The president should pay close attention to the aftermath of his meeting with Putin, and ask himself what the United States has gained from Witkoff’s efforts.

In today’s Carnival of Fools, I wrote, “This is as emblematic a week as any for the second Trump administration’s overall vibe: His virtues are seemingly indivisible from his vices.” The Carnival was dominated by two topics: Trump’s federalization of the D.C. police force (which I vigorously approve of) and Trump’s push to get Republican states to redistrict ahead of the 2026 midterms. I approve of this as well — I prefer to win unavoidable arms races — so that means I didn’t actually devote any time to the several ominous recent developments elsewhere with the administration. My thesis is thus only half-argued.

So permit me a brief note on one matter of a less positive nature that escaped mention. Donald Trump is currently scheduled to meet with Vladimir Putin on Friday in Alaska, to discuss Putin’s intransigence in ending Russia’s unprovoked war against Ukraine. I am not optimistic, and neither are you.

But I have no issue in theory with the mini-summit. The usual suspects are bellyaching about it, grumbling that Trump is “giving Putin what he wants” by meeting face to face, and that’s nonsense. The real issue is wasted time. Set expectations low: The summit is already being framed as a “listening session,” and one imagines Trump sitting through yet another historical lecture from Putin about the lost glory of Orthodox Rus or the evils of Vlasovite collaborators during the Great Patriotic War. I fail to see why he would accept peace now, when he has paid little marginal additional price for continuing to wage war. We shall see.

I do want to say at least something, however, about the man who arranged this gathering, the remarkable Steve Witkoff — and why that makes me pessimistic. The president seems to have designated Witkoff as more than a mere special envoy; he is Trump’s own Harry Hopkins — an ad hoc diplomat informally tasked with some of the administration’s most sensitive international missions. And just like Hopkins did during the Roosevelt administration, Witkoff has bungled all of his assignments spectacularly, through sheer rock-headed naiveté.

Perhaps you remember Witkoff’s earlier appearance in the pages of National Review, as Palestinian and Iranian peace envoy. That assignment climaxed with Witkoff breaking bread with Hamas leaders in Qatar — ah, our good friend Qatar — announcing a deal to release the remaining hostages, and then later claiming to have been “duped” by them when it all inevitably fell through. (Hamas? Liars? The deuce you say.) Now he’s on the Russia dossier for President Trump, and the Alaska meeting is apparently the result of Witkoff’s diplomatic work in Moscow over the last several weeks. Maybe this time the shifty liar isn’t going to dupe America!

But I doubt it. Because Witkoff is such a transparent clod that he allowed Vladimir Putin to brutally and publicly humiliate the United States on his way back to America: He awarded the Order of Lenin (Russia’s rough equivalent to the Medal of Honor) to an American — the son of a CIA analyst, no less — who had a mental breakdown and fled to Russia to fight in the military there. (The Russians knew exactly what to do with him: They sent him to the frontlines and got him killed as quickly as possible for the news story.) Instead of publicly declining what was obviously meant as a mean-spirited insult, Witkoff has chosen to remain meekly silent — in the name, no doubt, of “diplomacy.”

Trump has given Witkoff diplomatic tasks like these because he apparently believes in his ability to get results. (Witkoff accepts these assignments because, by all accounts, he also believes in himself — overweeningly so.) The president would do well to pay close attention to the aftermath of this meeting, and ask himself what the United States has gained from Witkoff’s efforts.