May 2nd, 2025: Knives Out For Steve Witkoff & US-Iran Nuclear Talks Stall
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It's Friday, the 2nd of May. Welcome to the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. We'll start things off with a look inside the Trump administration, as reports claim that President Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, is causing distress within the White House over his approach to negotiations with America's biggest adversaries.

Later in the show, Kiev and Washington finally ink a long-anticipated, quote, economic partnership agreement that will grant the U.S. access to Ukraine's extensive mineral resources. The deal calls for establishing an investment fund that could help rebuild the war-torn country.

Plus, a fourth round of nuclear talks between the U.S. and Iran have been postponed as Iranian leaders protest new sanctions placed on the Islamic regime by the U.S. State Department on Wednesday.

And in today's back of the brief, North Korea and Russia have broken ground on the first road bridge linking the hermit kingdom with their northern neighbor, further cementing ties between dictators Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin. How romantic. A road bridge. Seriously, Kim and Putin, just get a room. But first, today's PDB Spotlight.

We'll begin today with a bit of palace intrigue from the White House, where the knives are reportedly coming out against special envoy Steve Witkoff. A number of administration insiders spoke exclusively with the New York Post on Wednesday to rail against Trump's most visible representative on the foreign stage, and their candid thoughts were, well, less than flattering. The

The White House insiders, who chose to speak anonymously, ah, the bravery of speaking anonymously, are calling into question Witkoff's overall competency as a diplomat and whether he's qualified to handle the rather significant portfolio that he's been handed by the president.

As a reminder, that portfolio includes negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine directly with Vladimir Putin, closing a new nuclear deal with the Iranian regime, and brokering a lasting ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. You know, just the most complex and consequential issues facing the world today.

Their remarks paint a damning portrait of Witkopf's abilities as a negotiator and whether the former real estate attorney and investor is the right man to be at the helm in such turbulent times. Well, frankly, nothing says I'm ready to deal with the globe's biggest crises like a background in real estate and investment. The most pressing concern from insiders is Witkopf's handling of direct talks with Putin. The Post report, citing multiple anonymous sources, said,

said Witkoff has been breaking with long-standing diplomatic protocols by relying on Kremlin-provided translators in his private meetings with Putin. In video of last Friday's meeting between Witkoff and Putin, for example, a seemingly confused Witkoff can be heard asking if the person sitting next to him was, quote, "...from the embassy."

A Ukrainian-Estonian translator and government advisor in Kyiv expressed alarm, telling the Post, "It's impossible to have negotiations when you don't trust the translator. Witkow does not speak Russian, and he cannot verify what is being translated." They added, "No politician goes to negotiations to a hostile environment without his own translator unless you are not competent."

Witkoff has also been attending the meetings with Putin solo instead of with a circle of trusted advisors, national security experts, and military officers with experience regarding Russia, who would typically accompany senior U.S. negotiators.

Putin, on the other hand, has attended the meetings with a cadre of close advisors. One source from Trump's first administration bluntly told the Post that Witkoff was a, quote, nice guy, but a bumbling effing idiot. He should not be doing this alone, end quote. Hmm.

This unsupervised diplomacy has drawn criticism from inside Ukraine, with critics pointing to reports from Russian state media outlets praising Witkow for appearing to echo Moscow's messaging. The administration insiders claim he lacks a clear understanding of the Ukrainian position, instead relaying Kremlin narratives back to Trump. They fear Witkow is being outmaneuvered by Putin, who's been stalling negotiations despite his claims of

although he's eager to strike a deal. Yes, that would be Putin, the humanitarian. There is also confusion about who is ultimately leading the peace efforts regarding the war in Ukraine. Trump initially named retired Army Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg as a special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, but later split his duties with Witkoff, changing Kellogg's title in mid-March to only Special Envoy for Ukraine.

Witkoff, meanwhile, who was initially named Special Envoy to the Middle East, was later promoted to Ambassador-at-Large. Additionally, he is reportedly facing internal heat for his handling of ceasefire talks in Gaza.

While he initially successfully brokered a two-month ceasefire before Trump took office, his attempts at extending the truce between Israel and Hamas in March ended badly. Witkopf left a meeting in March thinking that he had a deal, but Hamas later shifted their stance and the talks collapsed.

Witkoff admitted at the time that he may have been, quote, duped by Hamas, causing concern among Israeli officials regarding his lack of experience as a diplomat. That concern now extends to Iran. As negotiations got underway with the Islamic regime in April, Witkoff initially said Iran could keep their enrichment facilities if they kept enrichment levels low and agreed to proper verification. He later walked those remarks back,

saying any deal must see Iran completely eliminate their nuclear program.

Some insiders say the biggest problem is simply that Witkoff has too much on his plate. President Trump, however, appears to still have full faith in his abilities. The White House was quick to come to Witkoff's defense regarding the largely anonymously sourced report from the Post, responding with a full-throated endorsement of his record. A White House spokesperson told the Post, Steve Witkoff has done incredible work securing the release of Americans detained abroad like Mark Fogel.

