'Steve Witkoff, Trump's favorite negotiator, boosts his business more than peace'

Some seemingly minor investments can yield enormous returns. For Steve Witkoff, then a corporate lawyer, it was simply a sandwich he offered in 1986 to his client Donald Trump. At the time, Trump was embroiled in one of the many lawsuits that marked his real estate career. Penniless, as is often the case with the ultra-wealthy, Trump accepted his attorney's invitation. A few years later, he remembered the gesture. Witkoff, who had since moved into real estate, forged a lasting friendship and solid partnership with Trump, fueled by their shared passion for golf. The two men even set up their respective golf clubs in Florida, not far from each other. It was during a round of golf with Witkoff that Trump survived an assassination attempt on September 15, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Florida. Two months later, the Republican candidate, having just been elected to a second term as president, announced Witkoff's appointment as his future special envoy to the Middle East.You can share an article by clicking on the share icons at the top right of it. The announcement stunned Washington, where Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law (and his Middle East envoy during his first term), was widely expected to be reappointed. Witkoff's total lack of diplomatic experience also became the subject of much speculation. Nonetheless, the new envoy co-chaired the organization of Trump's return ceremony at the White House on January 20, 2025. A few days later, he was escorted by the Israeli army into the Gaza Strip, where a fragile ceasefire was in place. The scale of destruction he saw did not shock him; instead, it convinced him that the Palestinian enclave could be redeveloped as both spectacular and lucrative real estate. He inspired Trump with the idea of turning Gaza into a "Middle East Riviera" – even if that meant displacing the local population. The US president valued his envoy so much that he sent him several times to see Vladimir Putin, tasking him with