Trump’s children appear to be grifting their way to nepo-billionaire status

July 29, 2026 — 5:00am

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Given every writer on the planet is currently obliged to mention The Odyssey, this story also involves a seafarer spotting an enchanting Mediterranean island, only to become fatefully wrecked on the rocky shores of hubris. The seafarer in this tragic tale is not Odysseus but Ivanka Trump, who is now not only her father’s favourite Trump but mine after she inadvertently launched a revolution in Albania.

Ivanka’s ill-fated Albanian odyssey is illuminating because it weaves together all the strands of the US first family’s unfolding epic of wealth creation: decisions of national interest made in private by a handful of ultrawealthy and powerful individuals, unfettered and secretive access to lawmakers and multibillion-dollar business deals underpinned by the leverage of the office of the US president.

The cautionary tale of Ivanka and the Flamingo Revolution (best band name ever) begins with the siren song of a luxury property development. In 2021, while sailing in the Mediterranean on a Rothschild-owned yacht, Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, (known collectively as Javanka) encountered the Albanian island of Sazan, a communist-era military base that is now a nature reserve.

Ivanka has since recounted how they swam to the island, did a barefoot hike and were “captivated”, despite the idea of Ivanka hiking barefoot anywhere, let alone on a rocky island crawling with venomous snakes and unexploded landmines, is less believable than if she’d claimed........

© The Sydney Morning Herald