On November 19, 2024, President-elect Trump (Donald Trump) announced last week that he would appoint Steve Witkoff as the U.S. Special Envoy for Middle Eastern Affairs. Many people are curious as to why the President-elect would appoint a real estate mogul with no diplomatic experience as a special envoy. Industry experts, however, see it as him “changing the narrative”.
According to the Wall Street Journal, since Elon Musk openly supported Trump’s reelection bid, he has become one of Trump’s most prominent new “close friends”. Witkoff, on the other hand, has been one of Trump’s closest and most stable friends on his journey back to the White House.
Trump is now tapping an old friend to play a key role in U.S. foreign policy: the Middle East envoy, a position held in Trump’s first term by his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Witkoff first met Trump in 1986 when Witkoff, then a young real estate lawyer working at the Dreyer & Traub law firm, was representing them as a client.
According to Witkoff, their friendship began over a sandwich. He recalled a meeting at a deli where Trump had no cash, so he ordered him a ham and Swiss cheese sandwich.
Witkoff’s son, Alex, mentioned that Trump was a “major inspiration for his father’s transition from lawyer to developer”.
“He brought real comfort in dark moments,” Witkoff said during his speech at this year’s Republican National Convention, calling Trump “the kindest and most compassionate person I’ve ever met in my life”.
During Trump’s Manhattan commercial fraud case, Witkoff lent a helping hand. He was the first person to testify in defense of Trump when many former supporters and donors started to distance themselves from the former president.
As one of Trump’s biggest fundraisers, Witkoff’s contributions to Trump’s efforts were largely behind-the-scenes.
Throughout the campaign, Witkoff accompanied Trump and even stayed at Mar-a-Lago with him the week before Election Day. On the day of the attempted assassination in September, they played golf together.
In recent years, Witkoff’s group has profited from the prosperity in South Florida, developing projects like Shell Bay in North Miami. They have established close partnerships with private equity firms including Blackstone and Apollo, earning a good reputation in executing projects.
One current project is the ultra-luxurious Shore Club on Miami Beach, where a penthouse was sold for over $120 million earlier this year. Witkoff acquired the property and revised the plan after another developer, HFZ, went bankrupt. Similar strategies were also used in the New York City’s One High Line project, which was another HFZ abandoned project.
The troubled project initially valued at $2 billion was renamed by Witkoff and completely revamped. Pamela Liebman, the CEO of The Corcoran Group, a real estate agency, mentioned that sales have been incredibly strong.
Having worked with Witkoff for over 20 years and being a member of his golf club, Liebman remarked, “He changed the narrative”.
Colleagues in the real estate industry describe the 67-year-old Witkoff as intelligent, approachable, and a skilled negotiator.
“Don is not one to go head-to-head during negotiations,” recalled prominent developer Don Peebles of their first deal many years ago, highlighting Witkoff’s negotiation style.
As a Jewish individual, Witkoff has always been a strong supporter of Israel. While lacking diplomatic experience, friends point out his established business connections in the Middle East. Last year, Witkoff sold Manhattan’s Park Lane Hotel for $623 million to the Qatar Investment Authority – the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar, with involvement from investment funds in Abu Dhabi.
Kushner has expressed his desire to continue involvement in Middle East diplomacy, even without a formal role. During a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, he stated, “I will give them my advice and help them in any way they need.”
Back in his time, Kushner had neither diplomatic nor Middle Eastern experience, yet he successfully brokered the Abraham Accords, normalizing relations between several Arab nations and Israel. However, this momentum was hindered last October when Hamas launched attacks on Israel, sparking the Gaza conflict.
After leaving office, Kushner received a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia for a new private equity fund, with an additional $1 billion each from the UAE and Qatar.