Steve Whitchov, pro -Trump, who disrupts diplomacy

He sits at Ellisie Palace, the 303 -year -old French presidency seat and a jewel of European classical architecture. Steve Witkev was shocked by his similarity with another famous pile, on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

“You know what this looks like this? It seems that President Trump’s club in Mar Lago,” said billionaire investor for property. “He is actually working on himself. It is like an architect or designer.”

Note barely laughed at other diplomats around the table. But he also revealed the deep rapprochement between Witkeov and Trump, two men and a ritual real estate world in New York, and they have been friends for decades.

Now, to surprise the experienced observers in Washington and abroad, this friendship has become the engine of American diplomacy.

Trump raised the eyebrows in November by appointing Witkeov, a man who has no diplomatic or governmental experience, as a special envoy to the Middle East. Since then, Witkoff’s responsibilities have grown only: It has also been assigned to end the war of Russia, Ukraine and reduce Iranian nuclear program.

Critics describe it as innocent abroad, unskilled and not available in diplomacy. His fans say the experience is exaggerated. “The so -called” foreign policy experts “have routinely demonstrated through their failures over the past two decades, so that they do not reach the job.” “Steve on the other hand is the natural generator winner and has more talent, sadness and healthy more than all his critics combined.”

On Friday, Wittouf traveled to Moscow to attend a meeting With the Russian president Vladimir Putin, his fourth since he took the Ukraine file. Earlier this week, the Trump team caused a fragmentation in Kiev by submitting a proposal to end the conflict that would see the United States recognizing the Crimea that it is Russian while leaving large parts of eastern Ukraine under Moscow’s control.

“He) is prestigious in Russia,” said Stephen Bever, a former American ambassador to Ukraine at the International Security and Cooperation Center at Stanford University. Bever added that Witkeov had “fell into a trap.” “Being relatively unaware of issues, he took on everything that Vladimir Putin told him very magical.”

KYIV and his allies have long been suspected of Witkoff of supportive sympathy for Russia. Consult an interview with Tikkar Carlson last month in which Putin praised him as “very smart” and said that the “overwhelming majority” of people in the regions of Ukraine occupied by Russia “wants to be under Russian rule.”

Trump’s long -term adviser, who has known and destroyed for years, says that the proximity to Wittouf denies that he has been transferred. “It is clear about who Putin is.” “But if we are in negotiations and I am dealing publicly on you without stopping, are you more likely to express a deal with me? No, of course no.”

Witkev was born in Bronx in 1957 for a Jewish family, work began in the real estate law firm, Dryer and Trope, who later became a real estate investor.

Trump was first faced in New York City in 1986 while the couple was working on a deal together. Trump had no money, so it was ordered by pork and Swiss, “as he witnessed the trial of fraud in the former head of Manhattan in 2023.

Witkoff was deeply admired by the comparison of property. “I used to say,” Well, my God, I want to be, I do not want to be the lawyer, I don’t want to be scrivener, I want to be this man, “Witkoff told Carlson.

By the late 1990s, he was achieving Trump’s dreams, as he created a real estate empire that includes a Wolthl Building in New York in Chicago, Dallas and Viladelphia.

Meanwhile, the friend’s friendship was deepening. Witkoff publicly talked about the emotional support provided by Trump after his 22 -year -old son Andrew died in an overdose of Oxycontin in 2011. Witkoff pushed in the language: He was one of a small group of colleagues who remained loyal to the former president after January 6 riot in Capitol in 2021.

This loyalty was rewarded when Trump returned for a second term and a special envoy, a role he played quickly. He had an effective role in negotiating the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in January and recorded another great success when he traveled to Moscow because of the negotiations that led to the release of American citizen Mark Vogel in the exchange of prisoners.

Observers say that the fact that he has the full confidence of the president – one of his closest associates – gives him a former weight negotiating. “It is useful that Steve is not for himself.” He adds that the envoy does not draw a salary and uses his own plane for diplomatic tasks.

Foreign policy experts say his record has been little so far. The Gaza truce that helped negotiate in March. There is no sign of the ceasefire in Ukraine.

But supporters of Witkoff believe that his great contribution is to shake a system that badly needs new methods.

“There is something that can be said about a strange person who knows how to negotiate to enter and work in these deals,” says Trump’s adviser. “And if the foreign policy elite gives a quick kick at the rear, I think it is a good thing.”

Additional reports by Andrew England

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