Donald Trump’s special envoys to Ukraine are Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, it is not difficult to see why negotiations have stalled. Russia is seeking terms and concessions that they have not achieved on the battlefield and Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on behalf of Trump are willing to concede Ukrainian territory in what they view as a real estate deal. This is not good enough, this is pandering to Russian demands.
But who are Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner? Steve Witkoff is one of Donald Trump’s golf friends, he is a New York real estate developer and became personal friends with Trump through their golf affiliations. Witkoff, a corporate lawyer, began a relationship with Trump through his bankruptcy period. They became friends at a New York deli where Donald Trump, with no cash, had Steve Witkoff buy him a sandwich.
Jared Kushner is even more interesting, he is the son-in-law of Donald Trump, married to Ivanka Trump, this is nepotism at the highest level. His father, a disgraced financier was convicted of 18 counts including financial fraud and witness tampering was sentenced to 2 years imprisonment. The witness tampering charge was connected to hiring a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law who was cooperating with federal prosecutors against Witkoff, he taped the arranged encounter and sent a copy of that tape to his sister. He was pardoned by none other than Donald Trump himself in his first term, so you can see why Russian negotiators love coming up against this pair.
Neither are career diplomats, this is a straight out case of cronyism and nepotism. Needless to say, both Witkoff and Kushner are getting rings run around them, and that is pretty embarrassing. This pair is getting played, the professional negotiating teams cannot believe their good fortune, they get to come up with a pair of inept guys and then employ advanced negotiating techniques against beginners. We see the Trump negotiating style, he makes big demands [anchoring], then creates external and public pressure for leverage including personal attacks, then caves when pressure is applied, he seeks immediate results in a zero sum claim instead of long term consensus. If this wasn’t so serious, it would be laughable.
