Steve Witkoff: Trump's friend in the center of Ukraine and Israel negotiations

Steve Witkoff: Trump's friend in the center of Ukraine and Israel negotiations

When Donald Trump was convicted by a jury for 34 crimes in May last year, under his companions in the courtroom was a person who did not belong to his lawyers or relatives: Steve Witkoff. While the allied Trumps went into the Manhattan court house during the seven-week process, Witkoff remained on Trump's side in the final hours. This testifies to the close friendship between the two real estate magnates.

The close relationship with Donald Trump

This longstanding friendship has now catapulted Witkoff in the middle of two of the greatest foreign policy crises of Trump's second term. Shortly after Trump's return to the White House in November, Witkoff was appointed Trump's special envoys for the Middle East. He worked with civil servants from the bid administration to finalize a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

extension of the portfolio

his area of responsibility has now expanded to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Witkoff accompanied Foreign Minister Marco Rubio and Trump's national security advisor Mike Waltz to a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lawrow in Saudi Arabia to revive US Russian relationships.

an inexperienced diplomat with a feel for negotiations

Witkoff has never served as a diplomat or worked in the government, but Trump sees him as the ultimate negotiator. "There is no one apart from the family, the DJT trusted more than Steve," an official of the White House told CNN.

a diplomatic sense

While Trump's presidential election campaign 2024 acted as an unofficial personal diplomat and conveyed talks with some of Trump's most important Republican rivals. In the first few months of Trump's second term, Witkoff traveled for Trump worldwide - often in his own private jet. He met head of state, including the Russian President Vladimir Putin, helped secure a prisoner exchange with Russia and was the first US official to visit Gaza for years.

an unconventional access

observer describes Witkoff as good -natured, but directly - "a more polite version of Trump", as a participant said. He has a sense of how to build pressure in certain negotiations. Sources from Trump's environment report that the President has long believed that he has developed his negotiation competence through his career in the real estate industry. Trump sees the same qualities in Witkoff and looks at the two as carved out of the same wood.

from New York to the Middle East

The way for Witkoff to negotiate some of the world's biggest diplomatic crises, started with a ham and cheese sandwich at 3 a.m. In a court hearing, Witkoff described how he met Trump in a New York delicatessen around 1986 when he was still a lawyer. Witkoff became his defense in November 2023 while Trump's civil process was defended by the New York public prosecutor's office because Trump and his company exaggerated the value of her assets.

an extraordinary partnership

Witkoff's role as a special envoy for the Middle East began immediately after Trump's re -election in November. Witkoff, a Jewish real estate magnate with international business contacts, already had existing relationships with Israelis, which is the reason for his appointment. At the beginning of the year, he found himself in the center of the possibly the only cooperation zone between the upcoming and the outgoing administration: the mediation of a ceasefire in Gaza.

Negotiations with Russia

Witkoff's next task led him from the Middle East to the conflict -laden relationship between the United States and Russia. Witkoff reported that he had the talent for negotiations early on. After he was sent to Russia to negotiate Marc Fogel's release, an American teacher imprisoned, Witkoff met Putin and other high -ranking consultants, which led to success.

The challenge of the negotiations

However, there is a big challenge ahead of Witkoff, since Trump made publicly attacking comments on the Ukrainian President Zelensky during an important meeting with Lavrov and incorrectly blamed Ukraine for the war. Witkoff and the US team are faced with the task of redesigning diplomatic relationships in the face of such tensions.

The following time will be crucial to test Witkoff's skills and strategies in the complicated negotiations and to stabilize relationships between the USA and Russia.