Like President Trump, he's focused on stopping the killing and advancing peace through strength. All right. Now, before we go to break, a quick reminder to subscribe to our YouTube channel, which you can find at President's Daily Brief. We're rapidly approaching 100,000 subscribers, and at which point, once we do, there'll be festivities and parades and concerts and much rejoicing.

You can check out the video presentations of this show every day, as well as our weekend interview program, the PDB Situation Report. All right, coming up next, Kiev and Washington finally ink a critical minerals deal, and nuclear talks between the U.S. and Iran stall as diplomatic tensions mount. I'll be right back.

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Welcome back to the PDB. After months of political wrangling and diplomatic deadlock, Ukraine signed a minerals deal with the U.S., granting Washington a stake in its future resource revenues in exchange for a financial lifeline to rebuild.

Finalized in Washington on Wednesday, the agreement establishes the United States-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund, permitting American access to vast untapped reserves of rare earths and other minerals. The Trump administration deems these materials essential to America's long-term industrial and defense security. From the outset of his second term, Trump made one thing clear: Future U.S. support would come with strings attached.

The message to Kyiv was blunt: reimbursement for past military aid under the Biden administration would be drawn from Ukraine's mineral wealth.

Now, talks nearly fell apart in February after a fiery Oval Office clash, which I'm sure you remember, between Trump officials and Ukrainian President Zelensky. But as we've been tracking here on the PDB, tensions began to thaw during an encounter between Trump and Zelensky at the Vatican over the weekend, held on the sidelines of the funeral for Pope Francis. That meeting laid the groundwork for a deal. By Wednesday, the Ukrainian economy minister had flown to Washington to seal the deal.

In a statement posted on X, she called the agreement a breakthrough for Ukraine's post-war recovery, writing, quote, Together with the U.S., we are creating a fund to attract global investment into our country. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson put it more bluntly, stating, quote, This agreement signals clearly to Russia that the Trump administration is committed to a peace process centered on a free, sovereign, and prosperous Ukraine.

Now, the mechanics of the deal are relatively straightforward: a 10-year, jointly managed fund backed by the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation. Kyiv will retain full authority over what gets mined and where, with nearly 100 sites already earmarked for licensing.

Crucially, financial contributions to the fund will be made in cash, not in the form of retroactive debt. Only future military aid will count toward America's stake in the fund. That concession marked a major win for Kiev, which had previously rejected proposals to repay wartime aid through minimal concessions.

According to the US Geological Survey, Ukraine is sitting on some of the world's largest undeveloped deposits of manganese and lithium, key to electric vehicle batteries and electronics, as well as significant reserves of uranium and titanium, indispensable to nuclear energy, aerospace, and medical technology.

Still, Kyiv did not secure all of its objectives, notably absent from the final agreement or any form of U.S. security guarantees, a demand that Ukrainian officials say they'll continue to press for in future negotiations.

But even without it, the fund bolsters Ukraine's leverage at the negotiating table with Russia via U.S. backing, preserves its EU membership ambitions, and provides the financial scaffolding for rebuilding a country still reeling from the ongoing war.

However, a large slice, and this is important, of Ukraine's resource wealth, well, lies out of reach. Ukrainian think tanks estimate that some 40% of its strategic metals lie under Russian occupation, including two of its richest lithium deposits in Donetsk and Zaporizhia.

And the Kremlin, well, they're not hiding their disdain. In a sarcastic post on Telegram Thursday, the deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council wrote, quote, Trump has finally pressured the Kiev regime to pay for U.S. aid with mineral resources. Now the country that is about to disappear will have to use its national wealth to pay for military supplies, end quote.

The threat there was unmistakably serious It marked Moscow's first official response and signaled growing unease over the rekindling of U.S.-Ukraine ties Ukraine's parliament is expected to ratify the deal within the next two weeks

Okay, shifting to U.S.-Iran nuclear negotiations. The next round of talks, initially slated for Saturday in Rome, have been postponed as tensions rise amid the Iranian regime's accusations that Washington is torpedoing diplomacy with fresh sanctions. A senior Iranian official speaking to Reuters on Thursday said a new date would be announced "depending on the U.S. approach," adding that Washington's decision to escalate sanctions while talks remain active

sends a clear signal that diplomacy is on life support. The Islamic regime official said, quote, U.S. sanctions on Iran during the nuclear talks are not helping the sides to resolve the nuclear dispute, end quote. That rhetoric amounts to Tehran's bluntest warning yet that President Trump's revived maximum pressure campaign could derail further dialogue. Oman, which previously hosted the talks, said,

attempted to put a neutral spin on the development, saying the 3 May session was being rescheduled for, quote, logistical reasons. But a source familiar with the matter told Reuters that the U.S. never formally confirmed its participation in the planned Rome session. And while discussions remain ongoing, neither the date nor the location for the fourth round has been locked in, underscoring just how tenuous the diplomatic track has become.

