Demonstrators challenging the government over corruption, Tirana, Albania, June 2026
I joined the Byline Times podcast to explain how Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner unwittingly sparked the “Flamingo Revolution” of mass protests against the government in Albania.
Albanian academic Gezim Alpion of the University of Birmingham tells host Adrian Goldberg about years of dissatisfaction in Albania over corruption and abuse of power.
I then explain how the $1.4 billion Trump-Kushner purchase of Sazan Island, threatening the eco-system with development of high-end condominiums, set off the protests.
We link the specific political, economic, and social issues in Albania with the Trump family’s effect on US foreign policy and soft power.
