Steven Witkoff
Net worth: $500 Million (As of November 2024)
- Witkoff was appointed by Trump to be his special envoy to the Middle East, and he has become an informal envoy to Russian president Vladimir Putin.
- Steve Witkoff is a centimillionaire real-estate developer. He started as a real estate attorney before founding his eponymous real estate firm, Witkoff Group, in 1997. Witkoff Group has built “over 70 properties, mostly in New York, Los Angeles and South Florida.”
- Witkoff’s son, Alex Witkoff, is the CEO of Steven’s real estate business. After taking up his position in the Trump admin, Witkoff divested his holding in the company to Alex. As of March 2025, Steven Witkoff is still listed as the chairman on the company’s website. As of March 14, 2025, Steven Witkoff’s ethics disclosures have not been released.
- Witkoff has long-standing business ties to Gulf state sovereign wealth funds. These wealth funds are one of the biggest sources of investment for real estate properties in the United States. According to the New York Times, “For Mr. Witkoff, it will create complications as he takes up his new job and will soon be negotiating with leaders of nations that are past, and potentially future, lenders to or buyers of his family real estate projects.”
- The Abu Dhabi and Qatari sovereign wealth funds have both invested in Witkoff Group and its properties. Witkoff spoke at an economic forum in Qatar in 2024. His son Alex, the current CEO of Witkoff Group, was separately at a conference hosted by the Qatari prime minister in October.
- Witkoff’s sons, Alex and Zach Witkoff, are the co-founders of Trump family cryptocurrency business, World Liberty Financial. Witkoff himself also reportedly had a hand in founding the business. As of March 2025, Steven Witkoff claimed to be divesting from WLF and transferring his holdings to his sons.
- World Liberty has raised concerns about conflicts of interest with Trump himself: “Trump is listed as “chief crypto advocate” on World Liberty’s website and is entitled to a cut of its revenues, according to the company’s terms and conditions […] Trump and other unnamed “affiliates” are entitled to 75% of some World Liberty revenues, according to the terms, raising the possibility of people buying World Liberty coins to try to gain favor with him.”
- TRON protocol founder and businessman Justin Sun has reportedly invested $75 million into World Liberty Financial, making him one of the biggest stakeholders. Sun and his companies, which include TRON, BitTorrent Foundation, and Rainberry Inc (formerly BitTorrent), were sued by the SEC in 2023. The SEC accused Sun and his companies of “scheming to illegally distribute the crypto assets Tronix and BitTorrent, artificially inflate trading volume, and conceal payments to celebrity endorsers.” As of February 2025, the SEC is reportedly exploring a resolution to the lawsuit.
- Witkoff has donated millions to Trump’s campaigns.
- In the first Trump administration, Witkoff served as a member of Trump’s Great American Economic Revival, an effort to improve the economy amidst the COVID-19 pandemic that collaborated with an extensive list of private corporations.
For more information, see the Revolving Door Project’s Billionaires in Trump World tracker.