Trump campaign architects are now training their sights on Albania's upcoming election

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.

Berisha, who is hoping the new administration will reverse sanctions barring him from entering the U.S., has also signed a two-year, $6 million contract with Continental Strategy, a Republican consulting and lobbying firm. Its staff includes Katie Wiles, the daughter of White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, who along with LaCivita, led Trump's campaign. Katie Wiles is not involved with the client.

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.

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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.

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.

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Berisha's party presents its hiring of Trump campaign staffers as a major coup. The Americans, they say, have been working on all aspects of the campaign, from strategy to messaging and public communication.

LaCivita ''managed one of the most spectacular campaigns in the political history, making president a politician who had all against him, media companies, exit poll companies, NGOs, etc, to a certain extent the same situation with the opposition and its leader here in Albania," the party said in a written response to questions from The Associated Press.

Albania's Democratic Party and U.S. Republicans are ''natural allies,'' they added, since both are ''against the woke culture and support family and free market too.''

''Who is ready to make Albania great again?'' he boomed as he opened his speech — notwithstanding the concerns about referencing ''greater Albania.'' (Other times, he goes with ''Make Albania magnificent.")

Rama, the Socialist Party leader, derisively calls Berisha a ''swamp owl'' and frequently criticizes the Americans' involvement, with LaCivita even featured in a negative ad.

The Democrats have not disclosed how much LaCivita is paid, but said ''his payment was done in line with the law and the election rules, here in Albania and in America'' and that the contract would eventually be made public.

LaCivita has stressed he is being paid solely to advise the party and that he is not lobbying officials in the U.S.

Manafort, they said, is part of LaCivita's team as ''a friend and collaborator, and he has been in Tirana at that capacity."

Hiring a lobbying company, aimed at lifting Berisha's ‘non grata' designation

In addition to the campaign help, in late April the Democrats signed a $250,000-a-month lobbying contract with U.S.-based Continental Strategy to help them establish relationships in the executive and legislative branches, and to promote democracy, anti-corruption initiatives and governmental reforms, according to the company's filing with the Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

The firm is led by Carlos Trujillo, a longtime Trump ally who served as U.S. ambassador to the Organization of American States during Trump's first term and whom Albania's Democratic Party has touted as ''President Trump's lawyer and as a staunch anti-communist in his stand!'' Trujillo is working on the contract with the firm's managing partner, Alberto Martinez, who served as now-Secretary of State Marco Rubio's Senate chief of staff.

The arrangement has raised eyebrows in Albania and triggered an investigation by Albania's SPAK, the Special Structure Against Corruption and Organized Crime.

The firm is being paid by the ''Make Albania Great Again Foundation," a newly created nonprofit founded by Nuredin Seci, an Albanian American contractor from New Jersey, with what is supposed to be money collected from the Albanian-American community.

Melissa Stone, a spokesperson for Continental, said, ''Our work is being funded by an American-Albanian businessman and active leader in the Albanian-America diaspora who loves America and loves Albania.''

That includes trying to lift the sanctions on Berisha, who was barred from campaigning in the U.S., where many Albanians ex-pats live.

''As part of our work to improve bilateral relations between Albania and the United States, we are actively petitioning the Trump Administration to launch a full-scale review and reversal of the Biden-era weaponization of Section 7031(c) against conservative, pro-American leaders, including President Sali Berisha,'' she said in a statement.

In May 2021, former Secretary of State Antony Blinken sanctioned Berisha for alleged ''significant corruption'' and barred him and his wife and children from entering the U.S.

Britain did the same a year later.

Last year, Berisha was charged with corruption for an alleged scheme in which he helped his son-in-law privatize public land to build apartment buildings in the capital, Tirana. The trial has yet to start.

Berisha told Albanian media in January that he considered Trump's election ''a miracle for humanity'' and said that he would ask the new administration to review his designation as a ''persona non grata" and demand that it be changed.

LaCivita has called Berisha ''a true friend of the United States." And he has drawn parallels between Trump and Berisha, casting both as having been ''unfairly prosecuted and persecuted by a government that has no regard for Democracy.''

LaCivita has acknowledged Berisha's decision to promote his involvement is different from other foreign clients who prefer more discretion.

''That's one place where you know, America meddling in their elections is encouraged, right? Everywhere else, not so much,'' LaCivita said in a conversation with journalists posing as potential clients that was published by The Guardian.