The Middle East Middle East Broker now in the center of Ukraine Negotiations

When US President Donald Trump wanted someone to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week to open negotiations on a potential deal to end the war in Russia-Ukrena, he did not send his secretary of state.

The man he sent to the Kremlin to deal with a geopolitical Titanic challenge is not even diplomatic origin.

Instead, Trump has chosen his personal friend, Golf Buddy and Billionaire Steve Vikof’s billionaire developer.

The president made Vikof his envoy to the Middle East. But last week, the Bronx -born businessman found himself in discussion to end a conflict in Eastern Europe – having been “with (Putin) for a very long period, like about three hours,” according to Trump.

Vitcof was in Moscow to help facilitate a deal that saw US and Russia exchange prisoners, which is regarded as a signaling possible defrost in relations between the two countries.

Witkoff also played a role in the mediation of this Agreement to terminate the fire between Israel and Hamas, for which Trump and his predecessor Joe Biden took a loan.

Although he was still out of office, Vitcof flew to Tel Aviv to meet Netanyahu before the deal was mediated in Qatar. He then spent time with Biden Brett McGurk’s envoy in Doha, who later praised their collaboration by calling him “a very close partnership, even a friendship,” according to Washington Post.

Now Vitcof is returning to the region, in particular Saudi Arabia, for the first American-Russian conversations face-to-face during the war in Ukraine after Trump called in Putin. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Mike Walz are also present.

But the bold moves made by the Trump team cause concern among Western allies who are afraid of a new world order in which key players are excluded from discussions. Ukraine and other European nations were not invited to the Saudi meeting.

So who is Witkoff – called by the US media as “The Man in the Room”, occupying the central scene as more professionally subsequent international conversations?

He was one of Trump’s first election for his best team after winning his presidential election in November. Trump wrote: “Steve will be an inexorable voice for peace and will make us all proud.”

“The president sees Steve as one of the great deals in the world,” a White House official told Axios. Vicoff’s preferred tactics were to use charm, according to another associate, but he could also pressure.

The 67-year-old was raised in Long Island, New York and trained as a real estate developer in one of the most united markets in America.

As a longtime Republican donor, he has known Trump for decades and, like his president, has made real estate wealth in both New York and Florida.

Turning to last year’s Republican National Convention, during which he recalled that he spoke to Trump after attempting to kill, Vitcof called the other man his “real and dear friend … in good times and bad times.”

The two men are also long -standing golf companions, US Senator Lindsay Graham told NBC News. “Steve and I will be the two guys who will play Trump and someone else and lose,” Graham said.

It was during a shared golf session in Florida last September another alleged possible Trump striker was connected by the secret service. Trump said he and Vitcof were complete in golf carts until agents moved to oppose a suspect in the bushes.

Graham also said that Vitcof first mentions his interest in becoming a messenger to the Middle East to Trump during a lunch conversation. “It stunned me because I didn’t know I was interested in the Middle East,” Graham said.

It has also been reported that the compensation of Vitcof as an envoy to the Middle East includes diplomacy with Iran. People familiar with the question told the Financial Times that he was chosen to run a nuclear deal with Tehran as part of a wider plan for “stopping wars” in the region.

The Witkoff deals skills were displayed during the Trump 2024 campaign. He helped relieve tensions between Trump and his victorious Republican presidential opponent, Florida Governor Ron Ron Ron.

It is also reported that Vitkoff met with Georgia governor Brian Camp to smooth things after Camp has attracted Trump’s contempt for refusing to support his unfounded 2020 fraud that Trump lost to Biden.

He is currently chairman of the Miami Real Estate Advisory Board in Miami and has been appointed by Trump during his first term in the board of trustees John F Kennedy.