Steve Witkoff, the world’s worst diplomat

Witkoff is a Trump loyalist through and through. CNN reported that he “sees the president almost daily, texts with Trump’s family members, has walk-in privileges to the Oval Office, and enjoys a longer leash than nearly anyone else in the Trump administration.” And having ingratiated himself with the Trump family he’s suddenly America’s face of diplomacy, often taking a higher profile role than the secretary of state Marco Rubio.

Witkoff has been elevated to this position of extreme influence despite having no foreign policy credentials or experience of any kind. What he does have, however, are deep business ties to the billionaire oligarchs of Putin’s inner circle. Witkoff has called Putin “a super smart guy…gracious…direct”. He is also a fan of the autocratic leaders of the Gulf states, and he has gushed over Qatar’s “magnificent hotels”.

And so it was perhaps unsurprising that, when Witkoff recently visited the Élysée Palace, he appeared more impressed by the wallpaper than the weight of the moment. “This actually looks like President Trump’s club in Mar-a-Lago,” he said, admiring the gold leaf walls. He meant it as a compliment. Jonathan Powell, the UK foreign policy adviser present, could barely contain his disbelief. But Witkoff wasn’t done with his interior design chat, telling those present that Trump “actually works on it himself. He’s like an architect”.

Witkoff’s strategy seems very like that of Trump himself – to cozy up to strongmen and dictators in order to cut a deal, for the commercial benefit of his boss, and himself. In Moscow, for his third meeting with the Russian president, Witkoff behaved like a deferential fanboy.

Everything he knows about diplomacy, he learned in Trump’s shadow when he converted from the law to real estate. “I know I wanted to be him, by the way,” he told the far right conspiracy theorist and pro-Kremlin broadcaster Tucker Carlson in March. “Everybody wanted to be him. He’d come to 101 Park Avenue, where I was a lawyer. He had this swashbuckling style. I used to see him come in and I used to say, God, I want to be him. I don’t want to be the lawyer. I don’t want to be the scrivener. I want to be that man. Yeah, I can remember saying that. He was like Michael Jordan to me, you know, of the real estate business.”

In a cringe-inducing interview full of fawning questions, Witkoff called Putin “a very smart guy” and “not a bad guy”. As for Ukraine? Just a “fake country,” he told Carson, with a shrug. He couldn’t even recall which territories Russia illegally annexed. “Donbass, Crimea… and there are two others,” he mumbled. What mattered to him was that the people there were “Russian-speaking,” that there were “referendums,” and that they allegedly voted to join Russia – somehow failing to mention the Kalashnikovs pointed at their heads.

While the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky was “disrespectful” during his visit to the Oval Office, according to Witkoff, Putin has “huge respect” for Trump. His evidence? Putin once gave Trump a painting and went to church to pray for him after the assassination attempt in July 2024. “He told me that when the president was shot, he went to his local church, saw his priest and prayed – not because he was president of the US, but because he was his friend.”

“Witkoff knows nothing,” Trump’s former national security advisor John Bolton said bluntly. “In reality, he’s more of a propaganda vehicle for Putin than anything else.”

As the Trump administration and Witkoff appeared to be pressing Ukraine to surrender five of its key territories including the Crimea, Zelensky was more diplomatic but no less damning in his comments: “I think Mr Witkoff has chosen to follow the strategy of the Russian side. I see this as extremely dangerous because he – whether consciously or unconsciously, I don’t know – is spreading Russian narratives. In any case, this does not help.”

Kyiv’s disdain for Witkoff and the White House’s softness towards Putin came to a head when recent high-level talks in London collapsed. In response to Putin’s proposal that the war should be concluded with an effective Ukrainian surrender of key territories, just as the Russian president and Witkoff had concocted at a March meeting in Moscow, Zelensky baulked. He made it clear to Putin – and also to Trump – that his country would not cede land to Russia in any peace settlement. The fact the Ukrainian president should have to make this clear shows how little the current US administration grasps or cares about the reality of the Ukraine war. Without a doubt Witkoff’s pro-Russian sympathies and fundamental ignorance, shared by Trump, are at the heart of that misunderstanding.

