U.S. President Donald Trump holds scissors next to Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., and Sarah Malone, Executive Vice President of Trump International Aberdeen Golf Links, after cutting the ribbon during the grand opening of Trump International Golf Links Aberdeen in Balmedie, Aberdeen, Scotland, Britain, July 29, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

Bulwark reports “The 28-point ‘Trump peace plan’ for Ukraine — likely parroted … from a Russian paper slipped to Steve Witkoff by Vladimir Putin … is now an ex-parrot.” But Bulwark White House Correspondent Andrew Egger said the release of an October phone call transcript between Witkoff and Putin apparatchik Yuri Ushakov shows the horrifying extent to which President Donald Trump can be manipulated with flattery.

“[T]he thing I found most striking about the call was what it revealed about Witkoff’s assessment of what motivates the president,” said Egger. “Trump, in Witkoff’s telling, has no particular asks or sticking points when it comes to this negotiation. Don’t have Putin talk about particulars on the call with Trump at all, Witkoff advises Ushakov.”

“Now, me to you, I know what it’s going to take to get a peace deal done: Donetsk and maybe a land swap somewhere. But I’m saying instead of talking like that, let’s talk more hopefully, because I think we’re going to get to a deal here. And I think, Yuri, the president will give me a lot of space and discretion to get to a deal," Witkoff said.

By “talking more hopefully” Egger said Witkoff meant “a lot of flattery about how successful Trump’s negotiation in Gaza was and how glad Russia is that he is a ‘man of peace.’”

According to the transcript, Ushakov got the message: “I agree with you that Putin will congratulate. He will say Mr. Trump is a real peace man and so and so.”

“Amazingly, this appears to be exactly what happened,’ said Egger. “Putin did time his call to preempt Zelensky’s mid-October visit and did indeed open with flattery about Trump’s deal in Gaza. Trump responded just as Witkoff seemed to believe he would.

“I have just concluded my telephone conversation with President Vladimir Putin of Russia, and it was a very productive one,” Trump posted then on Truth Social. “President Putin congratulated me and the United States on the Great Accomplishment of Peace in the Middle East, something that, he said, has been dreamed of for centuries. I actually believe that the Success in the Middle East will help in our negotiation in attaining an end to the War with Russia/Ukraine.”

Soon after that, Trump blessed Putin’s peace agreement that Witkoff brought him, “just as Witkoff predicted he would,” said Egger.

“We write all the time about Trump’s childlike solipsism — the way his assessment of other people depends entirely on how they treat him, personally,” said Egger. “This, of course, makes Trump historically easy to manipulate, and Witkoff is in a position to wield that knowledge to world-historical effect.”

“It’s too bad he’s decided to deploy it in the maniacal aim of bringing Putin’s war to a Putin-satisfying conclusion,” Egger added.

Read the Bulwark report at this link.