Steve Witkoff is a real-estate developer with no historical, geographical, or cultural knowledge of Russia or Ukraine. Kirill Dmitriev heads Russia’s sovereign-wealth fund, a day job that involves negotiating financial deals designed to benefit the Russian oligarchs who control the state, including Putin. Together, they have put together a 28-point “peace plan” which has surprised the Ukrainians, the Europeans, and possibly even the State Department. The Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, who is closely linked to Vice President Vance, was sent to Kyiv to tell the Ukrainians that if they don’t agree to all of this by Thanksgiving, then the US will stop selling weapons to Ukraine.

The plan they have created is misnamed, as I wrote this morning in the Atlantic:

It is not a peace plan. It is a proposal that weakens Ukraine and divides America from Europe, preparing the way for a larger war in the future. In the meantime, it benefits unnamed Russian and American investors, at the expense of everyone else.

The plan calls for Ukraine not only to cede occupied territory to Russia, but to cede territory that Russia does not currently control. If the Ukrainians agree, which is, politically probably impossible, they will sacrifice heavily fortified land, leaving all of central Ukraine vulnerable to a future invasion. In return, they get a vague and unrealistic promise of security guarantees, but with no details.

Although the plan pays lip service to Ukrainian sovereignty it, also imposes harsh conditions on Ukraine and none on Russia. Ukraine must stop talking about war crimes, cut the size of its army, promise never to join NATO, never to invite European troops onto its territory and even hold elections within 100 days of making the agreement, a demand not made of Russia, a dictatorship that has not held free elections for more than two decades.

Most disturbing, though, are the Russian-American financial deals that seem to be lurking in the background. The US would somehow get control of $100 billion in frozen Russian assets, currently kept in European banks, and use that money to make profits in Ukraine. And there is more:

The United States and Russia would “enter into a long-term economic cooperation agreement for mutual development in the areas of energy, natural resources, infrastructure, artificial intelligence, data centers, rare earth metal extraction projects in the Arctic, and other mutually beneficial corporate opportunities,” according to the plan. This is no surprise: Putin has spoken of “several companies” positioning themselves to resume business ties between his country and the United States.

In March, the Financial Times reported on one of these negotiations. Mattias Warnig—a German businessman and former Russian spy who has close links to Putin and is under U.S. sanctions—has been seeking a back channel to the Trump administration through U.S. investors who want to reopen the Nord Stream 2 natural-gas pipeline, part of which was blown up by Ukrainian saboteurs early in the war. One American familiar with the plan told the Financial Times that the U.S. investors were essentially being offered “money for nothing,” which is, obviously, an attractive prospect.

These details help explain the origins and purpose of this otherwise inexplicable deal. On the surface, nobody seems to benefit. Ukraine will be weakened. Europeans will have to prepare for the wider war that Putin, who would be emboldened by his new alliance with Trump, has long said he wants. American citizens will not benefit either. Our long, stable, mutually beneficial relationship with Europe will be destroyed. Our reputation as a reliable ally will suffer around the world, with long-term consequences for our security and our prosperity.

But some people might do very well out of this deal. But we don’t know who. Shouldn’t we be told?

This plan has been proposed, in our name, as a part of U.S. foreign policy. But it would not serve our economic or security interests. So whose interests would it serve? Which U.S. companies and which oligarchs would benefit? Are Trump’s family members and political supporters among them? The arrangements on offer should be public knowledge before any kind of deal is signed.

Please read the whole article. And then think about the bigger issue at stake. How much of American foreign policy is really being conducted for the benefit of Americans? Is it now just a source of personal enrichment and political benefit for Trump, his family and his business friends?

Meanwhile, in the Middle East…

A few days ago, a Swiss delegation arrived at the White House bearing presents: a gold bar and a Rolex desk clock. The gifts might have helped Trump decide to reduce Switzerland’s tariff rate from 39 percent, a number he invented, to 15 percent, also a number he invented. That story made headlines, because the gold bar is worth some $135,000, and the Rolex clock is probably worth many thousands of dollars too. But in fact, Trump and his family have received less visible but far more valuable gifts from the Middle East.

Look, for example, at the close partnership between a Saudi company called Dar Global and the Trump Organization. Although the two firms began their relationship in 2022, it expanded significantly after Trump was re-elected, as The New York Times reported this week. The two announced their inaugural project in Saudi Arabia—a 47-story luxury tower in Jeddah—immediately after the election. Since then, they have partnered on at least two additional developments in Saudi Arabia and several Trump-branded projects in Qatar and the UAE. (During his first term, the Trump Organization announced only two foreign projects. But just in the year since his re-election, they have announced 12.) Trump also hosted a tournament at Trump National Doral, organized by LIV Golf, which is backed by Saudi money. All 643 rooms at the resort were booked for the event—including the $13,000-per-night presidential suite—and many of them were taken by the Saudi CEOs whose companies sponsored the tournament.

