Witkoff calls Trump the ‘Michael Jordan’ of dealmaking amid Russia-Ukraine talks
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff on Wednesday recounted the Alaska summit last week with Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling President Trump the “Michael Jordan” of dealmaking.
In a radio interview on “Cats & Cosby,” Witkoff described to hosts John Catsimatidis and Rita Cosby what he and Secretary of State Marco Rubio witnessed behind closed doors ahead of Trump’s high-stakes meeting with the Kremlin’s leader.
“When the doors closed, John and Rita, in Alaska, I and Marco got to witness the great master, master dealmaker-in-chief, Donald J. Trump,” Witkoff said. “And it was quite extraordinary to watch.”
“We’ve all grown up in New York, and we’ve all done deals, but President Trump is, you know, he’s the Michael Jordan of this business. In fact, he’s the Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and Albert Einstein all put together,” Witkoff continued.
Witkoff has held several sessions with Putin in recent months as the Trump administration has sought to broker a diplomatic end to the war between Russia and Ukraine.
While his own talks with Putin were constructive, Witkoff said in the interview that Trump has “got this uncanny ability to get to the right place” and was able to make significantly more progress in his meeting with the Russian leader last Friday.
“I think he felt that we made a lot of progress in a one-on-one with Putin,” Witkoff said. “What we were able to determine, and I hope it holds, that the Russians are prepared to be accommodating — more accommodating than we had seen in five or six sessions that I had with him, with President Putin.”
“They were positive and constructive sessions,” Witkoff said about his own meetings with Putin, “but the president was able to extract more concessions in that Alaska summit — significantly more — with regard to the regions, with regard to the territories, with regard to security protocols.”
“A lot of things were given or were offered up as a compromise, as an accommodation, by President Putin. That is a really big deal because … that’s the dealmaking business,” Witkoff said. “Narrowing the issues between the parties. And that’s what happened, by the way, in Alaska, we narrowed the issues and the divide.”
Trump emerged from the meeting Friday with no concrete wins but touted the progress made behind closed doors. He then met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders at the White House on Monday to discuss next steps.
Trump has said the next step is for Zelensky and Putin to meet for a bilateral meeting, after which Trump said he would join for a trilateral meeting.
Witkoff said during the interview he expects a trilateral meeting, if it takes place, would produce the most progress.
“The next move is going to be very telling as to whether Zelensky and Putin meet together. And I think ultimately, if that happens, if that meeting happens — and I believe it will, I’m certainly hopeful it will — that will, in my view, potentially lead to a trilateral between the three, and there, I think you’d see a lot more progress,” Witkoff said.