Candace Owens continues on her crusade against Donald Trump, this time taking aim at his daughter, Ivanka, with scathing criticism over her controversial pet project in Albania.
Owens, a one-time Trump supporter and increasingly fierce critic of the president, devoted a segment of her podcast to eviscerating Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, over their proposed development. The luxury eco-resort is poised to be built on Sazan Island, a sensitive coastal area on the Adriatic Sea.
Using biting sarcasm, Owens ripped into Ivanka’s spin on the project, which has caused widespread protests in Albania. The first daughter appeared on David Senra’s podcast to tout the development as a spiritual journey, an accidental discovery, and a labor of love between herself and Kushner.
“I guess we’re supposed to think Ivanka is just his innocent wife or something,” taunted Owens in response. “Like, you could just be married to Henry Kissinger, and it’s all good because you smile and you pretend like you’re just being moved spiritually. You share verses and goals on your Instagram and make everything look super pretty.”
The commentator continued in an imitation of Ivanka, saying, “What are we going to do with all this money that we’ve now earned from this genocide? Well, we’re going to buy an island. But what island are we going to buy?”
“This is when they roll out Ivanka,” Owens hypothesized. “Ivanka is supposed to make you feel like it’s clean, right? Like, you can commit a genocide and then feel really squeaky clean about yourself and spiritual. Almost like she can speak, and it’s like, ‘I just was so drawn to this island. I really want to—this is going to be really hard, but I’m going to do it. I’m going to do this with my billions and billions and billions of dollars that we’ve earned off the backs of dead children.’”
Her criticism stems from ongoing global conflicts and the Trump family’s complicity as the death toll in Gaza reaches 73,000 and the Israel-U.S. war in Iran wages on.
Owens also alluded to the fact that Kushner’s family has financially supported Israeli settlements on Palestinian land and that Kushner himself unveiled plans for a “New Gaza”—an enclave of shining high-story buildings and white beaches—just months ago.
Owens smirked as she displayed footage of Ivanka describing the $1.4 billion development and how she “discovered” it. “We were on a friend’s boat,” Ivanka told Senra, “And we stopped for a swim. Effectively, that’s how we found it. We swam to the islands. We went on a hike, barefoot all the way, up to the top. And we were just captivated.”
The “asinine story,” as Owens puts it, led to online outrage and increased scrutiny.
In Albania, protests have erupted in the country’s capital of Tirana, where locals have demanded an end to the development. Demonstrators held signs reading slogans such as “Ivanka Go Home” and “Albania is not for sale.“
“Thousands are protesting in Albania,” said Owens. “The largest protests...demonstrating, demanding that these demons who just committed a genocide get the hell away from their island.”
Many are opposed to the property’s development because it is planned for construction on uninhabited land rich in wildlife, including flamingos and sea turtles. Aleksandr Trajce, executive director of Albania’s leading conservation group, told the Guardian, “It’s not just unprecedented, there’s been a complete collapse of rule of law with no consideration of society, no environmental consideration, no contract permits, just bulldozers moving in.”
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has dismissed the sentiment behind these protests, suggesting that residents and global critics are up in arms only because of the project’s connection to Trump. “If it was not Jared, they would not give a s--t about what is happening in Albania,” Rama told Politico.
Owens described Ivanka’s whitewashing of the project as a presentation of “a spiritual vision.”
“Now it’s just a spiritual vision because everyone loves to have a home on a beachy island. But they’re not Kushners. And so some of them have to get the hell up off of their beachy islands that they’ve lived in for centuries or be bombed,” Owens continued.
She ultimately tied her argument back to the presidency, underscoring the public fallout Owens–and several other right-wing figures–have had with Trump following the war in Iran.
“He’s just completely sold out the American people for Israel, for his family,” Owens said of the president. “They’re going to be billionaires. They’re going to buy islands. They’re going to jump off of yachts owned by Nat Rothschild and find and discover islands. and discover islands and say that’s mine and nobody cares what happens to the Albanians, and nobody cares if the Americans are growing poorer.”
