguard and prime minister of Bulgaria whose term in office was marred by allegations of corruption and misuse of power.

Advertisement

In Bucharest, at the “Trump Business Vision 2025” conference Trump Jr met Ion Tiriac, a billionaire businessman and former tennis star who managed the young Boris Becker and was later accused of benefiting from opaque privatisation deals in the country’s chaotic post-communist era. Trump Jr also shared a platform at one event with Dan Diaconescu, a flamboyant media mogul and populist politician who was convicted in 2015 of extortion and sentenced to five years in prison.

Another figure in the Bucharest ballroom was Sebastian Ghita, a businessman and former parliamentarian who fled Romania in 2016 after being charged with multiple counts of corruption, money laundering, and influence peddling. Though arrested in Serbia the following year and still facing legal troubles, he is regarded as a significant behind-the-scenes operator in Romanian media and politics, particularly through his ownership of the influential Romania TV channel.

A hat reading “Romania First” sits on a shelf next to framed photos and religious icons.
A hat with the slogan Romania First alongside photos of the presidential candidate Victor Ponta, in his office in Bucharest
ANDREI PUNGOVSCHI FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES

“These are not the kind of meetings that happen by accident,” said a European diplomat with detailed knowledge of the region. “When you’re dealing with someone of Trump Jr’s profile, every encounter is stage-managed — and the fact that these are the people he was steered towards says a lot about the nature of his trip.”

The American president’s approach to foreign policy is often described as “transactional”. As Romanians get ready to vote, at least one of their presidential candidates is taking that literally.

Ponta, the former Romanian prime minister, said he regarded it as his duty to build close ties to the Trump administration. He added: “I wish there were a Trump golf course in Bucharest.”

PROMOTED CONTENT