On the old Soviet hippodrome on the edge of central Tbilisi, elderly residents still gather in the mornings among the wild grass and trees. Sofo, 80, has lived in the district since her student days, fifty years ago, and has walked here almost daily for the last twenty. She points to newer apartment blocks already pressing against the old racetrack boundary. "This was also part of the hippodrome," she says. "The buildings have already eaten up everything."

More is coming. In April, the Trump Organization announced plans for a 70-storey mixed-use skyscraper on the remaining land, Georgia's tallest building when complete, as part of a broader $2bn development called The Tbilisi Downtown. The development includes hotels, shops, restaurants and offices. For Georgia's ruling Georgian Dream party, it is a point of pride. Parliament speaker Shalva Papuashvili called it a vote of confidence in the country's economy, saying US President Donald Trump's company "is careful to protect the reputation they have built," according to The Guardian. In a press release, Eric Trump, executive vice-president of the Trump Organization, said the company was "proud to bring this globally recognised standard of excellence to Georgia". 

Sofo has no illusions about who the tower is for. "Foreigners, probably. Arabs, Russians. There are plenty of them already.” For many who live in the streets around the old racetrack, the mood is equally somber. "Nobody thinks about us here," says Zaira, 48, a housekeeper in an apartment block facing the development, who says her budget won't stretch to visiting it. "It is in [Georgian Dream founder Bidzina] Ivanishvili’s interest, not Georgia's."

A deal with complications

The project's ownership structure has drawn scrutiny. According to official records cited by The Guardian, the plot is currently part-owned by Fund Cartu, a charity linked to the family of Ivanishvili, Georgia's billionaire de facto ruler, sanctioned by the US in 2024 for "undermining the democratic and Euro-Atlantic future of Georgia for the benefit of the Russian Federation". A sale agreement for the land was signed in 2023, though the full transfer remains pending.

Sandro Kevkhishvili of Transparency International Georgia told The Guardian the project appears to be "not merely a private business project, but rather a political one". Zurab, 80, who has organised residents' meetings and written letters of protest without response, would agree. "You cannot go against the government," he says. "That's the whole point."

Among younger residents, the scepticism runs deeper. Luka, 17, a student in the area, sees the tower as a political move dressed as investment. "Whatever they build under Trump's name, they will declare solidarity through it." His friend Dato, 16, doubts anyone local will benefit. "Not a single local will go. Only those who agree with Trump's politics."

Between Washington and Moscow

The tower does not exist in a vacuum. Relations between Tbilisi and Washington deteriorated sharply after Georgia's disputed 2024 elections, its suspension of EU accession talks, and what Washington described as democratic backsliding. The US halted its formal strategic partnership with Georgia in November 2024 and Vice President JD Vance's visit to the South Caucasus in February skipped Georgia entirely.

Georgian Dream has staked its diplomatic recovery on Trump. That thaw has been uneven: Secretary of State Rubio spoke with Prime Minister Kobakhidze in March, the highest-level contact in years, but Trump also recently renewed sanctions that include measures against Ivanishvili. Georgian officials have been publicly optimistic regardless, with one ruling party MP declaring in April that relations "have been restored", a claim the US embassy neither confirmed nor denied. On May 27, Papuashvili said Georgia wanted relations to "begin afresh," built on "the national interests of both countries," 1tv reported. 

It is a bind that Giorgi, 52, who lives and works near the hippodrome, understands. He worries that investments tied to Trump's orbit carry long-term risk. "When there are sudden changes in politics, all these investments are going to be prosecuted, cases will be opened, taxes will be stolen." As for why the government is pushing ahead regardless: "They see it as a good thing to walk with Americans, to have a balance to Russia. They are trying to sit between two chairs."

"One fine day, they will destroy it all"

The hippodrome itself, an overgrown Soviet racetrack that has quietly become a neighbourhood park, sits at the centre of a separate argument about what Tbilisi stands to lose. Zurab, who has been walking here for nearly two decades, calls it "the lungs of this district." Sofo agrees. "In the greenery, I rest there, we meet each other, us older folks. It's a kind of wild forest, wild." She pauses. "Right now it looks as if they are making a park. But it will be completely different from what we have now."

Zurab is more angry than he is wistful. He says his entire apartment block opposes even low-rise construction on the site, let alone a 70-storey tower. "These streets will become overcrowded not just with people but with cars," he says. Letters have been written, rallies organised. "So far, nothing is heard."

Natali, 18, passes the site on her way through the neighbourhood. "It makes me feel bad," she says, glancing toward the hippodrome. "I don't want to look at it."

Surnames have been omitted at request of sources.