Indonesia halts development of ‘Trump Community’ on tourist island
President Joko Widodo gave the plans special economic zone status, including tax breaks and leniency on permits
Indonesian authorities have halted development of a tourism project linked to U.S. President Donald Trump.
The project, covering over 3,000 hectares, is a collaboration between Trump’s business partner, Indonesian billionaire Hary Tanoesoedibjo, and the Trump Organization.
Tanoesoedibjo attended Trump's inauguration in Washington last month. His association with Trump began in 2014 when his group company, MNC, was looking for an operator for sprawling “six star” resorts, one to be built on the tourist island of Bali and the other near Jakarta.
In exchange for a cut of the revenue, the Trump Organization would manage hotels, golf courses and country clubs that would cost about $700 million for MNC to build. The projects form the core of larger developments that the company plans.
In a January 2017 interview with The Associated Press, Tanoesoedibjo, better known as Tanoe, said that developing the whole 3,000 hectares of Lido City would take more than a decade and cost up to $3 billion, of which the Trump properties would cost more than $300 million.
The company has been promoting the project for years. In 2023, then Indonesian President Joko Widodo gave it special economic zone status providing MNC Land with tax breaks and leniency on permits.
A sprawling “Trump Community” has been built since 2014 in this pocket of Indonesia’s most densely populated island, with a new toll road leading to it, located in Gunung Gede Pangrango, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) south of the capital, Jakarta, and is home to a new Trump golf course, which started offering membership last year.
Though a private development, Lido City suits the Indonesian government’s ambitions to create more tourist destinations that it hopes will be as popular as Bali.
It’s part of broader plans, including a huge theme park, that have alarmed conservationists who fear development will overwhelm habitats for some of the archipelago’s most threatened species.
The Environment Ministry said in a statement that mismanagement of rainwater at the resort had caused sedimentation in Lido Lake, making it shallower and halving the size of the body of water from initially of 24 hectares (60 acres) to only 12 hectares (30 acres).
“The mismatch between environmental plans and physical implementation is a serious concern in efforts to preserve natural resources,” said Ardyanto Nugroho, the ministry's director of environmental complaints, monitoring and law enforcement.
He said that his team was still waiting for laboratory test results to determine further steps in the environmental law enforcement process.
“We committed to preserving the environment and will take firm action against violations that impact the ecosystem and surrounding communities,” Nugroho said.
Local media reports showed a board with a sign that the project was under “supervision” installed on one side of Lido Lake.
Gunung Gede Pangrango is one of the last virgin tropical forests in Java, where only 2% of original forest remains. It nurtures a dazzling variety of flora and fauna: more than 2,000 species of ferns, mosses and flowering plants, and 250 species of birds.
Endangered species include the Javan slow loris — the world’s only venomous primate — the Javan leaf monkey, the Javan leopard, whose total population numbers less than 250, and the Javan hawk-eagle and Javan silvery gibbon.
The park has a rehabilitation center for silvery gibbons that have been rescued from the illegal wildlife trade. The gibbons, known for practicing lifelong monogamy and their distinctively small, intense faces, number fewer than 4,000 in the wild.
PT MNC Land President Director Budi Rustanto denied that his company's project had caused the sedimentation in Lido Lake, saying it also came from other projects, offices, housing and buildings in the surrounding area, including a government office compound and existing community settlements.
He said that his property firm had followed the criteria and prerequisites related to the environmental impact analysis, known as AMDAL.
“Since 2013, we have always tried to overcome the problem of shallowing of the lake, this is because 50% of the lake area is in our development area," Rustanto told Kompas news outlet, adding that a number of efforts will continue to be made to overcome the problem of shallowing of the lake, including dredging plans.