Donald Trump Jr. lashed out at the European Union on Tuesday, saying its liberal policies were discouraging investment and predicted a "major fracture" between the bloc's eastern and western member states.
The eldest child of the U.S. president said that "the biggest players, the biggest names in banking and finance, in tech and AI across the board" believe that "Europe is a disaster," but "the disaster that they feel also needs to be fixed."
"The only way it gets fixed, though, in my opinion is if they [Europe] get out of of their own way," Donald Trump Jr. said in a business discussion in the northwestern Bosnian town of Banja Luka, according to video recordings provided by RTRS television.
Banja Luka is the main town in Republika Srpska, the Serb-run part of Bosnia, whose leaders are staunch admirers of President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The press office of the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo, Bosnia's capital, told The Associated Press in an email that Donald Trump Jr. came "in a private capacity." The visit was nonetheless seen here as a boost for the Serb separatist political leadership.
Donald Trump Jr.'s trip came as Vice President JD Vance traveled to Hungary to support the reelection bid of nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban before a highly contested vote next weekend.
Milorad Dodik, a Bosnian Serb politician, former Republika Srpska president, and ally of Orban, said on X that the two visits "signal an important shift of the U.S. administration under the leadership of President Trump and the care for this part of Europe regarding the position of Christians."
In Banja Luka, Donald Trump Jr. said that eastern European countries "have a work ethic that has [withstood] some of the 'woke' nonsense that has really been a parasitic thing in the mind in Western Europe."
"I see that creating major fractures in the European Union between those few countries in eastern Europe that actually still believe in common sense, and Western Europe that's clearly missing in the political discourse these days," he said.
Dodik has repeatedly called for the Serb-run half of Bosnia to break off from the rest of the country that is run by Bosniaks, who are mainly Muslims, and Croats.
The Serb bid to form its own state and unite with neighboring Serbia was seen as the main cause of the 1992-95 ethnic war that killed more than 100,000 before ending in a U.S.-brokered peace agreement.
The Biden administration in 2022 imposed sanctions on Dodik and individuals and companies linked to him because of the separatist policies that stoked fear of renewed instability. The sanctions were lifted by the Trump administration last year.
The Trump administration has long been critical of the EU, notably over trade and EU regulation of the technology sector. Its criticism of longtime European allies has intensified during the Iran war.
Bosnia is a candidate country for EU membership and the 27-nation bloc says it's Bosnia's biggest trading partner, investor and provider of financial aid.
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