President Donald Trump is going to Make Albania Great Again. Or at least try.

MAGA in the Balkans. Truly.

That is why Chris LaCivita, the co-campaign manager of Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, is in Albania.

“We can make Albania great again,” he said at a press conference last week in Tirana upon his appointment as head of former Prime Minister Sali Berisha’s comeback campaign.

LaCivita and Susie Wiles, now Trump’s chief of staff, helped Trump get elected in 2024.

Now LaCivita thinks he can do the same for his man in Albania, Berisha, 80, a veteran politico who is seeking a political and personal comeback in 2025 the way Trump did in 2024. The election is in May.

LaCivita, 59, is a no-holds-barred political brawler, and a Marine Corps combat veteran of the Gulf War. He was previously known for derailing John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign by questioning Kerry’s Vietnam combat record, a mainstay of Kerry’s campaign.

The main thing that Berisha and Trump have in common is that both were persecuted and prosecuted by their pro-George Soros successors when both were out of office seeking comebacks.

Incumbent Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, 60, of the Socialist Party tried to jail Democrat Party leader Berisha on corruption charges to keep him off the ballot the same way that Joe Biden tried to jail Trump.

Both Trump and Berisha ended up stronger than they were before they were targeted.

In May of 2021, then Secretary of State Antony Blinken who has family ties to Soros, sanctioned Berisha, head of the Democrat Party, as persona non grata for unspecified alleged “corrupt acts” when Berisha was prime minister a dozen years earlier.

Blinken’s move was seen by many as a political favor to Rama and payback to Berisha for his earlier attempts to kick Soros and his Open Society Foundation out of Albania.

Rama reportedly also has close ties to Alex Soros, the 94-year-old George Soros’ son.  Before leaving office Joe Biden awarded George Soros the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which Alex accepted in his father’s absence.

Meanwhile, it was revealed by Elon Musk and DOGE that USAID gave $9 million to a Soros-backed group in Albania to seize control of the judiciary — like Soros has done with district attorneys in the U.S. — and help incumbent Rama go after his opponents, like Berisha, which he did.

Rama had Berisha arrested and placed under house arrest, a tough place to campaign from. He has since been released.

No sooner was Trump elected then Berisha appealed Blinken’s sanction against him. Now, with LaCivita at his side, there is a good chance that Trump will vacate Blinken’s action before the election.

LaCivita, in Tirana, called Rama a George Soros “puppet” at his introductory press conference.

“You cannot be a puppet of George Soros and be a friend of the United States, that is simply not possible,” he said.

“We are here because we want to help elect a prime minister who is a true friend of the United States and who will work successfully with President Trump and the United States.”

He added, “Berisha is a true friend, an old friend, of the United States.”

Berisha, who co-founded the Democrat Party in 1989-190 upon the fall of Communism, is a former heart surgeon who served as president from 1992-1997 and prime minister from 2005 to 2013.

Albania, throughout its modern existence, has been plagued by political corruption and it will be a major issue in the campaign. Political corruption was hardly an issue when Communist dictator Enver Hoxha ran the country because there was nothing to steal.

Under democracy, or what has passed for it, the country, at least for the well-connected and prosperous few, has emerged as the drug money laundering capital of the Balkans.

Only last week Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj, a Socialist protégé, former cabinet member, and ally of Edi Rama, was arrested on charges of corruption and for more than $1 million in money laundering.

LaCivita, Trump and Berisha may not be able to Make Albania Great Again. But maybe people will settle for just making it good.

Peter Lucas is a veteran political reporter. He can be reached at: peter.lucas@bostonherald.com