Steve Witkoff (born c.1957) is a New York property developer and billionaire serving as America's Middle East envoy under Donald Trump. He has a personal net worth of about $2bn, according to Forbes. He owns homes in Miami Beach and the Hamptons, and flies on his own Gulfstream jet. His partner is Lauren Olaya, a clothing entrepreneur (he has separated from his wife). He takes no salary as envoy and pays his own expenses, including jet fuel and pilots.
He is also listed as "co-founder emeritus" of World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency firm in which the Trump family owns a 60% stake; his son Zach Witkoff is chief executive. In April 2026 footage surfaced of Zach being arrested in 2022 on a cocaine charge outside a Miami nightclub; the charges were later dropped.
Witkoff met Trump during the 1980s when he was a junior property lawyer and Trump was a client of his firm on Park Avenue. He left law for real-estate investing. He invested in rental blocks in rough areas of north Manhattan and the Bronx, and eventually bought older office buildings in downtown Manhattan. During the property downturn of the early 1990s he reduced costs by managing properties himself, even learning to solder his own pipes. None of his companies went bankrupt. By the mid-1990s he was rich; the tabloids labelled him a "boomer baron".
Witkoff is a near-scratch golfer; his friendship with Trump solidified on the golf course. The two men once came "within an inch" of buying the Chrysler building together but lost to another bidder; otherwise they did not work together on significant deals.
His son Andrew died of an opioid overdose in 2011 at the age of 22. Witkoff later said that Trump had embraced him at a time when it seemed as if "all was lost".
Witkoff is registered to vote in New York as a "no party" independent and in Florida as a Republican. In the 1990s and early 2000s he donated to politicians of both parties, including $25,000 to the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee in 2008. Since 2016 he and his sons have contributed millions of dollars to Trump campaign vehicles and the Republican Party.
After Trump's election defeat in 2020, Witkoff stood by him through the January 6th investigations and attended his 2024 Manhattan criminal trial, where a jury convicted Trump on all counts. He was playing golf with Trump in Florida when Secret Service agents fired shots at a would-be assassin hiding in bushes along a fence line. During the 2024 campaign Witkoff hosted a reconciliation session between Trump and Ron DeSantis and flew to South Carolina to negotiate with Nikki Haley, who subsequently endorsed Trump.
In a long interview with Tucker Carlson in March 2025, Witkoff offered an unvarying reply about his diplomatic missions: peace would be profitable, and is thus "logical". He suggested Hamas leaders are not "ideologically intractable" but want better lives for Gazan children; that Iran once had a "wonderful economy" and could do so again; and that Russia could work with America on energy deals and shared Arctic shipping lanes. When asked whether Russia intended to "march across Europe", Witkoff responded: "100% not." He described Putin as "straight up" and a "super smart guy", and Binyamin Netanyahu as "well motivated".
State Department officials and veteran Middle East negotiators have mocked him for turning up to meetings without experts or even his own aides. At an early meeting with Putin, Witkoff mistook one of the Russian president's translators for an American embassy employee. French officials were appalled when he said the Elysée Palace's gilded décor "looks like Mar-a-Lago".
Before Trump's inauguration in January 2025, Witkoff forced Israel to accept a ceasefire in Gaza, resulting in the release of 33 hostages. He co-ordinated with Biden administration officials to ensure continuity and channelled Trump's bluster when talking to the Israelis. During the Doha negotiations he grew frustrated with David Barnea, the director of Mossad, and Ronen Bar, then head of Shin Bet, and threatened to use Trump's clout to have them fired.
After visiting Gaza with the IDF, Witkoff told Trump that the five-year reconstruction timetable proposed by the Biden administration was unrealistic and might take 20 years. Trump subsequently proposed evacuating Gazans during reconstruction; Witkoff promoted the plan and mused about "AI…hyperscale data centres…blockchain and robotics" transforming the enclave. The vision gave Netanyahu a reason not to pursue a negotiated settlement. Dan Shapiro, a former American ambassador to Israel, said it "gave Netanyahu and the far right a reason not to go to phase two".
On March 2nd 2025 Netanyahu announced a new blockade and return to war, thanking Trump for "his visionary plan for Gaza" and saying Israel had accepted "Steve Witkoff's plan" for renewing the ceasefire but Hamas's demands were "totally unacceptable".
Only one further hostage—Edan Alexander, an Israeli-American—was released, in a side deal Witkoff negotiated without Israeli involvement. By late May 2025 Witkoff was trying to broker a new ceasefire; Netanyahu refused to accept it. On July 24th Witkoff pulled America's negotiating team from Qatar, then pivoted to an "all or nothing" demand for all hostages, Hamas's disarmament and Gaza's demilitarisation—essentially surrender terms. Israel's bombing of Hamas leaders in Doha on September 9th 2025 effectively ended the peace process.
