White House special envoy Steve Witkoff has drawn criticism from foreign policy and national security experts for his unorthodox negotiating style with Russia – and now former Trump administration insiders are even calling out the real estate billionaire’s approach.
Witkoff, a longtime Donald Trump friend and golfing buddy, has reportedly met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at least four times while entirely unaccompanied by the usual set of advisers that traditionally accompany officials in such high-level talks. He has also stepped into negotiations in the Middle East involving the complex situation with Israel and Hamas, the Daily Beast reported.
But the go-it-alone strategy Witkoff is engaging in as he tackles America’s most difficult adversaries is rubbing even the president's own allies the wrong way.
“Nice guy, but a bumbling f---ing idiot. He should not be doing this alone,” a member of Trump’s first administration said in an interview with the New York Post published Wednesday. The profanity-laced insult came as reports emerged that Witkoff has sometimes used Kremlin translators in his meetings with Putin, “in a major breach in diplomatic protocol.”
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“Anybody engaging in these kinds of talks with Putin would benefit from having experienced Russia hands on his or her team and bringing them along to meetings with the Kremlin,” John Hardie, director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracy’s Russia program, told the Post.
The Post report added that Witkoff attended a meeting with Putin this past Friday where he “greeted the Kremlin tyrant like an old friend,” while Putin was accompanied by two Russian aides.
“If Trump finally got serious about mediating an end to the war in Ukraine, he would appoint one person to talk to both sides — shuttle diplomacy — and preferably someone with some experience in diplomacy. Witkoff acts as a mailman for Putin. He is not negotiating anything,” former US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul wrote in an X post.