The wedding was scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. at a luxurious 56-acre estate in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Sitting in the audience that November afternoon was a high-profile guest, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who may have had other things on his mind.
Over the past 48 hours, Rubio has been facing an escalating diplomatic crisis following the leak of a US-backed peace plan led by President Donald Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, that was seen as tilting heavily in Russia’s favor over Ukraine.
Now, in the crowd attending a black-tie ceremony where his two daughters were bridesmaids, Rubio is suffering from a different headache caused by the same man, according to a US official.
Rubio was scheduled to attend peace talks with Ukrainian officials in Switzerland, but Witkoff stormed off early in what some officials saw as an attempt to strike him down, according to US officials and a person familiar with the matter. The three sources said that Witkoff did not inform Rubio and other State Department officials of his travel plans, in what they saw as a move to allow Witkoff to negotiate with Ukraine in the way he saw fit.
Eventually, Rubio arrived in Geneva to ensure that Witkopf would not meet with Ukrainian officials without him, according to the three sources.
This wasn’t the first time U.S. officials viewed Witkoff’s actions as an attempt to get around Rubio. The incident, which had not previously been reported, was the latest example of a long-running rift between the two senior figures in the Trump administration, whose views differ sharply on how to end the war in Ukraine and how much the United States can trust in Russia’s promises.
“They seem to be singing a different piece of music,” said Alexander Vershbow, a former diplomat and NATO ambassador. “And if you don’t have a common understanding of the problems and your opponent in the negotiation, it won’t be good.”
Eager to reach a quick agreement as Trump ordered, Witkoff pushed for proposals that put the onus on Ukraine to make concessions, give up territory and accept risks to its future security. Rubio and some other administration officials favor imposing more economic and military pressure on Russia to force Russian President Vladimir Putin to make concessions and allow a secure future for Ukraine, a view shared by America’s European allies.
This account is based on interviews with more than a dozen current and former American and European officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive events.
State Department spokesman Tommy Piggott responded to the suggestion that Rubio and Witkoff don’t get along.
“There is no disagreement between the two and there never has been,” Piggott said in a statement. “Secretary Rubio and Special Envoy Witkoff have a close working relationship and are personal friends. Both are fully aligned with the President’s goals and each is implementing President Trump’s vision of how to end the war and achieve peace with full cooperation.”
Rubio himself offered a similar assessment in a news conference on Friday.
“There is no one doing independent work,” he said. “It’s all strongly coordinated.”
He described Witkoff as “an exceptional person, very intelligent and very talented” who “doesn’t get paid to do this job.”
But some current and former US officials have concerns about Witkopf that go beyond his handling of negotiations to end the war. He is seen as having a lax approach to security, according to five current and former US officials, raising concerns that he may be using unsecured communications that could leave him vulnerable to a foreign actor eavesdropping on his conversations.
Witkoff referred NBC News’ questions to the White House.
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said: “Special Envoy Witkoff is receiving several secure calls throughout the week in coordination with the National Security Council and the White House.” His phone, residence and vehicles are regularly searched by diplomatic security.
How the divide between Rubio and Witkoff develops could determine how the war in Ukraine ends and how America is viewed by its allies and adversaries.
Witkoff, 69, a billionaire real estate mogul, broke with tradition in his role as a free-spirited diplomat and reformer, flying to Russia to meet Putin and prominent Arab figures in the Middle East on his private plane.
Now Witkoff has another key player on his side, Trump’s influential son-in-law Jared Kushner, who accompanied him on a recent trip to Moscow. Although he holds no official government position, Kushner weighs heavily with Trump and played an important role in reaching a ceasefire agreement in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, according to current and former officials.
For Trump, Witkoff is a personal friend and a skilled negotiator with a “great personality” capable of handling any conflict. In remarks on Tuesday, Trump praised Witkopf’s role in helping secure a ceasefire agreement in Gaza.
“Steve is a great deal maker,” he said.
But to critics in Congress and in Europe, as well as skeptics within the administration, Witkoff is something of an amateur on the diplomatic scene, all too willing to take Russia’s assertions at face value.
“It’s a gift to the Russians,” a congressional official said.
Meeting with Macron
Rival factions and power games are common in presidential administrations. But the extent to which the secretary of state has taken a backseat to a diplomatic neophyte on one of the most complex and vexing foreign policy challenges facing the United States is unusual and deeply troubling, current and former officials say.
