GREENSBORO – Almost 250 years ago Jefferson wrote that we “are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights” and that “government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed.” America has not always been a “shining City on a Hill,” but from Valley Forge to the Edmund Pettus Bridge, we have struggled to live up to those ideas. And those ideas have inspired millions of others around the world struggling to join the family of democracies.
Today the point man for the Trump administration in the Middle East and Russia is Steven Witkoff. Witkoff has spent his career as a real estate developer in New York City, with a brief foray into Las Vegas where the Koch brothers recently rode in with hundreds of millions to resuscitate his stalled hotel deal. In 2023, when Witkoff was facing heavy indebtedness in a New York City hotel project the Qatari Sovereign Wealth Fund conveniently stepped in with $623 million.
Recently the Witkoff and Trump families decided the time was ripe to go into the crypto business. They began what they call World Liberty Financial and in May Witkoff parlayed his newfound career in diplomacy into big cash. Shortly after one of his trips to the Middle East, the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund deposited $2 billion into the new Witkoff-Trump family business.
Maybe we should call it “pay to play diplomacy.” But it is one thing when a couple of New York real estate developers shake down a few wealthy monarchs in the Middle East. Playing the same game with Russia when the Ukrainian people are fighting and dying for the freedom and democracy we extol is another thing altogether.
In an interview with that doyen of journalism, Tucker Carlson, Witkoff called Putin a “great guy” and “super smart.” He said, “I liked him, I think he’s honest.” He proclaimed Putin’s “not a bad guy.” Even some of Putin’s best pals, like Yevgeny Prigozhin, might disagree if they were still alive. Putin murders anyone who opposes him. It is an old Russian tradition. When Putin had one of Russia’s wealthiest oligarchs, Mikhail Kodorkovsky (who had the nerve to talk about running for president), jailed in 2003 a handful of the other oligarchs went to Putin and asked what they needed to do to stay out of jail. Putin gave a simple answer: “50%.” Putin wears luxury wrist watches that retail for ten times his reported salary.
In April of 2025, when Witkoff began negotiating with Putin, he didn’t even bring an American translator to the meeting. He relied on Putin’s translator. I’ve written contracts with numerous Russian businesses. I can tell you that is not indicative of intelligence on Witkoff’s part. I don’t want Witkoff writing contracts for me in Russia.
Witkoff’s negotiating partner from the Russian side has been Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund. One of their proposals is to have Ukraine cede 20% of their land to Russia, then take the $300 billion in Russian assets that are frozen in Brussels, use it to rebuild the land Ukraine cedes to Russia; and that Russia destroyed with American businessmen (presumably more golf buddies) getting 50% of the profits from rebuilding. European leaders, understandably, felt betrayed.
Democracy, freedom and the rule of law have been paid for on the fields of Gettysburg, on the beaches of Normandy and in a Mariupol, Ukraine, steel plant. Witkoff, Trump and Putin know how to turn power into profit. They know the price of a watch, but they obviously don’t understand the value of freedom, democracy or the rule of law.
Shame on us, all of us, if we let them turn our back on the world’s family of democracies and the Ukrainian people who are fighting and dying for their freedom, independence and democracy, especially now when we are about to celebrate those words Jefferson wrote 250 years ago.
David Kelley is a former Visiting Scholar at the Russian Research Center at Harvard. He drafted some of the first contracts with Russian businesses when foreign investment was first allowed in Russia.
David Kelley is a Vermont attorney. He lives in Greensboro and is a former chair of the Hazen Union School Board. He was part of the legal team that represented more than two dozen rural elementary school districts that appealed forced mergers under Act 46.
