WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump named as his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, a realtor and golf buddy who was present at a recent foiled assassination of Trump.
“Steve is a Highly Respected Leader in Business and Philanthropy, who has made every project and community he has been involved with stronger and more prosperous,” Trump said Tuesday in a statement. “Steve will be an unrelenting Voice for PEACE, and make us all proud.”
Witkoff, who is Jewish and who has been friends with Trump since the 1980s when he bought Trump a sandwich after they worked on a real estate transaction, has no Middle East diplomatic experience.
In that sense, he is similar to his counterpart from Trump’s first term, Jason Greenblatt, the special representative for international negotiations, who was a lawyer for Trump before becoming his envoy, and served in the role until 2019.
Trump said Witkoff, 67, was with him on the golf course when Secret Service agents fired at a man who was allegedly preparing to assassinate Trump. He and his son Zach spoke in July at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. Another Witkoff son, Andrew, died in 2011 at a rehab facility, and the elder Witkoff described how Trump had stood by him in the wake of the tragedy.
“Many Americans have only witnessed his leadership on TV But I have seen his humanity,” Witkoff said. “In the quiet moments away from the spotlight. In hospital rooms he didn’t have to be in, where his presence brought real solace in a dark hour from my family, and many other families.”
Witkoff as a realtor has purchased major New York City landmarks, including the Woolworth Building.
Witkoff was one of a flurry of national security and diplomacy picks announced or reported this week, including former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel; Florida Rep. Mike Waltz as national security adviser; Florida Sen. Marco Rubio as Secretary of State; New York Rep. Elise Stefanik as United Nations ambassador and John Ratcliffe, Trump’s first term Director of National Intelligence, as CIA director.