An incident in France is illustrative.
In April, Rubio was scheduled to travel to Paris for talks on Ukraine. But before he left, his team learned that Vitkov had arranged a one-on-one meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, according to a senior administration official, a U.S. official and a former French official.
Rubio asked to join the meeting, but the French Foreign Ministry said Witkopf must sign the change. It was a humiliating turn of events for Rubio, whose aides have struggled to reach Witkoff for some time. Eventually, Rubio was finally able to find Witkoff, who agreed to let Rubio join him in the meeting, according to the US official and the senior administration official.
Rubio eventually met face-to-face with Macron during the trip, according to his public agenda.
Piggott, the State Department spokesman, said: “Any suggestion that Special Envoy Witkoff was preventing the Minister from attending a meeting in Paris is absurd.”
“The Secretary’s multiple meetings in Paris, with and without the Special Envoy, and their close cooperation before, during and after, speak for themselves,” Piggott added.
Late last month, days after the Geneva talks, Vitkov arranged a meeting with Ukrainian officials in Florida. Rubio only learned of the scheduled session when the Ukrainians asked his team about it, according to a U.S. official and a person familiar with the incident.
“It’s very clear that Rubio has been left out of this,” a senior administration official said. “He should be the guy leading all of this.”
“Witkoff realizes that Rubio’s understanding of Russia is very different from his own, and since he is a competitive man and has always been close to Trump, he believes he can get what he wants,” said John Herbst, a former US ambassador to Ukraine.
Security concerns
Aside from disagreements over peace efforts in Ukraine, Witkopf has been at odds with Rubio and State Department officials over the way he handles security — especially on his trips to Russia.
Since the beginning of the administration, Witkopf and State Department officials have disagreed over how to ensure secure communications on his private plane and the plane’s security guards, according to two U.S. officials and a senior administration official.
Some administration officials have privately questioned the wisdom of Witkoff using his own plane when there is a government fleet available for diplomats traveling on foreign missions, according to three U.S. officials.
Witkoff’s lack of secure communications aboard his plane sparked State Department concern that culminated in a high-level review in May, prompting a concerted effort to provide Witkoff with more security, according to a senior administration official, a U.S. official and two former senior administration officials.
As a result, those sources say, the State Department provided a secure mobile communications system for Witkoff to use on his plane.
But there are still concerns that Witkoff is not consistently using the secure government communications system, according to a US official and a source familiar with the matter.
Scott Stewart, who was a special agent at the State Department for 10 years and now serves as vice president of intelligence at the security firm TorchStone Global, said a range of foreign actors would be interested in accessing Witkoff’s communications.
“It’s a big target for the Russians specifically, but certainly everyone else in the world is interested in knowing what’s going on in these negotiations, and there are a lot of people who are interested,” Stewart said.
Kelly, the White House spokesman, said Witkoff “is following all guidelines provided by Diplomatic Security and White House IT.”
“He had secure communications on his plane from the beginning,” she added.
Implications of the peace plan
Questions about the security of Witkov’s electronic communications have increased after the recent leak of a text of a phone call between him and Putin’s foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov.
In the October phone conversation, reported by Bloomberg, Witkoff offers advice on how to structure a conversation between Trump and Putin, suggesting they talk before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s scheduled visit to the White House.
It is not clear who was behind the leak or how they gained access to a phone call between Witkoff and Russian officials.
In an interview with the Russian newspaper Kommersant late last month, Ushakov, Putin’s aide, said he regularly contacted Vitkov “over secure connections” and via WhatsApp, a commercial app that experts say is vulnerable to hacking.
The US peace plan originally drawn up by Witkoff underwent significant revision after Rubio’s intervention and a series of discussions with the Ukrainians. The provisions of most concern to Ukraine and European governments have been removed or modified, including preventing US fighter aircraft from being deployed in Poland or imposing a significant reduction in the size of the Ukrainian armed forces.
Three weeks after Rubio and Witkopf traveled to Geneva, the peace proposal is still under discussion, although Russia has strongly criticized the changes and demanded that negotiations return to the original plan drafted by Witkopf.
Over the weekend, a US delegation met with Ukrainian officials in Miami. He added, “The American delegation included Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, and White House employee Josh Grunebaum.” Witkoff posted on social media Sunday.
There was no mention of Rubio.