A Republican senator is raising concerns about President Donald Trump’s reliance on his son-in-law and a longtime golf buddy to oversee delicate international negotiations.
Since Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, declared that he would not seek reelection last year, he has been markedly more outspoken on his disagreements with the Trump administration’s actions, both domestically and abroad.
Now, he has complained that Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s Special Envoy to the Middle East, and Jared Kushner, a businessman who is married to his daughter, are doling out diplomacy without Senate confirmation or formal oversight.
Witkoff is a Trump donor-turned-official who has played golf with the president for years. He was there on September 15, 2024, when a Secret Service agent busted 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh aiming a gun at the then-Republican presidential nominee at the sixth hole of Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach.
Kushner, a real estate developer and investor, married Ivanka Trump in late 2009 and has since risen in political stature.
Tillis, speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations on Wednesday, criticized the pair for “unilaterally negotiating various peace agreements around the world on behalf of the United States without having ever been confirmed to any official national security role by the U.S. Senate.” Tillis made the remarks to Jonathan Karl, chief Washington correspondent for ABC News.
Karl reported on social media that Tillis “tells me Ukraine/Iran/Gaza talks should not be spearheaded by Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff.”
Karl then quoted Tillis directly: “Kushner and Witkoff are very accomplished business people. I’m sure they’re good negotiators, but they’re not subject to Senate confirmation and they’re not subject to oversight.”
Kushner served as a senior advisor to Trump during his first term, a role that required Trump to waive various rules and procedures to grant Kushner a security clearance. He holds no official position in Trump’s second administration. Witkoff, a former real estate developer, serves as the United States special envoy to the Middle East and special envoy for peace missions.
Tillis questioned the arrangement. “It is suspect that you can negotiate a Ukraine peace, an Iranian situation, a Gaza situation, and whatever, and be the same two people. That doesn’t make any sense to me,” he said.
Critics have long accused Kushner and Witkoff of wielding outsized influence in foreign policy despite limited experience with foreign leaders.
The pair jetted into Geneva, Switzerland, on Thursday to oversee delicate negotiations with Iranian officials as a potential nuclear crisis threatens to grow.
Tillis said he finds it confusing that the same pair are simultaneously trying to negotiate peace in Ukraine, Iran and Gaza. Tillis called this “suspect.”
Critics, meanwhile, have also pointed to potential conflicts of interest tied to overseas business dealings from half of Trump’s chosen duo. After leaving the White House, Kushner launched a private equity firm, Affinity Partners, in 2021. The firm has since received billions of dollars in funding from foreign countries with interests connected to the geopolitical crises Kushner works on for his father-in-law.
The White House has been approached for comment.
