Steve Witkoff Divesting from Eponymous Real Estate Firm

As Steve Witkoff dives deeper into the diplomatic world, he’s pulling back on his real estate ties.

The business man and President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East disclosed to Bloomberg that he’s in the process of divesting from the Witkoff Group and World Liberty Financial, the cryptocurrency platform co-founded by Alex and Zach Witkoff. Alex has already assumed day-to-day responsibilities of the development firm, which Steve founded almost 30 years ago.

When Witkoff joined the administration, ethics questions quickly followed considering how much of his business can be tied to places all over the world. In divesting from his firm and crypto assets, Witkoff is hoping to be judged on his diplomatic results going forward.

“How do you ensure you’re not using the special envoy role to skew policy your way?” Harold Hongju Koh, a former legal adviser to the State Department, told Bloomberg.

Witkoff and Trump were already enmeshed, business-wise. Both of their families have stakes in World Liberty Financial. Witkoff was also an investor in Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover; Musk leads Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency today.

Now Witkoff is following Trump’s lead by installing progeny atop a real estate company when entering the political fray, though ethics questions about Trump’s businesses continue to linger.

Federal ethics law mandates senior Cabinet officials divest individual stock holdings and assets that could bring about conflict of interest concerns. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is divesting his business interests, recently naming one of his sons as the chair of Cantor Fitzgerald.

Witkoff’s fortune is estimated to be around $782 million, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, though one person familiar with his finances suggested it could be double that.

Witkoff has been especially busy internationally during the first couple of months of Trump’s second administration, and even before then, despite his lack of diplomatic experience. He helped negotiate the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. He also met with Russian president Vladimir Putin last month and will soon do so again.

In some ways, he’s following in the footsteps laid out by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Ivanka Trump’s husband jumped from real estate to politics — negotiating the Abraham Accords — before jumping back into business. Kushner’s private equity firm, Affinity Partners, counts $4.6 billion in assets, essentially all from foreign investors.

— Holden Walter-Warner