GEOFF BENNETT: White sand beaches, blue waters, flora and fauna.

The Island of Sazan is a jewel in the Adriatic Sea, the westernmost point of Albania.

But the former Cold War era base is now in a vibrant nature preserve.

It's also an inviting prospect for real estate developers, chief among them, Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner.

And their plans are running headlong into Albanians, who want to keep what's theirs.

Special correspondent Simon Ostrovsky and producer Katia Patin report now from Albania on a small island at the center of a big controversy.

SIMON OSTROVSKY: It's week two of the biggest protests in Albania in years.

And most of the people out here want to speak out against corruption in their government.

But there's also a sense of disappointment with Albania's biggest ally, America, and the way members of Donald Trump's family are treating this country.

This is the video that sparked the uprising people are now calling the Flamingo Revolution.

Private security guards violently detain an activist protesting against a luxury development in a protected nature preserve that is a home for the iconic pink bird.

It's a luxury development that U.S.

President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner are backing.

In 2024, Kushner shared these renderings of the lavish proposal on his Instagram account.

IVANKA TRUMP, Daughter of President Trump: You know, it's not even a business for me, despite the scale of it.

SIMON OSTROVSKY: But the plans didn't generate a lot of international attention until recently, when Ivanka made an appearance on a podcast that angered the citizens of this economically struggling Balkan nation.

IVANKA TRUMP: Not only the island, but we have five miles of beachfront directly across from the island, this beautiful peninsula with a lagoon on one side, the ocean on the other, beautiful white sand beaches.

SIMON OSTROVSKY: But those white sand beaches are on protected land.

And the island, it's not private.

It is in fact public property.

The couple's attempts to appropriate it have elicited much anger here.

But Ivanka's claims that she accidentally stumbled upon it have generated even more eye rolls.

DEA DERVISHI, Student: She said she discovered the island, but the island belongs to us.

SIMON OSTROVSKY: How did it make you feel when you saw her talking about the island?

DEA DERVISHI: I was mad, because the island is ours, not hers.

IVANKA TRUMP: It's an unbelievable beautiful 1,400-hectare private island in the middle of the Mediterranean.

We were on a friend's boat and we stopped for a swim.

Effectively, that's how we found it.

ALBI MIFTARI, Sazan Island Tour Guide: She discovered the island, right?

(LAUGHTER) SIMON OSTROVSKY: Yes.

ALBI MIFTARI: That was very funny and sad at the same time.

Well, we have only one island.

SIMON OSTROVSKY: Yes.

ALBI MIFTARI: And I'm a tour guide, and I'm going to that island like 60 times per year.

SIMON OSTROVSKY: OK.

ALBI MIFTARI: I want to go another 60 times more.

We need it.

It's ours.

We don't want to sell it.

SIMON OSTROVSKY: Blerjana Bino heads a think tank in Albania's capital, Tirana.

She told the "News Hour" Albanians were most concerned with the opacity of the proposal and that the government of Prime Minister Edi Rama had quietly worked with Kushner and Trump to make this project possible.

BLERJANA BINO, Center Science and Innovation for Development: Ivanka Trump comes to Albania, has this private visit, meets privately with the prime minister and with architects.

What is this project?

What is the plan of the government?

Who is this investor?

We saw construction work there.

That's why environmentalists protested and citizens protested, but there was no permission.

There was no official documentation.

For us, as citizens of Albania, this is an issue that has to do with this system, this political elite, and the lack of transparency and accountability that affects our daily lives.

SIMON OSTROVSKY: The podcast appearance of Ivanka Trump was kind of just the straw that broke the camel's back?

BLERJANA BINO: The anger has built up for a long time.

The inclusion of Jared Kushner in Ivanka Trump, it's like the symbol that made it something that could not be bearable anymore.

SIMON OSTROVSKY: Albania may be small, but its love for America is big.

This tiny country regularly polls as one of the most pro-American nations in the world.

It contributed 3,000 troops to America's war on terror.

And, at the U.N.

it votes in lockstep with the United States.

But this foray into the local real estate market by the president's son-in-law, who also doubles as a special envoy for peace, has started to tarnish more than just the Trump family name.

SOKOL HAZIZI, Sazan Project Protester: You know, there's been tension in the crowd between people protesting and people holding American flags.

SIMON OSTROVSKY: Yes?

SOKOL HAZIZI: Because, basically, what we are against right now is this American investment, if that's what it is.

But we are we are against the president's daughter and his son-in-law investing in our country.

SIMON OSTROVSKY: People here for a long time looked up to America.

Do you think they still look up to America in the same way?

SOKOL HAZIZI: What Albanian people and most of European people love about America is their principles, so the land of the free and democracy.

It is very sad to see the American government not stand up to them.

SIMON OSTROVSKY: Albanians expect more from one of their closest allies, says Robin Brooks.

She's a global policy professor and a former U.S.

National Security Council director for the Balkans and Central Europe.

ROBIN BROOKS, Former U.S.

National Security Council Director: So, we have extreme influence in this country that has predicated on what historically has been our shared values and our shared commitment to democracy, democratic institutions and rule of .

So, when the United States is investing in a way that is not transparent and seems potentially to violate Albanian law, it tarnishes our image with the people of Albania and with -- and our ability to exercise that leverage in the future.

SIMON OSTROVSKY: For now, the billion-dollar project continues, as the White House claims the private business activities of Kushner and the president's daughter have nothing to do with the administration.

That's no consolation for people like Joni Vorpsi.

He's an ecologist with an environmental watchdog in Albania and showed me around the protected area.

JONI VORPSI, Protection and Preservation of Natural Environment in Albania: It's a city, 10,000 rooms.

SIMON OSTROVSKY: It's going to completely alter the face of this entire place.

JONI VORPSI: Yes, so we don't talk anymore about negative effects on nature.

It's wiping out nature.

And we're talking about the only island that Albania has.

SIMON OSTROVSKY: Repeat that again.

You're saying this is Albania's only island and that's the one they want to make private?

JONI VORPSI: Yes, exactly.

SIMON OSTROVSKY: That only island is now at the center of furious public debate, as many here fear for the future of one of the country's most pristine places.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Simon Ostrovsky in Zvernec, Albania.