President Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump, Jr., is visiting Banja Luka, Bosnia, today. According to a report from Radio Free Europe (RFE), the U.S. Embassy to Bosnia and Herzegovina stated that Trump Jr. is visiting “in a private capacity.”
Igor Dodik of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) — the son of the party’s leader Milorad Dodik — said Trump Jr. is coming “at his personal invitation and on a friendly basis.”
[NOTE: Milorad Dodik served as President of Bosnia and Herzegovina before serving as President of Republika Srpska from 2022 until his removal from office in 2025. His tenure “was marked by accusations of authoritarianism from his critics, the undermining of federal Bosnian institutions, and closer ties with both Russia and Serbia.”]
Political scientist Jasmin Mujanovic, author of The Bosniaks: Nationhood After Genocide (Oxford University Press, 2024), responded to Trump Jr.’s planned visit to Bosnia, writing: “Trump Jr is expected to be in Bosnia tmrw, to meet with the Russian-backed secessionist regime in Banja Luka after their registered lobbyist Michael Flynn secured US sanctions relief for the entire govt in Oct. Dodik also hopes to meet Vance in Budapest.”
Trump Jr is expected to be in Bosnia tmrw, to meet with the Russian-backed secessionist regime in Banja Luka after their registered lobbyist Michael Flynn secured US sanctions relief for the entire govt in Oct. Dodik also hopes to meet Vance in Budapest. https://t.co/9jlMOtcHcr
— Jasmin Mujanović (@JasminMuj) April 6, 2026
In March, at the CPAC Hungary event, fellow pro-Trump leader Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán (who is hosting Vice President JD Vance this week) praised Dodik, saying, “he has earned the highest recognition for enduring U.S. sanctions, German extortion, and Bosnian harassment.”
Balkan Insights reports that Dodik had “strained relations with Washington, including sanctions imposed by the US over actions seen as undermining Bosnia and Herzegovina’s constitutional order. Against that backdrop, outreach to individuals linked to President Trump’s political and business network signal an effort to reframe those relations.”
#BREAKING Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán praised Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, saying he has earned the highest recognition for enduring U.S. sanctions, German extortion, and Bosnian harassment. pic.twitter.com/oMDn8C8iQX
— The National Independent (@NationalIndNews) March 21, 2026
Trump Jr.’s visit follows a proposal for a $500 million Trump Tower and hotel in nearby Belgrade, Serbia, pitched by the President’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Kushner’s firm, Affinity Partners, pulled the plan off the table in December after “intense public protests and a corruption investigation.”
[NOTE: Last week the U.S. DOJ settled a lawsuit with Flynn, President Trump’s former national security adviser, who sued the government over what he alleged to be a wrongful prosecution. In 2017, Flynn admitted to lying to the FBI about his interactions with then-Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, and for filing false documents with the DOJ regarding his lobbying work for Turkey a year earlier. Trump pardoned Flynn in 2020.]