President-elect Donald Trump (still not tired of typing that) isn’t wasting any time. He’s setting policy expectations and making key cabinet, staff, and diplomatic appointments known, and he’s clearly intending to hit the ground running on January 20th.
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His latest pick is an interesting one; he will be proposing businessman Steven C. Witkoff to be the Special Envoy to the Middle East. A press release from the President-elect states:
STATEMENT FROM PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP
I am pleased to announce that I have appointed Steven C. Witkoff to be Special Envoy to the Middle East. 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. Steve will be an unrelenting Voice for PEACE, and make us all proud.
Steven C. Witkoff Bio:
Steven Witkoff is Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Witkoff, which he founded in 1997. Since founding the firm, Mr. Witkoff has leveraged his extensive real estate expertise to successfully lead the financing, repositioning, and construction of over 70 properties in major business districts in the U.S. as well as abroad and with offices in New York, Los Angeles, and Miami.
It’s an interesting pick, if a bit puzzling; Mr. Witkoff’s background appears to be mostly in commercial real estate, a field with which President Trump is himself intimately familiar. The press release has details:
Mr. Witkoff has served on the Executive Committee for the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) as a trustee for the Intrepid Foundation, and as a board member for the Jeffrey Modell Foundation. Mr. Witkoff currently serves as Chairman of the University of Miami Business School Real Estate Advisory Board and is a member of the Hofstra University Board of Trustees. In October 2019, he was honored with a Presidential appointment to the Board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He is a widely sought-after public speaker on trends in global real estate.
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Mr. Witkoff has been a long-standing Trump ally, even testifying as an expert witness in President Trump’s New York civil case:
…Witkoff took the stand to testify in the New York attorney general’s $250 million civil case against the Trump family and its namesake business. The New York City-based real estate executive with longtime ties to Trump and the Trump Organization was the first expert witness to be called by defense attorneys, who began presenting their case Monday.
The Special Envoy to the Middle East would, presumably, play a key role in any resumption of negotiations for the Abraham Accords, a keynote of President Trump’s first-term Middle East policy.
See Related: RNC: Real Estate Investor, Friend Steve Witkoff Speaks About Trump’s ‘Humanity in the Quiet Moments’
SOURCE: Trump Expected to Name SD Governor Kristi Noem As Homeland Security Secretary
BREAKING: Trump Makes His Selection for the Crucial Role of Ambassador to Israel
It’s an interesting choice — and stay tuned, because the President-elect will be offering up more names, and we’ll be bringing you the news as it occurs.
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