Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff is being blamed for the failure of the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska as colleagues become increasingly frustrated with his unprofessionalism.
“He’s kind of a rogue actor,” a senior White House staffer told Politico. “He talks to all these people, but no one knows what he says in any of these meetings. He will say things publicly, but then he changes his mind. It’s hard to operationalize that.”
According to insider sources, Witkoff refused to consult experts or prepare for meetings in the lead-up to the historic summit in Alaska, where Trump failed to secure a peace agreement in Ukraine. He assumed, like Trump, that his personal charisma and rapport with the Russian president would be enough to force a breakthrough.
“The thing is, Witkoff isn’t consistently engaged,” a White House source told Politico. “He will pop in for a visit to Vladimir Putin, say a bunch of stuff, not tell anyone what really happened, and then just f— off to his life again.”
“Meanwhile, the Russians are talking to you about how ‘Witkoff says …’ and you don’t know whether they’re right or not, but you can’t get a readout from the Russians,” they added.
Witkoff has met with Putin five times over the past six months, but little is known of what was said between the two men behind closed doors. A former real estate developer with no prior experience in diplomacy, Witkoff views the negotiations through the lens of real estate, thinking of the conflict as merely a land dispute, Politico reported.
According to Politico, Witkoff’s failure to read intelligence briefings, check his government emails, or take notes at meetings has led him to parrot Putin’s talking points about the state of the frontlines in Ukraine and misinterpret his position, which, by proxy, may have influenced Trump’s understanding of the situation.
“He seems to have bought into the false Russian narrative that they are winning on the front lines, which we all know is not true,” another insider told the publication.
Following his last meeting with Putin before the historic summit in Alaska earlier this month, Witkoff returned to the White House with news of a major breakthrough—Putin had agreed to a land-swapping deal in eastern Ukraine in which Russian forces would withdraw from the occupied regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson in return for Kyiv ceding Donetsk and Luhansk. With this information, Trump would negotiate the details in Anchorage.
The news shocked world leaders, who were adamant that Putin would never give up occupied territory in Ukraine.
The next day, further talks between White House and Kremlin officials revealed that Putin had said nothing about withdrawing from the occupied territories and merely conceded that he would not demand that the West formally recognize them as Russian, according to Reuters. Witkoff had misinterpreted Putin’s demand that Ukraine withdraw from Zaporizhzhia and Kherson as a concession offer.
Witkoff disputed Politico’s characterization of him, telling the outlet: “What I’m here to do is actually bring two sides together, narrow the issues and get it to a place where we can build political capital and fix this stupid thing.”
Vice President JD Vance has also praised his colleague’s work ethic, saying, “Witkoff has made more progress towards ending the bloodshed in Ukraine than all his critics combined.”
Witkoff is set to meet with top Ukrainian officials on Friday to discuss technical details he hopes will lead to a three-way summit between Trump, Putin, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Kyiv remains cautiously optimistic.
“Our main focus is to reiterate that Ukraine is ready to meet Russia at the presidential level, but Russia continues to delay the process and constantly invents new pretexts as to why to delay it,” a Ukrainian official said, adding they hope Witkoff will be receptive to their positions.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and Witkoff for further comment.
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