Donald Trump Jr. is scheduled to visit Romania at the end of the month, just days before its delayed presidential election.
The president’s eldest son is set to be in the Eastern European country for an event on April 28. The first round of voting starts on May 4, with a runoff election expected on May 18.
The first round of the election was held in November 2024, when far-right populist Călin Georgescu clinched a surprising win. But Romania’s Constitutional Court later annulled the election over concerns about Russian interference.
Georgescu was later barred from running in the May election, with the election board saying his candidacy did not “meet the conditions of legality” and accusing him of having “violated the very obligation to defend democracy.”
The Romanian court’s decision late last year was met with outrage in the U.S. among those in President Donald Trump’s circle who have sought to boost far-right politicians in Europe. Billionaire Elon Musk and Vice President JD Vance both denounced the ruling at the time, and Trump Jr. baselessly claimed that it was “Another Soros/Marxist attempt at rigging the outcome & denying the will of the people.”
Trump Jr. will attend a “Trump Business Vision 2025” event in Romania as part of a speaking tour, according to Axios. A source familiar with the matter told the outlet that he won’t hold any private meetings or public events with government officials while there. He also intends to travel to Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Serbia and Slovakia, Axios reported.
The timing of his trip to Romania is noteworthy, considering his previous criticism of the country’s political affairs and the efforts by other Trump allies to insert themselves in European politics. Earlier this year, Musk advocated strongly for Germany’s far-right AfD party ahead of the country’s February elections. That same month, on his first international trip as vice president, Vance cozied up to AfD’s leader, Alice Weidel, and publicly berated European leaders for shutting out far-right politicians in their respective countries.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
