BANJA LUKA, Bosnia and Herzegovina, April 7 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s eldest son visited Bosnia’s Serb Republic on Tuesday, a trip widely seen as a gesture of support for its ousted pro-Russian leader Milorad Dodik, during which he criticised the European Union as “a little bit of a mess”.
Donald Trump Jr. travelled to the Serb Republic’s de facto capital, Banja Luka, as the guest of Dodik’s son Igor. The visit coincided with remarks by U.S. Vice President JD Vance in Budapest, where he accused the European Union of meddling in an election in Hungary.
“The European Union has been a little bit of a mess,” Trump Jr. said during a closed panel discussion with region’s political leaders and business figures. He added that he had heard from business people around the world who described Europe as “a disaster”.
“But it’s a disaster they feel also needs to be fixed because of the impact that it does have on the values and Western civilization,” said Trump Jr., who is executive vice president of the Trump Organization, which he runs alongside his younger brother Eric.
The Serb Republic is one of two autonomous regions that make up Bosnia, alongside the Bosniak-Croat Federation, under the 1995 Dayton peace accords brokered by the U.S. to end the 1992–95 war that killed about 100,000 people and displaced some 2 million.
The panel event was open only to government-aligned media outlets but video was broadcast on regional television.
Dodik, the region’s former separatist president, was stripped of his mandate last August over a court verdict banning him from politics and had been under U.S. sanctions for flouting the Dayton peace treaty. He has become a strong supporter of policies of Donald Trump after he took power last year.
“The arrival of Vance in Hungary and Donald Trump Jr. in Banja Luka is a signal of an important shift in the U.S. administration under President Trump, showing concern for this part of Europe,” Dodik posted on X.
In October, the U.S. Treasury Department lifted sanctions imposed on Dodik and his allies and family members without publicly explaining the decision. Serb officials have since said they have been working quietly to improve relations with Washington, while maintaining close ties with traditional ally Russia.
(Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Ros Russell)
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