Dodik at Mar-a-Lago: a photo, messages and the limits of lobbying

Milorad Dodik spent November 4–7 at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump's club in Palm Beach, Florida, attending the "CPAC Circle Retreat and Gala". The host was not the Republican Party, as some media in Republika Srpska described it, but the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), led by Matt Schlapp. The main gala dinner took place on November 5.

Dodik arrived the day after the US midterm elections, in which Democrats won the House of Representatives and, according to projections, the Senate. "Tonight I am at Mar-a-Lago. Another important visit on behalf of Republika Srpska is under way; important meetings and talks await us in America," he wrote on X that evening, adding that Republika Srpska is "ready to be a friend and partner to all, and a servant to none". He was accompanied by Ana Trišić-Babić, director of the Republika Srpska Office for International Cooperation. Earlier reports that Željka Cvijanović would travel were not confirmed.

Whom he met

According to available reports, Dodik spoke at Mar-a-Lago on November 5 with US Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling, confirmed by the Senate in late September. "Republika Srpska is open to partnerships and cooperation with American companies," Dodik wrote after the meeting. Topics and outcomes were not disclosed, and the Labor Department issued no readout. A day later he met Matt Schlapp; they discussed the CPAC Balkan conference, which was to be held in Belgrade on November 18–21.

No source, including RTRS, reported that Dodik met or was photographed with Trump. According to CPAC's summary, Trump addressed attendees by phone on the first day. The Crna hronika portal, relaying RTRS, noted that "it was not reported that he met Donald Trump".

From blacklist to Florida

The visit cannot be understood without the past year. The US Treasury sanctioned Dodik in 2017 and again on January 5, 2022. On October 29, 2025, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) removed 48 individuals and entities from its list, including Dodik, Cvijanović and members of Dodik's family. The State Department cited "constructive actions taken in recent weeks by the National Assembly of Republika Srpska", namely the annulment of laws challenging the authority of state institutions. Dodik called the decision the correction of a "grave injustice".

A domestic legal process ran in parallel. The Court of BiH sentenced Dodik in February 2025 to a year in prison and a six-year ban from serving as Republika Srpska president for defying the High Representative; the verdict was upheld on August 1, and the Central Election Commission revoked his mandate. Siniša Karan won the early election, after a repeat vote in February 2026, with 50.54 percent. In the October 2026 general election, Savo Minić (SNSD) was elected president of Republika Srpska with 52.10 percent.

The international framework also changed. High Representative Christian Schmidt announced his resignation on May 11, 2026; since July 1 the Office of the High Representative (OHR) has been run on an acting basis by US diplomat Louis Crishock, because the Peace Implementation Council's Steering Board could not agree on a successor.

The price of access

Republika Srpska has paid Washington lobbyists for years. According to an OCCRP analysis of filings under the US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), Republika Srpska paid at least $8.9 million to eleven firms in 2025 and 2026. A June 2025 contract with Tactic COC is worth $100,000 a month, and a $4 million contract with Dickens & Madson lists "the independence of Republika Srpska" as the ultimate goal. In September 2026 the BiH Constitutional Court banned budget payments for lobbying contrary to the Constitution.

The cost of the visit itself is unknown. Faktor and Blink, citing BNTV, reported that gala packages ranged from $2,500 to $95,000 and that buying a ticket is not a White House invitation; N1 reports it is not known who paid for Dodik's attendance.

What was expected

Before the trip Dodik told the Srna agency: "They are not where I am going, not at Mar-a-Lago, not in Miami, nor will they be," referring to Bosniak politicians. He said he would present Republika Srpska to "important people" and continue communication with the Trump administration. Earlier lobbying contracts list sanctions relief, since achieved, and a review of the OHR's role and the Dayton Agreement as goals.

Critics in Sarajevo and some media in Banja Luka expected above all a photograph for the domestic audience. The Blink portal published a list of planned contacts, including Senators Mike Lee and Rick Scott, but none of those meetings has been confirmed.

What was achieved

Two meetings are confirmed, with Sonderling and Schlapp. No agreement, investment or joint statement was announced. The State Department, the White House and the US Embassy in Sarajevo, according to available sources, did not comment.

Dodik called the visit a success. "I am very surprised that important people in the US are aware of and know what Republika Srpska is," he told RTRS. "We made a big breakthrough in the perception of Republika Srpska… That is the point of being here." He also said Republika Srpska was mentioned at the central ceremony, which CPAC's summary of the event does not mention.

The CPAC Balkan conference, which Aleksandar Vučić was to host, has been postponed to 2027. The decision was announced on November 2–3, before Dodik's meeting with Schlapp and after Vučić's election defeat. "We were overly ambitious in thinking it could be held in November," Schlapp told Insajder.

Washington has turned

The visit came at an awkward moment. From January 2027 Democrats will control both chambers of Congress; in September their House members published the minority report "Pay for Play in the Balkans". Analyst Faris Kočan told Detektor he expects congressional committees to examine the sanctions delisting. Senator Jeanne Shaheen urged Republicans to press the White House over Trump associates' work for Republika Srpska.

"Naturally we can expect a different approach from Congress," said BiH's ambassador to the UN, Zlatko Lagumdžija.

Reactions in Sarajevo

The sharpest reaction came from BiH Foreign Minister Elmedin Konaković (NiP). "Dodik will end up like a rich relative from the provinces who was taken for a lot of money," he said on FTV's "Plenum". "Not a single strategic interest of Dodik the secessionist and Dodik the Russian proxy has moved even a millimetre."

Lagumdžija said there are no lobbyists or money that could convince Americans that Dodik protects Western interests. Commentators Srećko Đukić and Marinko Učur told Pogled.ba the trip was "a completely wrong policy" and "political gambling", while Dragan Šormaz told Oslobođenje it was "one big zero".

Members of the BiH Presidency, the leaders of SDA, SDP and HDZ BiH, and the EU Delegation, according to available sources, did not publicly comment on the visit. The opposition in Republika Srpska largely stayed silent, as it did in October when Trump campaign advisers James Blair and Chris LaCivita attended an SNSD rally in Banja Luka.

Consequences

Government formation. On November 2, before the trip, Dodik set conditions for SNSD entering the Council of Ministers: reform of the BiH Constitutional Court with three judges from each constituent people and no foreign judges, annulment of High Representative decisions never confirmed by parliament, and rejection of any coalition with Stranka za BiH. On the other side SDA, DF and SBiH are forming a bloc. The Florida trip does not change the arithmetic in the state House of Representatives, but it gives Dodik an argument with voters that he has interlocutors in Washington.

The OHR. Schmidt's succession remains open. The US backed Antonio Zanardi Landi, while France, Germany and the UK backed René Troccaz. Kaja Kallas favours a European candidate who would bring BiH to the point where the office is no longer needed, while Dodik wants it closed.

Moscow. Turning towards Washington does not mean moving away from Russia. Five weeks before Florida, Dodik told Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin, with Minić present: "We will not allow sanctions against Russia… we will not allow accession to NATO." According to RFE/RL, it was the eleventh meeting between the two since February 2022.

Assessment

The Mar-a-Lago trip continues a strategy in which Republika Srpska seeks access to Trump's circle through paid intermediaries and conservative networks, while Moscow remains a second pillar. In 2025 that strategy produced a tangible result, the lifting of sanctions. This time the measurable results are modest: two meetings, no document and no official US reaction. The visit's biggest effect will probably be inside BiH, in government formation talks and in the image SNSD projects to its voters, while its value in Washington will depend on how the new Congress views Banja Luka's lobbying.