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There’s a synchronicity to the Trump family’s separate European trips this weekend.

President Donald Trump will join world leaders attending the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome tomorrow, a somber occasion that will also resonate with the religious element of his support base.

Meanwhile, his eldest son Donald Trump Jr. kicks off his own mini-tour of southeast Europe today, building up the business side of the family empire.

Lara Trump, Eric Trump, Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. at the US Capitol in Washington on Jan. 20. Photographer: Shawn Thew/EPA

Power and money have always gone together, like garlic and slivovitz — the plum brandy that is eastern Europe’s native spirit. But their mutual interaction in the Trump world is unusually open.

Trump Jr. has no official position in the US administration. His visit is a private matter, with events aimed at identifying business opportunities in the region, sources say.

But it’s hard not to see a political thread running through his chosen destinations.

They include Hungary, where Prime Minister Viktor Orban is a MAGA ally; and Romania, which drew the attention of US Vice President JD Vance over alleged discrimination against far-right candidates in its presidential election.

Then there’s Serbia, where Trump Jr. met with Russia-friendly President Aleksandar Vučić just two months ago. Belgrade is also where the US president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner — who is married to Donald Jr.’s sister, Ivanka — plans a luxury hotel project.

The source of the Trump family’s fascination with eastern Europe and especially the perennially volatile Balkan region is unclear.

True, the president’s first wife, Ivana, was born in then Czechoslovakia, and First Lady Melania Trump originally hails from Slovenia. Perhaps it’s simply seen as territory ripe for business — and political — development.

Either way, all eyes will be on the president’s European visit.

But Donald Jr.’s trip may be the more consequential, both for the Trump family and the region at large. — Alan Crawford

Donald Trump and Viktor Orban in Washington in May 2019. Photographer: Bloomberg

Global Must Reads

China is considering suspending its 125% tariff on some US imports, sources say, as the economic costs of the tit-for-tat trade war weigh heavily on industries like medical equipment and industrial chemicals. Trump, meanwhile, insisted his administration was talking with China on trade after Beijing denied the negotiations and said it will “fully prepare” emergency plans to ward against increasing external shocks.

WATCH: Bloomberg’s Minmin Low explains how China is taking steps to repair ties ahead of a likely visit by EU officials in July.

The US will tell Russia it must accept Ukraine’s right to develop its own, adequately equipped army and defense industry as part of a peace agreement, sources say, pushing back on Russia’s insistence that the country largely demilitarize as a condition to end the war. Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, arrived in Moscow today, according to Interfax, as Washington intensifies its push for a peace deal.

The International Monetary Fund’s latest jumbo loan to Argentina — a serial defaulter now led by a close Trump ally – raised red flags for many of the Fund’s top decision-makers, but it got a green light anyway. About half of the 25 executive board chairs at the IMF had serious concerns about the $20 billion deal, sources say.

Argentine President Javier Milei holds a chainsaw reading “Long live freedom, damn it.” Photographer: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

Russia has lifted a two-decade-old ban on the Taliban, aiming to bolster ties with Kabul to crush a joint enemy — the Islamic State. While no country has recognized the Taliban’s government, which has been condemned internationally for repeated human-rights violations, its Foreign Ministry said Moscow agreed to accept an ambassador-level diplomat.

A flurry of meetings between Saudi Arabia and South Africa over the past year has culminated in business worth billions of dollars into Africa’s most industrialized country, and more corporate action is in the pipeline. The rush of deal-making is part of a broader Gulf drive into the continent, with the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia in particular investing in mining, renewable energy and agriculture.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2022. Photographer: Anadolu/Getty Images

Zimbabwe has asked some of the world’s richest nations for bridge finance to end a debt standoff dating back to 1999, sources say.

Ivory Coast’s main opposition party will hit the streets next month to protest the disqualification of its candidate, the former Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam, from running in elections due this year.

Thailand needs to revamp its import regulations and investment promotion policies — key drivers for Chinese capital flows into the Southeast Asian nation in recent years — as a hefty US tariff threatens to hurt the nation’s export-driven growth, according to former leader Thaksin Shinawatra.

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The world’s finance chiefs flocked to Washington for IMF and World Bank meetings to see up close how Trump’s effort to overhaul the global economic order is shaking markets and eroding growth. Reassurances from the White House that the broad outlines of several new trade deals were around the corner contrasted with delegations still trying to figure out what the US wants and what they can offer. This week’s buzzword — “uncertainty” — even crept into corporate boardrooms, with firms pointing to the dangers in earnings calls.

And Finally

Actor Jon Voight and his manager, Steven Paul, plan to present Trump with ideas to help boost US film and TV production. Their suggestions will go beyond the film tax credits typically offered by states and could include incentives for infrastructure investments, job training and changes to the tax code. Film and TV production has fallen in California and elsewhere in the US as studios cut back and other countries solicit the business, often through incentives.

The Hollywood sign in Los Angeles. Photographer: Mario Tama/Getty Images

Pop quiz (no cheating!). The leader of which country formally rejected a proposal to exchange hundreds of convicts held in a notorious El Salvador prison for the same number of political detainees? Send your answers to balancepower@bloomberg.net

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And Finally

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