President-elect Donald Trump is hoping a real estate dealmaker can advance peace in the Middle East.
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Trump selected developer and campaign contributor Steven Witkoff on Tuesday to serve as his special envoy to the Middle East, the latest in a series of staffing announcements as Trump prepares to retake the White House. Witkoff is the first real estate executive named to a position in the Trump administration as the president-elect works to fill the executive branch.
"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 wrote in a statement Tuesday. "Steve will be an unrelenting Voice for PEACE, and make us all proud."
The 67-year-old head of Witkoff Group has been friends with Trump since the 1990s as the pair built real estate empires in New York. Trump, Witkoff and others were golfing together at the Trump International Golf Club West Palm Beach Sept. 15 when the Secret Service thwarted the second assassination attempt to target Trump during the campaign.
Witkoff donated $250K to Trump’s Make America Great Again political action committee in December 2023, according to Federal Election Commission records. He’s also made a host of smaller contributions to other Trump-aligned organizations and is widely considered a Republican megadonor.
He stumped for Trump at the Republican National Convention and at an October rally held at the Pennsylvania site of the first attempt on Trump’s life.
“My father is a brilliant negotiator and dealmaker and is very committed to delivering lasting peace to the Middle East,” Alex Witkoff, co-CEO of Witkoff Group, told Bisnow Wednesday. “He will do an exceptional job serving in the Trump administration.”
Steven Witkoff didn’t respond to Bisnow’s request for comment.
Witkoff Group, founded in 1997, has a portfolio of 51 properties with a heavy concentration in New York, including the under-construction One High Line and the Woolworth Building in Manhattan. Steven Witkoff reportedly splits his time between his home in New York and spending four months of the year in Miami Beach.
In Miami Beach, Witkoff is building The Shore Club Private Collection, a 50-unit luxury oceanfront condo building that broke ground in 2023 and is expected to deliver in 2027. Alex Witkoff recently told The Wall Street Journal that 40 of the project’s units had contracts out or signed.
Witkoff’s selection as special envoy is the latest in a week of rapid-fire staffing announcements. Elon Musk, the billionaire Tesla CEO who became a staunch Trump advocate, and former presidential candidate and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy are set to co-lead a newly created Department of Government Efficiency that will operate outside the federal government.
Other notable appointments include Florida Sen. Marco Rubio as Secretary of State, Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York as the ambassador to the United Nations and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as the Secretary of Homeland Security.
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