When US President Donald Trump wanted someone to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin last week to open negotiations for a potential deal to end the Russia-Ukraine war, he didn’t dispatch his secretary of state.
The man he sent to the Kremlin to handle a titanic geopolitical challenge does not even have a diplomatic background.
Instead Trump picked his personal friend, golf buddy and billionaire real estate developer Steve Witkoff.
The president has made Witkoff his Middle East envoy. But last week the Bronx-born businessman found himself in discussions about ending a conflict in Eastern Europe – having been “with [Putin] for a very extended period, like about three hours”, in Trump’s words.
Witkoff was in Moscow to help facilitate a deal that saw the US and Russia swap prisoners, which was seen as signalling a possible thaw in relations between the two countries.
Witkoff also played a part in brokering the current ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, for which both Trump and his predecessor Joe Biden took credit.
Though he was not yet officially in his post, Witkoff flew to Tel Aviv to meet Netanyahu before the deal was brokered in Qatar. He then spent time with Biden’s envoy Brett McGurk in Doha, who later praised their cooperation, calling it a “very close partnership, even friendship”, according to the Washington Post.
Witkoff is now returning to the region, specifically Saudi Arabia, for the first US-Russian face-to-face talks over the war in Ukraine after Trump had his own call with Putin. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz are also attending.
But the bold moves made by Trump’s team are stirring concern among Western allies, who fear a new world order in which key players are shut out of discussions. Ukraine and other European nations were not invited to the Saudi meeting.
So, who is Witkoff – dubbed by US media as “the man in the room”, taking centre stage as more potentially consequential international talks take place?
He was one of Trump’s first picks for his top team after his presidential election win in November. Trump wrote: “Steve will be an unrelenting voice for PEACE, and make us all proud.”
“The president sees Steve as one of the world’s great dealmakers,” a White House official told Axios. Witkoff’s preferred negotiating tactic was to use charm, according to another associate, but he could also turn up the pressure.
The 67-year-old was raised in Long Island, New York and trained as a real estate developer in one of America’s most cut-throat markets.
As a long-time Republican donor, he has known Trump for decades, and, like the president, made his fortune in real estate in both New York and Florida.
Addressing last year’s Republican National Convention, during which he recalled speaking to Trump in the aftermath of an assassination attempt, Witkoff called the other man his “true and dear friend… in good times and bad times”.
The two men are also long-time golfing companions, US Senator Lindsey Graham told NBC News. “Steve and I would be the two guys who would play Trump and somebody else, and lose,” Graham said.
It was during a shared golfing session in Florida last September that another alleged would-be Trump attacker was foiled by the Secret Service. Trump said he and Witkoff were bundled into golf carts as agents moved to counter a suspect in the bushes.
Graham also said that Witkoff first mentioned his interest in becoming Middle East envoy to Trump during a lunchtime conversation. “That stunned me, because I didn’t know he was interested in the Mideast,” Graham said.
Witkoff’s remit as Middle East envoy is also reported to include diplomacy with Iran. People familiar with the matter told the Financial Times he had been chosen to spearhead a nuclear deal with Tehran as part of a broader plan to “stop the wars” in the region.
Witkoff’s deal-making skills were on display during Trump’s 2024 campaign. He helped to ease tension between Trump and his defeated Republican presidential primary rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Witkoff also reportedly met Georgia Governor Brian Kemp to smooth things over, after Kemp drew Trump’s scorn for refusing to support his unfounded claims of fraud in the 2020 election which Trump lost to Biden.
He currently serves as chairman of the University of Miami’s business school real estate advisory board, and was appointed by Trump during his first term to the board of trustees of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