The backdrop to the delay is a barrage of sanctions unveiled Wednesday by the Trump administration, targeting seven companies and two shipping vessels operating out of Iran, the UAE, and Turkey. The entities are accused of facilitating illicit petrochemical trade. It's a critical lifeblood for the Iranian regime's sanctions-circumvetting economy and its regional proxy network. Secretary of State Marco Rubio didn't mince words, saying the action covers hundreds of millions of dollars in sales

and warning that more measures are likely. Iran, unsurprisingly, fired back. The foreign ministry blasted what it called America's "contradictory behavior and provocative statements," citing not only the sanctions but recent U.S. warnings over Tehran's support for Yemen's Houthis.

Still, in a sign that Iran hasn't slammed the door completely shut, a ministry spokesman insisted Thursday that Tehran remains committed to "serious and resolute diplomacy," though he emphasized that the talks must yield real results.

As we've reported here on the PDB, Trump wasted no time upon returning to office in reactivating his maximum pressure blueprint of cutting Iran's oil exports to zero and cornering the Islamic regime into accepting a tougher nuclear deal. The president has publicly maintained that his goal is straightforward: no nuclear weapons for Iran, and if talks fail, all options remain on the table, including military force.

The original 2015 pact, which Trump scrapped in his first term, had imposed strict uranium enrichment limits in exchange for sanctions relief. Since Washington's withdrawal, Tehran has blown past those restrictions, enriching at higher levels and stockpiling material that Western officials warn could shorten the breakout window to a matter of weeks. Meanwhile, a separate meeting in Rome between Iranian officials

and representatives from Britain, France and Germany meant to explore off-ramps and regional tensions is also now "not certain," the Iranian officials said. As sanctions pile up and diplomacy stalls, hopes for a fresh nuclear deal with Iran appear to be waning.

Alright, coming up next in the back of the brief, North Korea and Russia break ground on the first road bridge linking the Hermit Kingdom with their northern neighbor. I'll have those details when we come back.

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In today's Back of the Brief, American adversaries Russia and North Korea are taking steps to further cement their deepening diplomatic ties, breaking ground Wednesday on the first road bridge directly linking the two countries. The Hermit Kingdom and their northern neighbor held simultaneous groundbreaking ceremonies that must have been festive on their respective sides of the border for the two-lane bridge on Wednesday, with North Korea and Russian officials calling the moment a significant milestone.

The bridge will span the Tumen River and be situated near the existing Friendship Bridge, a cross-border railway that was commissioned in 1959 following the Korean War. That's according to a report from the New York Times. The project had been in discussion for several years but was only formally approved in 2024 following a summit in North Korea between Putin and Kim Jong-un.

North Korea's state news agency said, quote, "It provides a substantial guarantee for laying down and reinforcing important infrastructure for economic cooperation and for vitalizing bilateral cooperation." Boy, this is quite the mouthful, isn't it? "Including travel of persons, tourism, and circulation of commodities," end quote. How about that? The bridge, which will take roughly 18 months to complete, will be a little over a half a mile long, hmm, and expand passenger and commercial traffic

between the two countries. Russia's transport ministry said it will be able to handle roughly 300 vehicles and 2,850 people per day. Wow, 300 vehicles a day? Well, that's quite the bridge. How about that for traffic? But the project is just the latest evidence of the increasingly cozy relationship between the Putin and Kim regimes. As a reminder, the two belligerent powers

signed a landmark mutual defense pact back in June of 2024, which formalized the role of North Korea as a crucial supply base for Russian military needs. North Korea has since deployed some 15,000 troops to Russia and billions of dollars worth of missiles and artillery to resupply Moscow's dwindling stockpiles. In return, it's believed that Russia has sent North Korea air defense systems, electronic warfare tools, drones,

and satellite launch technology.

As we discussed on yesterday's show, Moscow and Pyongyang officially confirmed the presence of North Korean troops in Russia for the first time earlier this week, with Putin formally thanking the hermit kingdom for their support and vowing to never forget the sacrifices of their forces. He's probably already forgotten. That sacrifice has been large, frankly, with South Korean intelligence estimating that some 4,700 North Korean soldiers have been killed or wounded on the front lines since

since joining the fight. Kim's ties to Moscow were further reinforced in March, when he hosted Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu in Pyongyang. The two reaffirmed their mutual defense pact, and Russia's deputy foreign minister confirmed that discussions are underway for a future visit by Kim to the Russian capital, though no date was specified.

And that, my friends, is the President's Daily Brief for Friday, the 2nd of May. Now, if you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at pdbatthefirsttv.com. And finally, well, it's Friday, which means a brand new episode of our extended weekend show, The PDB Situation Report, is being moved to the launch pad. This week's guests include Steve Yates and Frank Gaffney. We're talking all things China, the shakeup at the White House with the national security team,

negotiations with Iran, what could cause the overthrow of the Iranian regime, and more. This latest episode airs at 10 p.m. tonight on The First TV, and of course, it's always available on our YouTube channel, which you can find at President's Daily Brief, and podcast platforms everywhere. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back later today with the PDB Afternoon Bulletin. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool.

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