Rod Blagojević, the most famous and at the same time the most controversial Serb born in America, has gone through a life path less traveled, from glory to despair, from a fairytale that resembled Hollywood to Dante’s hell.
The child of Serbian immigrants with roots in Kragujevac and Herzegovina, he grew up in Chicago shining shoes, washing dishes, and packing meat in a local factory. To earn money for college, he froze working in Alaska and even boxed for a while…
STARTED AS A TAMBURICA PLAYER: Young Rod Blagojević is in the front row, second from the right
BOXING DAYS: “I wanted to see how much punishment I could take. That helped me later in politics”
Then he became a politician, climbing the ladder of power step by step. He first became a congressman and then was elected governor of the state of Illinois, one of the largest in America, for two terms. And not only that, his popularity extended beyond the borders of Illinois, and many predicted that he would succeed Obama in the White House.
Then came the big fall when, on December 9, 2008, he was arrested at his family home and eventually sentenced to 14 years in prison for, as the judge stated, attempting to sell the very Senate seat of Barack Obama, who had just been elected President of the United States. Thus, Rod also became the most famous political prisoner in the history of the United States.
FIRST CONFESSION FOR SERBIAN AND AMERICAN MEDIA: Rod Blagojević and Antonije Kovačević
Blagojević claimed he was innocent and a victim of a political game, but it was to no avail. After 8 years in prison, then-President Donald Trump commuted his sentence, and he was released from prison in February 2020… Although he built his political career as a member of the Democratic Party, Blagojević now says he is no longer a Democrat but a “Trumpokrata”! Moreover, he is actively involved in Trump’s campaign for the 2024 presidential election…
He spoke about everything he experienced on that journey, which resembles the script of a Hollywood movie, in an exclusive interview he gave to Antonije Kovačević, editor of the Serbian Times portal and the Serbian News USA YouTube channel.
When asked why he respects Donald Trump and participates in his campaign for free, he says:
“He earned my respect as a man and helped me a lot before he released me from prison. While my trial was still ongoing, I was a guest on the final episode of his reality show ‘Apprentice’. In front of a full university hall in New York, I explained what had happened to me, talked about how I was innocent and a victim of a political game. From the hall, where my wife and two daughters, who were still little girls at the time, were sitting, there was laughter, people were throwing things at me… When the show ended, we got into the elevator when Trump came up. He asked us to step out for a moment, and then, so tall, he knelt down in front of my two daughters and said:
“TRUMP IS A GREAT MAN”: Although a Democrat all his life, Rod is now participating in the Trump 2024 campaign
“Your father hasn’t done anything wrong. He is a great man and you should be proud of him!” Blagojević recalls through tears. “He realized how bad they felt after that show and felt the need to address them, which meant a lot to them and to me at the time. That’s when I realized how great a man he really is.”
One of the controversial details from his biography, over which spears have been broken for the previous two decades, is his arrival in Belgrade during the NATO bombing in 1999, where he participated, together with the Reverend Jesse Jackson, in the release of captured American soldiers.
“It happened that I came to Serbia for the first time at a time when bombs were falling on it. Then I thought: My father left this country when Nazi bombs were falling on it, and I’m returning to it when NATO bombs are falling on it. It wasn’t easy for me as a Serb, although I came to Belgrade as a representative of America, on a mission, to free American soldiers as a congressman. I tried to influence Milošević and his associates to lower the stakes in Kosovo. I told them:
“Don’t play games, they’ll really bomb you!”
They didn’t believe me. It was the time of the Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky scandal. Attention needed to be diverted, and I still think that that incident in the Oval Office was responsible for the decision to bomb Serbia. Clinton did it insidiously, but politically very shrewdly, at a time when Congress was on break for Spring Break and when congressmen who opposed the NATO attack on Serbia, like me and John Kasich, a Croatian from Ohio, were not in a position to object,” Rod Blagojević said in an interview for Serbian Times and Serbian News USA.
MEETING WITH MILOŠEVIĆ: The release of American soldiers in 1999
In it, you will also hear his accusations against Barack Obama, whom he claims sent him to prison, his testimony about 8 years spent with the worst criminals, how he earned their respect, about the prison band “Jailhouse rock” in which he was the singer, the book he is writing and which will be made into a film, his youth spent in the Serbian community in Chicago, and much more.
“HE IS GUILTY BECAUSE I ENDED UP IN PRISON: Rod and Obama
Watch his sometimes brutally honest confession, the first he gives to any Serbian or American media…
AUTHOR: Antonije Kovačević; VIDEO PRODUCTION: Dejan Stamenković
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Note: This translation aims to capture the essence of the original Croatian text, including its tone and style. Some nuances and cultural references may not be perfectly translatable.