Another issue of global importance, in which Witkoff is involved, is the discussion over Iran’s nuclear programme. He recently led the US delegation in the second round of talks in Rome, alongside Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s foreign policy adviser Abbas Araghchi, at the Omani ambassador’s residence. Reporters crowded the narrow cobblestone streets. And then Witkoff’s motorcade appeared – it missed the driveway. The US delegation had to reverse, in full view of the cameras.

But international diplomacy has never really been Witkoff’s game – throughout his career, his interests have been elsewhere. In 2023, for example, he sold the Park Lane Hotel to the Qatar Investment Authority for $623m. Around the same time, his group helped Qatari investors and Prince Alwaleed bin Talal to facilitate Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter – a platform where Trump’s return was eagerly anticipated.

Witkoff cannot utter enough superlatives about Qatar. It is, he says, “very, very impressive,” with “magnificent hotels”. Its prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed al-Thani, is a “good man,” a “good human being” who “wants peace.” In the same breath, Witkoff has also dismissed Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis as not posing an “existential threat”. That is a remark that will please the Qatari government.

And then there’s his relationship with Len Blavatnik, the billionaire born in the former Soviet Union and now a US-UK citizen. Together, they’ve developed high-end real estate in New York and Florida and their partnership has only deepened since Witkoff’s appointment as Trump’s “envoy for everything”. Blavatnik was sanctioned by Ukraine in December 2023 for posing a “threat to national security”. Witkoff doesn’t seem worried by this.

As reported by Tim Mak in The Counteroffensive, the companies he established with Blavatnik acquired the One High Line project in Manhattan, with 236 condos and 120 hotel rooms. It is now the fastest-selling luxury project in downtown New York. In 2024, they bought the troubled Banyan Cay Resort in West Palm Beach. They have also announced an $85m luxury development in North Beach, Miami.

Despite claims that Witkoff is stepping back from business while he acts as the US’s chief international negotiator, transparency watchdogs see no meaningful separation between him and his commercial interests. The partnerships remain active. The conflicts of interest are glaring.

Things look even murkier when it comes to Witkoff’s entanglements with the Trump family. In 2024, Witkoff helped to launch World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency platform, with Trump’s sons Barron, Don Jr and Eric. By March this year it had raised $550m. Seventy-five percent of the net revenue from that venture is routed to another company, tied to the Trump family.

And then came “SignalGate”. While visiting Moscow, Witkoff was part of a now-infamous chat discussing sensitive defense topics around US strikes on Houthi rebels. Witkoff – in Russia – participated on an unsecured phone, while Jeffrey Goldberg, editor of the Atlantic, was also accidentally included in the conversation. Witkoff posted emojis in the chat, featuring a punching hand, a US flag and a fire symbol.

So who is Witkoff – and what does he believe in? It’s not peace, or the institutions or international relations, and it’s certainly not multilateralism. It seems he believes exclusively in money, access, and power. Whether it’s Putin, the Qataris, or Iranian negotiators, Witkoff doesn’t differentiate between tyrants and statesmen. He only knows how to flatter, smile, and try to make a deal.

As he is mocked by career diplomats, supporters of Ukraine and even the Israeli security establishment, Steve Witkoff still has some very important supporters inside the Trump camp. “No one in my father’s Administration has fought harder to end this war and bring a lasting peace deal between Russia and Ukraine than @SteveWitkoff,” Donald Trump Jr said on X. “The establishment hates him for it, but real leaders fight for peace, not war!”

The right wing extremist, conspiracy monger and purported Trump mistress Laura Loomer also came to his aid. “People love attacking @SteveWitkoff, but he has done more to advance peace negotiations & hostage releases than any of his career bureaucrat critics have done during their entire careers in the Swamp,” Loomer posted on X. “Steve Witkoff is busting his ass for President Trump.” Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, reposted her rant with the comment “100%”.

Trump calls him “a true friend,” who stood by him when he was convicted on multiple charges, before staging the political comeback of the century. He is unqualified, with multiple conflicts of interest. When it comes to Putin and his proxies, he is slavishly – and dangerously – deluded. He may well be capable of dog-like loyalty, but Steve Witkoff is perhaps the most compromised man ever to serve as America’s envoy.