Foreign Affairs
Related: About this forumTrump's 'Rogue' Envoy (Steve Witkoff) Blamed for His Endless Humiliations by Putin
Source: The Daily Beast
Trumps Rogue Envoy Blamed for His Endless Humiliations by Putin
Tom Sanders
Fri, August 29, 2025 at 10:57 AM EDT
4 min read
Donald Trumps special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, is being blamed for the failure of the presidents summit with Vladimir Putin in Alaska, with colleagues becoming increasingly frustrated with his unprofessionalism.
Hes kind of a rogue actor, a senior White House staffer told Politico. He talks to all these people, but no one knows what he says in any of these meetings. He will say things publicly, but then he changes his mind. Its hard to operationalize that.
Sources told the news outlet that Witkoff refused to consult experts or prepare for meetings in the lead-up to the historic summit in Alaska, where Trump failed to secure a peace agreement in Ukraine. The envoy assumed, like Trump, that his personal charisma and rapport with the Russian president would be enough to force a breakthrough.
The thing is, Witkoff isnt consistently engaged, a White House source told Politico. He will pop in for a visit to Vladimir Putin, say a bunch of stuff, not tell anyone what really happened, and then just f--- off to his life again.
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Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-rogue-envoy-blamed-endless-145700770.html

msongs
(72,484 posts)Nictuku
(4,362 posts)A buddy of TSF's, who knows NOTHING of high stakes war negotiations. He does/says what TSF tells him, and now he will fall on his sword, which seems to be the way this is going.
Captain Zero
(8,446 posts)Good fucking luck with that.
LuvLoogie
(8,267 posts)Go home you fucking Nazis.
Ocelot II
(127,316 posts)they can bamboozle a former KGB agent, but Putin had his way with both of them without even offering a reacharound.
littlemissmartypants
(29,860 posts)Has anyone else seen this:
On August 12th, 2025, Alnur Mussayev, the former head of Kazakhstans National Security Committee, alleged that Russian President Vladimir Putin possesses a comprehensive kompromat file on Donald J. Trump. He didnt suggest it. He stated it. The file, he said, is extensive, meticulously documented, and designed not to destroy Trumpbut to control him.
According to Mussayev, the kompromat includes financial records showing illicit transactions connected to accounts either owned by Trump or clearly affiliated with his name. It also contains statements from operatives who were directly involved in kompromat operationsindividuals who could, if necessary, provide witness testimony confirming the authenticity and intent behind the material. Most damning of all, he claims, are the recordings: audio and video documentation of sexual crimes against minors and acts of violence against women.
Mussayev states that this material has been in the Kremlins hands for years. He claims that the Russian FSB has deliberately leaked fragments of this kompromat, not to expose Trump publicly, but to exert pressure on him. The goal, according to Mussayev, is strategic: ensure Trump remains aligned with Russian geopolitical interests. That includes undermining NATO, destabilizing the European Union, and pressuring Ukraine into surrender.
The kompromat doesnt exist to embarrass Trumpit exists to guide him. Mussayev describes it as a calibrated pressure system. When Trump hesitates or veers from Russias interests, the FSB lets just enough out to remind him whos holding the leash. Its not chaos. Its design. And the person benefiting from that design is Vladimir Putin.
Mussayev also asserts that Trump has worked systematically to prevent any U.S. investigation into his criminal exposure. He claims Trump has turned American institutionsCongress, the DOJ, the FBI, intelligence agencies, even immigration enforcementinto instruments of personal protection. In Mussayevs view, these institutions now answer to a single man, and that man answers to Moscow.
He makes clear that Trump cannot negotiate with the FSB. He cannot buy them off. He cannot order them to bury the kompromat. The operation was never about moneyit was about leverage. Trump may hold the presidency, but Putin holds the file.
Mussayevs allegations do not come in the form of speculation. He does not hedge his words or offer qualifiers. He names names. He explains the mechanisms. He draws a straight line from Soviet intelligence practices to modern blackmail operations and directly implicates Donald Trump as a long-term target who was successfully recruited, compromised, and used.
These arent historical footnotes. Mussayev is not recounting a Cold War anecdote. He is describing an active security breachone that, according to him, still defines the behavior of the most powerful man in the United States. Mussayev claims that Trumps current refusal to investigate his own crimes, his loyalty to Kremlin-aligned figures, and his policy sabotage of Western alliances all stem from the kompromat Putin is holding.
The allegations suggest that the American presidency is compromised at its core. Not just politically. Operationally. That the person issuing executive orders, appointing judges, and influencing global conflict zones may be doing so under foreign pressure. Mussayev is not coy about this. He says the evidence exists. He says the recordings are real. And he says the only reason Trump hasnt been exposed is because Putin doesnt want him exposed. He wants him useful.
This is not about guilt or innocence. It is about leverage. It is about a foreign adversary exercising influence over a U.S. president through a system designed to operate in silence. The kompromat doesnt need to be revealed to work. It just needs to be feared.
If what Mussayev says is true, the implications are not hypothetical. They are immediate. And they reach the highest level of global power.
More is coming.
This is just the first breach.
eppur_se_muova
(40,067 posts)
littlemissmartypants
(29,860 posts)