'Sheer insanity': Trump's envoy skewered as he fawns over dictator with 'cringe' remarks

President Donald Trump's Special Envoy for Peace Missions, Steve Witkoff, prostrated himself before Russia's Vladimir Putin at a summit on Wednesday — despite Putin's ongoing invasion of Ukraine, butcher of civilians, and the lack of any progress in getting him to back off his demands for territorial and political control of his neighbors.

"You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian," said Witkoff. "You are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that, I commend you, and I thank you again."

This display earned disgust and horror from commentators on social media, both in the U.S. and around the world.

"Holy s---, Witkoff just called Putin a 'humanitarian,'" wrote the account "Vatnik Soup." "Because of Putin, thousands of Ukrainian civilians are dead, hospitals lie in ruins, and people are suffering from hunger, torture and Russian terrorism."

"What is clear is Putin is playing rope a dope with Trump/Witkoff: Release a hostage here, feign interest in peace talks there, signalling willingness to listen, while blaming Ukraine for intransigence. But never actually agreeing to change course," wrote John Foreman, an independent defense consultant and former British defence attaché in Moscow.

"The sheer insanity of American diplomacy under Trump is becoming difficult to comprehend," wrote Substacker Gandalv. "Steve Witkoff, a New York property developer somehow entrusted with negotiating Europe’s most consequential war since 1945, has just saluted Vladimir Putin as a humanitarian. The man who invaded Ukraine, ordered the destruction of its cities and presides over a state accused of abducting Ukrainian children. Apparently, releasing an American whom Russia wrongfully imprisoned makes Putin a humanitarian. Imagine sending a property salesman to negotiate with a war criminal, only to discover he cannot distinguish between a humanitarian gesture and the man responsible for creating the humanitarian catastrophe. They are so cringe."

"US humiliation level 100," wrote Czech political analyst Vláďa Foltán.

"Absurd simpering obsequiousness from a representative of the most powerful country on earth, and another American humiliation, to add to the growing, growing list," wrote Kyiv Independent correspondent Jimmy Rushton.