President Donald Trump dismissed critiques of special envoy Steve Witkoff even as lawmakers in both parties sounded the alarm over recent comments he reportedly made to Russia in a leaked call focused on negotiations with Ukraine.
“He’s gotta sell this to Ukraine, he’s gotta sell Ukraine to Russia. That’s what a deal maker does,” Trump told reporters during a Tuesday gaggle on Air Force One. It’s “a very standard form of negotiation,” he added.
Scrutiny over Witkoff’s role as a negotiator exploded on Tuesday following a Bloomberg report of an Oct. 14 call he held with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov. In that call, Witkoff seemed to advise Ushakov on how to pitch Trump, fueling more scrutiny of the administration’s posture toward Russia. A recent 28-point plan proposed by the administration was similarly criticized for being too friendly to the Kremlin and suggesting outsize concessions for Ukraine.
In a transcript of the call published by Bloomberg, Witkoff repeatedly tells Ushakov how to frame conversations with Trump.
At one point, he urges the Russians to flatter Trump by calling him a “man of peace” and by congratulating him on a recent achievement. He also encourages Ushakov to arrange a call between Trump and Putin before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to the White House.