Since April 2025 Witkoff has met Kirill Dmitriev, who runs a Russian state fund, at least nine times. Volodymyr Zelensky, citing Ukrainian intelligence, says Russia has promised deals worth $12trn to America in return for sanctions relief.
Witkoff co-authored a plan with Dmitriev that initially surfaced the day after Trump had privately approved a push by Senator Lindsey Graham for new sanctions on Russia—suggesting Russia was using the negotiations to torpedo sanctions. "It's an influence operation masquerading as a peace plan," said an American official.
Witkoff favours a grand deal between America and Russia. His involvement in Ukraine negotiations has usually been to Ukraine's detriment and has been marked by incompetence; reports suggest he did not understand Putin's offer to "swap" Ukrainian-controlled land in Donbas for a promise not to attack elsewhere. On August 6th 2025 he made an unannounced visit to Moscow and appears to have made proposals much less acceptable to Ukraine than those of Keith Kellogg, a retired American general and rival presidential envoy.
In November 2025 American media reported on a secret 28-point ceasefire proposal negotiated by Witkoff and Kirill Dmitriev, Putin's envoy, without Ukraine's knowledge. Sources familiar with the document said it envisaged slashing Ukraine's troop strength by 60%, requiring Ukraine to cede more territory, and barring it from possessing several classes of weapons—including ones that could hit Moscow. No foreign troops would be allowed on Ukrainian soil. Ukraine would be required to designate Russian as a second state language and restore the local Russian Orthodox Church, disbanded over charges of serving Kremlin propaganda. Ukrainians saw such demands as non-starters. It was unclear how widely the plan was circulated within the Trump administration or whether it was Witkoff's personal initiative. Ukraine first learned the details during a meeting in Miami between Witkoff and Rustem Umerov, Ukraine's national-security chief.
On December 2nd 2025 Witkoff made his sixth trip to Moscow. Putin kept him and Jared Kushner, who accompanied him, waiting for two and a half hours while delivering a hawkish speech to a hall of investment bankers, declaring his readiness to take on a war with Europe. The meeting lasted five hours but produced no breakthrough; Yury Ushakov, a presidential adviser, said the talks had focused on the "essence" of Russia's position.
An emergency summit in Geneva in late November 2025 revised the 28-point plan into a 19-point version, easing limits on Ukraine's army (to 800,000 instead of 600,000), removing an amnesty for war crimes and any reference to America getting some of Russia's frozen assets. The thorniest issues—Russia's territorial demands, a constitutional change ruling out NATO membership and the nature of America's security guarantee—were set aside for Trump to discuss with Zelensky. Bloomberg published two recordings, one purportedly of a phone call between Witkoff and Yuri Ushakov, a Kremlin foreign-policy adviser, in which Witkoff appeared to coach the Russians on how Putin should approach Trump, and suggested Trump would back Russia's demand to be given the rest of Donetsk province. Kirill Dmitriev denied the calls took place but Ushakov was less categorical. In a more conventional administration the leak might have led to Witkoff's dismissal; instead Trump confirmed Witkoff would travel to the Kremlin the following week. Dan Driscoll, the army secretary and a close ally of J.D. Vance, was named the American liaison to Ukraine.
On February 19th 2026, days before America and Israel attacked Iran, Witkoff told Fox News that Trump was "curious" that Iran's leaders had not "capitulated" despite the American firepower amassed off its coasts.
On February 6th 2026 Witkoff was due to meet Abbas Araghchi, Iran's foreign minister, in Oman—a meeting scheduled after frantic diplomatic efforts by Egypt, Turkey and Gulf states, none of which wanted a regional war. On February 3rd he met Binyamin Netanyahu, who tried to convince him that a deal with Iran was pointless.
Iran has told intermediaries it no longer wants to deal with Witkoff, having been attacked twice while negotiating with him. It views him as untrustworthy and hopes instead to speak to J.D. Vance, who is closer to the isolationist wing of MAGA world and whom Iran considers more amenable to a deal.
In April 2025 Witkoff led nuclear negotiations with Iran, meeting Abbas Araghchi, Iran's foreign minister, at the Omani embassy in Rome on April 19th. He held five rounds of formal talks with Araghchi, jetting between Muscat and Rome, before the effort collapsed on June 13th when Israel launched a surprise attack on Iran's nuclear facilities and scientists. Witkoff sent contradictory messages about American goals: on Fox News on April 14th he suggested a deal would allow Iran to enrich uranium to 3.67%, much as the JCPOA did; the next day he reversed himself, saying Iran would have to "stop and eliminate" its enrichment programme.
I always choose my friends for their good looks and my enemies for their good intellects. Man cannot be too careful in his choice of enemies.