Bloomberg News on Tuesday published a transcript of a leaked telephone call between President Donald Trump‘s U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East, the billionaire New York real estate mogul Steve Witkoff, and a senior aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The transcript “touched off a fury in Washington because it showed Mr. Witkoff appearing to coach the Kremlin on how to negotiate with Mr. Trump and undermine an upcoming visit by President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine,” the New York Times reported.
Adding to the coverage of the divisive peace deal workings, Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal on Friday published the article ‘Make Money Not War: Trump’s Real Plan for Peace in Ukraine,’ with the subtitle “The Kremlin pitched the White House on peace through business. To Europe’s dismay, the president and his envoy are on board.”
U.S. Representative Don Bacon (R-NE) responded to the WSJ article by writing: “Multi-billion $$ business deals between Russian & American billionaires that forces Ukraine to give Russia more land, & make Ukraine a Russian vassal state. Greed trumps Ukrainian sovereignty.”
Today in Miami, Florida, Witkoff, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Trump’s billionaire son-in-law Jared Kushner, met with Ukrainian officials to negotiate a peace plan.
On whether Steve Witkoff should continue to serve as a U.S. negotiator in the Ukraine-Russia peace deal, Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) says the White House “should be very concerned about any efforts to orchestrate Putin’s voice at the White House before Zelenskyy’s.” pic.twitter.com/e8bIkjq8IM
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) November 30, 2025
On Face the Nation today, U.S. Representative Mike Turner (R-OH) shared his opinion regarding the peace plan: “You can’t be America First and pro-Russia, because Russia is a self-declared adversary of the United States…and of course it identifies Ukraine as its adversary.”
Turner added, “You have to understand that the balance of this peace arrangement has to be one where you look at Russia as a skeptical adversary.”
Turner, former chair of the House Intelligence Committee before Trump had him removed from the position in January, warned the White House that it “should be very concerned about any efforts to orchestrate Putin’s voice at the White House before Zelenskyy’s.”
Note: After today’s “productive” meeting with Ukrainian negotiators, WSJ reported that Witkoff and Kushner “plan to travel to Moscow for more talks about a possible peace plan.”