President Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, former real estate attorney and investor Steve Witkoff, has left administration insiders distressed by his approach to negotiating with two of America’s greatest adversaries.
Witkoff, who has become Trump’s de facto personal ambassador to Russian President Vladimir Putin in addition to taking on the Middle East portfolio, takes part in high-level meetings alone — and is said to have even occasionally leaned on Kremlin translators — in a break with longstanding diplomatic procedure, multiple sources told The Post.
Ahead of Witkoff’s most recent meeting with Putin this past Friday, the New York native greeted the Kremlin tyrant like an old friend — with no sign of the usual coterie of advisers, experts and military officers who typically accompany US officials conducting negotiations.
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‘Tip of the iceberg’: Can Trump’s National Security adviser survive Signal scandal?
Waltz denies texting tie to Jeffrey Goldberg
Now they are trying to lie their way out of it. Rots of ruck with that!
Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of The Atlantic, wrote that Waltz had connected with him earlier this month on Signal, a commercial messaging app, before being added to a group of national security officials who were convening electronically to discuss imminent strikes on the Houthis, a Yemen-based military movement.
While Goldberg said he had met Waltz in the past, the Trump adviser from Florida denied knowing Goldberg in comments delivered Tuesday at a White House meeting. Waltz said he “never met, don’t know,” and “never communicated with” the journalist, who broke the explosive story of Trump officials communicating about military plans on a non-secure app.
“We are looking into and reviewing how the heck he got into this room,” Waltz said.
President Donald Trump expressed confidence in Waltz, calling him a good man who “learned a lesson,” and attacked Goldberg as a “sleazebag” who “has made up a lot of stories.”
Meanwhile back at the ranch where everyone is sober:
But a spokesman for the National Security Council already validated the authenticity of the text chain Goldberg published, which included 18 individuals, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance and an unnamed active U.S. intelligence officer.
The messages included intelligence operations, a policy debate around the timing of the strikes against the Houthis and operational details, including information on targets, weapons and the sequencing of attacks.