Trump has cultivated a similar relationship with the Qataris and the Emiratis. During his first term, he accused Qatar of sponsoring terrorism. In his second term, he paid an early visit to Doha and received a $400 million jumbo jet in return, to be used as Air Force One until the end of his presidency, after which it will be available for his personal use. Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan—who oversees the Emirati sovereign wealth fund—also felt very generous after his first meeting with Trump’s ubiquitous envoy, Steve Witkoff again. Soon afterward, one of Sheikh Tahnoon’s investment firms deposited $2 billion into the Trump family crypto company, World Liberty Financial.

Were these gifts meant to change U.S. policy? Certainly this White House is very friendly to all of the Gulf monarchies. During a meeting last week with the Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman, Trump offered to sell advanced AI chips and F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia. Both decisions carry significant national security risks. Saudi Arabia cooperates extensively with China on security matters, and the Pentagon fears Saudi Arabia could share with them F-35 technology. Trump made similar gestures to Qatar a few months ago, announcing a mutual defense agreement as well as the construction of a Qatari Emiri Air Force facility at an airbase in Idaho.

We don’t know for certain whether national security considerations shaped these decisions, or whether Trump was influenced by de facto bribes. But the fact that we don’t know is the worst part of the story. Democracy is impossible without transparency and accountability. Nobody can trust a government whose leaders are acting in their own interests instead of ours.

Kleptocracy Tracker

But there is more…I am continuing to monitor conflicts of interest, ostentatious emoluments, outright corruption and policy changes that will facilitate outright corruption. (Read my original article, Kleptocracy Inc.)

November 7

• Trump pardoned former Major League Baseball star Daryl Strawberry for his tax-fraud conviction.

November 10

• Trump threatened to sue the BBC for $1 billion—echoing his past shakedowns of multiple US news networks—over what he claimed was deceptive editing of his Ellipse speech on January 6, 2021.

November 11

• The Trump administration filed a lawsuit claiming that the funding mechanism of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau—which is typically financed by the Federal Reserve—is illegal, marking another attempt to dismantle the agency.

November 13

• Trump pardoned billionaire Joe Lewis for his insider-trading conviction at Lewis’ request.

November 14

• Michael Flynn—whom Trump pardoned in 2020—is negotiating a $50 million settlement with the Department of Justice over what he claims was unjust prosecution.
• The Department of Homeland Security bypassed a competitive bidding process to award an advertising contract to an eight-day-old Delaware LLC, which then transferred the $143 million it was paid to Secretary Kristi Noem’s friend Ben Yoho—who runs his own advertising firm.
• A Swiss business delegation successfully lobbied Trump to lower the tariff rate on Switzerland with gifts including a special Rolex desktop clock and a one-kilogram personalized gold bar.

November 15

• One of Saudi Arabia’s largest real-estate companies—Dar Global—has partnered with the Trump Organization to plan at least three new developments in Saudi Arabia, paid $21.9 million last year to license the Trump name, and has even leased an office in Trump Tower.

November 17

• The Trump Organization has also partnered with Dar Global to build a luxury hotel in the Maldives and will allow investors to fund the project through digital tokens bought and sold on a blockchain platform.
• The Trump administration directed the Federal Reserve to curtail its scrutiny of lenders before Trump-appointed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle W. Bowman cut 30 percent of her division.
• Trump has purchased at least $82 million worth of municipal and corporate bonds—including from companies affected by his administration’s policies—since August.

November 18

• Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, is overseeing the Trump Organization’s construction projects in the kingdom.
• The Trump Library Foundation has outpaced fundraising efforts for previous presidential libraries, expecting to raise $50 million this year—largely through settlements from Trump’s lawsuits against media companies.

November 20

• Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s children hold controlling ownership stakes in three companies—the Wall Street investment firm Cantor, the securities brokerage BGC Group, and the real-estate company Newmark Group—under the Cantor Fitzgerald corporate umbrella. Those firms invest in the kinds of projects Lutnick promotes through his government work, such as data centers and cryptocurrency ventures.

Emily Dickinson’s Amherst

I spent a few days at Amherst College earlier this month, joining several classes and meeting a lot of impressive students and faculty. Also, I slipped away for an hour to see Emily Dickinson’s house, as well as her piano, her bookshelves, her sitting room and the tiny writing table where she wrote hundreds of poems. Most of them were published only after her death in 1886, and some weren’t available in their original form until the 20th century.

The wallpaper in Emily’s bedroom is copied from the original wallpaper. She was surrounded by flowers.

If you’ve forgotten, or haven’t read her for a long time, this is one of Dickinson’s best-known poems, and appropriate for this moment.

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops — at all -

And sweetest — in the Gale — is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet — never — in Extremity,

It asked a crumb — of me.