Steve Witkoff has no background in diplomacy but has turned out to be the most effective American diplomat in a generation. Here’s how he’s trying to resolve the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine.
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) March 21, 2025
(0:00) What Witkoff Has Learned as Trump’s Global Negotiator
(4:10) Negotiating With… pic.twitter.com/7AUh4gvwke
I watched this though it wasn't easy at times.
Witkoff claims to be faithfully representing what his president wants and has directly requested, and I think he is genuine. Unfortunately he has a low level of awareness about the Middle East in particular and has bought into all the usual propaganda and nonsense about Israel, been led around Israel by Israelis and told about how things are. He never met anyone from Hamas although he's been to Gaza. His understanding of the region is pitiful for someone in his position, but he might be holding back quite a bit. Tucker definitely was, he knows that even he has to tread very carefully in this area. It's hard to believe either of them could be so naive when talking about Israel's goals for the region.
On Iran, it's tiresome at times to listen to all this discourse knowing that Iran almost certainly already has nuclear weapons. Witkoff talks tough but its all just nonsense, nothing Iran has said gives any indication that this whole maximum pressure strategy is going to amount to anything. They have been openly defiant.
On Russia, it is a lot more positive in that Witkoff and Trump seem to have a favourable view of Putin personally and there was a nice anecdote about how Putin commissioned a portrait of Trump by a skilled Russian artist. He had Witkoff deliver it to his president, and told Witkoff that he had prayed for Trump after hearing about the Butler assassination attempt because he sees him as a friend.
Overall impression, Witkoff is a useful idiot and so is Trump, when it comes to the Middle East. But we shall see.