TIRANA, Albania — Some of the architects of Donald Trump’s presidential campaigns have reunited in Albania as they try to help a Trumpian candidate prevail in this weekend’s elections.
They include Chris LaCivita, who served as co-campaign manager of Trump’s successful 2024 effort, Trump’s longtime pollster Tony Fabrizio, and Paul Manafort, who served as chairman of Trump’s 2016 campaign before he was convicted in 2018 of crimes that included secretly lobbying for Ukraine’s former pro-Russian president.
The trio is working for former prime minister and president Sali Berisha, the head of Albania’s opposition Democratic Party, who is challenging Prime Minister Edi Rama to return the Democrats to power, even as he awaits trial on corruption charges.
“It’s the only Democrat Party I would ever consider working for,” quipped LaCivita as he headed to the country for his third trip before Sunday’s election.
Foreign consulting has long been a popular way for U.S. strategists from both parties to rake in cash between election cycles. But Berisha’s decision to lean on Trump hands — and to highlight their involvement — makes clear how valuable they can be to candidates trying to harness populist sentiment and replicate Trump’s rise. In Albania, like many other countries, being seen as having close ties to the U.S. and its leaders is also considered a major asset.
Rama has his own connections with Trump allies. In December, Rama’s Cabinet approved entering into negotiations with Atlantic Incubation Partners LLC, owned by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, for development of a $1.6 billion luxury resort on the small island of Sazan.
The Strategic Investment Committee awarded Kushner’s company the status of strategic investor for 10 years.
There’s more at stake than just an electoral victory
Throughout the campaign, Berisha has cast himself as a Trump-like figure and the victim of a politically motivated scheme that he blames in part on the U.S. billionaire George Soros, a booster of liberal causes around the world and longtime foil of conservatives.
He launched his campaign with a promise to “Make Albania Great Again,” but later had to change the slogan amid concerns that it could be misinterpreted as a reference to “greater Albania” and spark confrontation in the western Balkans over fears some in neighboring countries have about Albanian expansionism.
The campaign now vows to make Albania “grandiose”: “madheshtore” instead of “e madhe.”
Like Trump, Berisha also has his own signature campaign hat — a blue one that features the No. 1, the Democrats’ ranking on the ballot.
While recent elections in Canada and Australia have demonstrated the power of backlash against candidates deemed too aligned with Trump, in other countries those ties have been a major boon. In Argentina, Javier Milei swept to power with a “Make Argentina Great Again” slogan and Trumpian flair.
And in El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele has become one of Trump’s strongest allies, agreeing to detain U.S. deportees in his country’s notorious terrorism megaprison.
