Why a luxury resort plan by Trump’s son-in-law sparked mass protests in Albania

President Donald Trump’s son-in-law has a formidable new opponent: a pink flamingo.

The protected bird has emerged as the symbol of a surging protest movement against a Jared Kushner-backed plan for a luxury resort on the picturesque Adriatic coast.

The $1.6 billion project has drawn thousands of protesters — some wielding inflatable flamingos — to the streets of Albania’s capital over fears the planned tourist complex threatens an ecologically sensitive area that is home to pristine beaches and a variety of protected species.

Large protests in Tirana this week saw chants of “Albania is not for sale,” as demonstrators clashed with police, who responded with water cannons. Protesters gathered Thursday outside Prime Minister Edi Rama’s residence chanting “revolution” and calling for his resignation.

The project is being led by Affinity Partners, Kushner’s investment firm. It includes plans to develop a stretch of coastline in the area of the protected Vjosa-Narta delta and the nearby uninhabited island of Sazan, which was once a secret communist military base.

The 2.2 square mile island is roughly twice the size of New York City’s Central Park, though only a portion of the land area will be built on under the proposal.

Critics of the plan have accused Rama of trying to gain favor with the White House with the project, which was approved just days before Trump took office last year.

They also fear that it could affect the island’s pristine beaches and critical biodiversity areas while displacing thousands of migratory birds that pass through the area.

It’s also the country’s only breeding ground for flamingoes.

“It’s one of the most amazing habitats that we have when it comes to protected areas and coastal wetlands,” Joni Vorpsey, an environmentalist and manager at the NGO Protection and Preservation of Natural Environment in Albania, told NBC News in an interview. “When you are there, it’s exactly like a fairy tale.”

For Vorpsey and other Albanians, the Vjosa‑Narta area is a “magical hub,” where everything from dolphins and sea turtles to monk seals can be spotted.

Renderings of the project that Kushner posted to Instagram years ago fueled concerns, but it wasn’t until heavy machinery arrived in recent weeks at one of the sites on the Zvernec Peninsula that protests erupted.

“From the renderings we have seen, everything seems terrible,” Vorpsey said. “The construction will wipe out that part of nature there and will be a gate opener for the whole coastline to be developed inside the protected area,” he said.

Rama has defended the project, which he says will help boost his country’s growing status as a tourist destination and benefit its economy. He backed the project several times this week in posts on Facebook and hit out at its critics.

In a reel Tuesday, he said the project reflected an ambition to create the “most attractive destination of this side of the Mediterranean.”

Rama and the developers appear aligned.

Ivanka Trump, Trump’s daughter who is married to Kushner, has promoted the project several times since it was announced in 2024. “It’s an unbelievable, beautiful” private island in the middle of the Mediterranean, she told business podcaster David Senra in an interview last week. Developers have said their focus will be “responsible stewardship and environmental enhancement.”

Vorpsey said the plan was about “urbanizing and transforming completely a natural area.”

The plans announced by Kushner in 2024 also included an investment to build a luxury hotel at a former army headquarters in the Serbian capital, Belgrade.

The Belgrade project was canceled after street protests last year.

White House press spokesperson Anna Kelly told NBC News that Kushner is a “volunteer” and his private business activities “have nothing to do with the President or the administration.”

Asked whether Rama’s government had greenlighted the project as a way to gain favor with Trump, she said: “This is the same, tired narrative that Democrats have pushed against President Trump, his family, and his administration for a decade.”

Rama, Affinity Partners and Asher Abehsera, chairman of the firm developing the project, did not respond to requests for comment from NBC News.