Serbia’s Trump tower plan sparks protests and heritage dispute

Serbia’s government moved in November 2024 to remove the protected status of Belgrade’s General Staff building, clearing the way for a tower bearing Donald Trump’s name. The plan prompted protests and prosecutions, and has become a wider dispute over Serbia’s history and the relationship between political power and business.

Built in the 1960s, the landmark was designed to evoke the Sutjeska River canyon, the site of a major Second World War battle. The article says Serbia’s authoritarian president personally intervened to remove its protection. The Trump family say they neither sought nor received political favours and described their vision for the site as a “symbol of healing and reconciliation”; the tower was never built.