For such an obscure spot on the globe, little Republika Srpska has managed to enlist a host of people with close ties to the upper reaches of the Trump administration in the past few months.
When the pro-Russian government of the Balkan territory wanted help this summer on an energy project, it turned to a Washington lobbying firm with ties to President Trump, according to four people familiar with the events who requested anonymity to discuss a proposed business deal.
That firm, Continental Strategy, was ready to assist. Continental counts among its partners several former Trump campaign and administration officials as well as Katie Wiles, the daughter of Mr. Trump’s chief of staff.
Soon, Ms. Wiles was accompanying a Texas energy entrepreneur to Srpska to explore a partnership with the government to build a gas pipeline, according to two people briefed on the trip.
The entrepreneur himself has Trump ties. One of his companies has received investments from Mr. Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., and help from the Trump administration.
Separate from the pipeline, at least six current and former Trump political operatives traveled to Srpska this month to assist the government around its elections.
Among them were Alex Garcia, a partner at Continental who served on Mr. Trump’s 2024 campaign and recommended James Blair and Chris LaCivita — two of Mr. Trump’s top political advisers — to the government of Srpska, and Andrew H. Smith, a Trump lawyer who worked with the pair on election-related matters.
The involvement by Mr. Blair and Mr. LaCivita, who also traveled to Srpska for the elections there this month, appeared to anger Mr. Trump.
“If there’s a conflict, I will terminate them, immediately!” the president wrote on social media after The New York Times revealed that Mr. Blair and Mr. LaCivita had been paid to provide advice to Srpska’s government.
The pair are leading the Trump political operation’s big-money advertising campaign to try to stave off a Democratic landslide in the midterms. Their trip abroad at the height of the campaign became a flashpoint for Republicans fearful of losing control of Congress, a development that would further weaken Mr. Trump and raise the possibility that Democrats could again impeach him.
Their engagement in Srpska also raised issues that have traditionally irked Mr. Trump.
Mr. Trump has long bristled at suggestions that he is in Russia’s thrall. And he has never liked it when allies have sought to benefit financially from their association with him.
Yet the involvement of several prominent Trump allies in Srpska — a self-governing entity inside Bosnia and Herzegovina — highlights the willingness of far-right interests around the world to pay handsomely to associate with an American president who has thumbed his nose at international institutions. And it demonstrates the receptiveness of people in Mr. Trump’s orbit to capitalize on that dynamic, despite the risk of being seen as exploiting their connections to the president.
Republika Srpska (pronounced SERP-skah) is controlled by a pro-Russian party whose leader, Milorad Dodik, was under United States sanctions for years — including during the first Trump administration — for undermining the Dayton Accords peace agreement.
The accords, which are backed by the United States, ended bloody sectarian fighting in the 1990s between Bosnian Muslims, Serbs and Croats in the former Yugoslavia, and enshrined Republika Srpska, which is overwhelmingly Serbian and Christian, as one of two political divisions in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
After an expensive influence campaign through which the Srpska government paid several allies of Mr. Trump, his administration lifted the sanctions late last year. The Srpska government continued spending heavily to court Mr. Trump in the run-up to this month’s elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It sought to present Srpska as a bastion of Christian conservatism that has been unfairly targeted by Democrats in the United States and the international entity overseeing the Dayton agreement.
In February, according to Justice Department filings, Republika Srpska began paying $35,000 a month to Continental Strategy, which was started by a former Trump ambassador.
The Srpska government also enlisted Mr. Smith, a lawyer at the firm Boies Schiller Flexner who worked for Mr. Trump’s first campaign and administration and represents one of the president’s companies in civil litigation, according to two people familiar with the engagement.
The people, like others interviewed for this article, requested anonymity to discuss private business dealings related to those that have drawn the ire of Mr. Trump and other Republicans.
Mr. Garcia and Mr. Smith helped bring more Trump allies to Srpska’s cause.
Mr. Blair and Mr. LaCivita were paid hundreds of thousands of dollars each by Boies Schiller Flexner, which has represented Srpska, for the engagement.
Mr. Dodik’s pro-Russian party won handily.
In a speech at a victory celebration late Sunday, Mr. Dodik credited Mr. Trump for creating the political environment that allowed his party to triumph and also thanked President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia for his support.
In addition to Mr. Blair and Mr. LaCivita, attendees at the celebration included Mr. Garcia and Mr. Smith, as well as the former Trump fund-raiser Caroline Wren and the former Trump campaign adviser Barry Bennett.
Ms. Wren and Mr. Bennett were among the founders of two firms that have been paid at least $800,000 to lobby for the Srpska government during the second Trump administration, according to Justice Department filings. The firms worked to lift the sanctions and brokered meetings with Trump administration officials who focus on religious issues.
Ms. Wren said in a statement that the Trump administration “has made a huge priority of protecting and promoting Christians around the world, and there is no better place to do that than the pro-Trump Christians in the Republic of Srpska.”
The government of Republika Srpska, Boies Schiller Flexner, Katie Wiles and Mr. Garcia did not respond to requests for comment.
Mr. Garcia arranged a meeting last month at the White House between Mr. Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, and a top Srpska official, as The Times previously reported. The Srpska official, who is a member of Mr. Dodik’s party, posted photos of the meeting on social media, writing, “We are building new and strengthening old friendships.”
A White House official and Continental said that Katie Wiles had nothing to do with the meeting and that she does not discuss her business with her mother. Continental also said that the younger Ms. Wiles does not lobby the U.S. government on behalf of any clients.
The firm “meticulously complies with every ethical and legal requirement,” said Melissa Stone, a spokeswoman.
Continental said that Katie Wiles’s trip to Srpska in August was related to “strategic communications support” for a U.S. company. The company, according to the three people with knowledge of the arrangement, is TXC Energy LLC, a Texas-based firm run by John V. Calce.
Ms. Wiles accompanied Mr. Calce on the trip, during which she posed for a photo at a shooting range while holding a rifle with the interior minister of Republika Srpska, who is a member of Mr. Dodik’s party.
In a social media post that was captured and shared online by an Albanian American activist and reported by CBS News, Ms. Wiles wrote that the trip to Srpska was “mostly work + some serious fun!” Mr. Garcia was also in Srpska at the time.
Mr. Calce’s visit was arranged by Continental at the request of the Srpska government. It invited him to explore a partnership to build a pipeline that it said would bring natural gas from Croatia into the Western Balkans and deepen ties between Srpska and the United States, according to three people with knowledge of the arrangement.
Mr. Calce did not respond to requests for comment. It is not clear if he is still exploring the pipeline project.
His connections to the Trump orbit could make him a coveted partner for a foreign government looking to create ties to the U.S. president’s circle.
Donald Trump Jr. owns a minority stake in another company Mr. Calce leads, America First Refining, according to two people familiar with the investment, which was reported earlier by ProPublica. America First Refining lists the same address in Addison, Texas, as TXC Energy.
A spokesman for Donald Trump Jr. did not respond to a request for comment.
In a March post on social media, President Trump endorsed America First Refining’s plans to build a new refinery in Brownsville, Texas, with a large investment from an Indian company that has also done business with the Trump Organization.
America First Refining and a predecessor company have paid Continental $750,000 to lobby the White House and the Energy Department on the Brownsville refinery as well as “energy and industrial development,” according to lobbying records.
Mr. Garcia, but not Ms. Wiles, is listed as a lobbyist on the America First Refining account.
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