Donald Trump Jr, the eldest son of US President Donald Trump and vice-president of the Trump Organisation, was in Bucharest on Monday as part of a high-profile business tour of Central and Eastern Europe, featuring stops in Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania.
The tour, branded “Trump Business Vision 2025”, aims mainly to expand the Trump family’s commercial interests and foster deeper ties with regional political and business leaders – as well as to promote the US as a business partner over China.
But Trump Jr’s presence in the region is also seen as a show of support for right-wing governments and policies – a move to position the Trump brand in political markets that are increasingly distancing themselves from Western European trends.
Trump Jr will be the keynote speaker at the “Trump Business Vision 2025” conference in Bucharest on Monday evening, which is designed to promote strategic dialogue between American and Romanian business communities.
As the visit comes in the final week of Romania’s presidential campaign, his agenda is strictly business-focused, with no announced meetings with government officials or leaders from the ruling coalition.
But that did not stop Romanian presidential candidate Victor Ponta from emphasizing his connection with Trump Jr as part of his campaign ahead of polling day on Sunday.
Ponta, a former prime minister, on Sunday travelled to Sofia, Bulgaria, where he met with Trump Jr.
Ponta seized on the meeting to project an image of international relevance and strong ties to influential figures abroad.
Photos and details of the encounter have been circulated widely by Ponta’s campaign, aiming to boost his standing among voters seeking a leader with global connections.
Some polls suggest that Ponta, who promotes himself as a conservative politician, is a strong contender to reach the second round of the vote, where he is expected to face the far-right frontrunner, George Simion.
Region described as ‘last bastion of hope’
On Friday, in Hungary, Trump Jr participated in a closed-door business forum. “I am totally out of politics,” he assured the Hungarian business site Portfolio in a video interview. Earlier, he met the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Peter Szijjarto.
Although the business forum was not covered by the media, Donald Trump Jr outlined his mission in a short interview, revealing at the same time that he was looking for allies of the Trump administration among people and countries who “share our values and beliefs.
“I see the [Central and Eastern European] region as the last bastion of hope,” he said.
Trump Jr urged countries in the region to work with allies and not create dependencies on countries that “send people to a Gulag”, likely referencing China. He called for a decoupling from China in a number of technologies, such as AI and biotech.
He insisted that “he knows the region well”, since his late mother, Ivanka, was Czech – a language he speaks fluently.
Hungary has a strong economic and political bond with China, having attracted the most Chinese Foreign Direct Investment in the EU in 2023 and 2024.
Both major battery producer CATL and Chinese car-manufacturer BYD have chosen Hungary as a production site. Hungarian premier Viktor Orban’s government, an ideological ally to President Trump’s MAGA movement, could face a dilemma if pressured by Trump to cut or even loosen its Chinese ties.
Third visit to Serbia in months
From Budapest, Trump Jr went on Saturday to Belgrade, where he met some 30 representatives of Serbian companies, according to the president of Serbian Commerce Chamber, Marko Cadez. He told Blic newspaper that they had talked about tourism, IT, real estate and the car industry.
“It was a unique opportunity to hear predictions about movements in world markets and in key industries,” Cadez told Blic.
This is Donald Trump Jr’s third recent visit to Serbia. His first trip, in September last year, focused on meetings with business leaders, taking place shortly before his father was re-elected as President. During his second visit, in March, he met Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, whom he also interviewed for his podcast. This time, Vucic posted a photo on his Facebook page showing a roasted pig that had been prepared to welcome Trump Jr.
“Many foreigners rightly say that I am a difficult person and not easy to talk to, but no one has ever said that we are inhospitable,” Vucic wrote.
On Sunday, Donald Trump Jr reached Sofia, his visit there facilitated by the crypto trading bank Nexo, which in January 2023 had brushes with the Bulgarian Prosecution after a police raid. The platform then sued the state in an ongoing case.
Although local media were told that an accredited press conference would take place on Sunday afternoon, Trump Jr did not make any public appearances; local media were also told to leave Sofia Airport before the US President’s son stepped off his plane.
Around 150 Bulgarian businessmen are known to have attended the meeting, along with Israel’s Minister of Science and Technology, Gila Gamliel, and the US ambassador to Bulgaria, Susan Falatko.
The only Bulgarian politician known to have met with Trump Jr is former prime minister and centre-right GERB party leader Boyko Borissov. The two met at a hotel in Sofia, the GERB party’s PR office confirmed.
The exact nature of their talks is not known, fomenting speculation that this was only a media stunt for Borissov. Others suggested that their meeting might have been linked to Borissov’s recent claim that sanctions imposed on his political allies under the Global Magnitsky Act might soon be lifted.
Conservative and pro-Russian voices in Bulgaria have broadly welcomed President Trump’s return to the White House, hailing a “return to normality”.