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.