Ben Shapiro: “I do not trust Steve Witkoff's judgment when it comes to cutting deals because so far, the deals that he has cut have been effectively useless”
Shapiro: “It seems like every place he goes, he just proceeds to lather up whomever is the dictator and then treat them with kid gloves”
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From the April 15, 2025, edition of The Daily Wire's The Ben Shapiro Show
BEN SHAPIRO (HOST): Speaking of areas where the Trump administration foreign policy is riding a razor's edge — I have to say the Trump administration continues to deploy Steve Witkoff as though he is some sort of negotiating savant, and I have yet to see any evidence whatsoever that Steve Witkoff is a negotiating savant.
Steve Witkoff is a businessperson who has now been thrust into an arena in foreign policy he knows literally nothing about, and he continues to show it pretty much every time he appears on television or talks about it. He — this is the same Steve Witkoff, the special envoy. President Trump has appointed him special envoy to Russia-Ukraine. And when it comes to Russia-Ukraine, I should point out that literally nothing has happened with Russia-Ukraine. Russia over the weekend fired missiles into Ukraine again, killed some 34 people, including civilians, because Russia doesn't care about killing civilians, like, at all, at all. It's not targeting anything.
And Steve Witkoff pressured Zelensky to come to the table. Zelensky, because President Trump and JD Vance basically yelled at him, came to the table and said, we're willing to do a ceasefire now, and Russia has done zero things. Zero. Russia has done nothing. So if Steve Witkoff is a negotiating genius, why isn't Putin at the table? Where is he?
Now President Trump seems fed up with Putin, as well he should be. Now President Trump's peace through strength foreign policy is not being well served by Steve Witkoff, who appears to have no capacity whatsoever to actually threaten the use of the fist. Instead, it's all velvet glove and no fist, which is definitely not the way that Trump has historically approached foreign policy.
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SHAPIRO: So, again, he's angry at everybody. He should be angry at everybody because again, but here's the thing. He got Zelensky to the table. Where's Putin? Where's Putin?
Well, now Witkoff is saying that he had a meeting on April 11 in St. Petersburg. He said it was a compelling meeting and that Putin had shown a willingness to work toward a permanent peace, but he said it took a while for us to get to that point. He said this peace deal is about these so-called five territories, but there's so much more to it. I think we might be on the verge of something that would be very important for the world at large. OK.
Suffice it to say, I do not trust Steve Witkoff's judgment when it comes to cutting deals because so far, the deals that he has cut have been effectively useless. The only deal that he cut was the deal to release some of the Israeli hostages from Hamas very early on. And, frankly, that deal was maybe the mediocre-est deal I have seen.
Everything else that Witkoff is doing, what — he says that there's a broader aim behind the talk, suggesting economic cooperation could help stabilize relations between the US and Russia. He said, I see the possibility of reshaping the Russian-United States relationship through some very compelling commercial opportunities that gives real stability to the region too. OK.
Let's see what exactly Witkoff is arguing here for because it seems like every place he goes, he just proceeds to lather up whomever is the dictator and then treat them with kid gloves. So I'm really — I'd love to see what exactly is the compelling offer that Vladimir Putin is making. Because so far, Vladimir Putin has not stopped for one iota of one second with regard to his war in Ukraine. Again, Zelensky said, I'll do a cease fire, full cease fire today. We are now weeks into this, and nothing from Putin. So where is Witkoff?