President Donald Trump has delegated parts of his foreign policy to an adviser with no official U.S. government role — one whose main claim to influence is his work as a documentary producer for First Lady Melania Trump, according to a recent report. The arrangement places negotiations with Russia in the hands of a private citizen, outside the official diplomatic channels where such work has traditionally been handled.

"Marc Beckman made his name selling sneakers, soda and fashion," reported MS NOW's Felicia Schwartz and Vaughn Hillyard on Thursday. "Now he spends much of his time helping Melania Trump with her public image, including negotiating with Russia and producing her multimillion-dollar Amazon documentary."

According to the MS NOW report, Beckman has labeled himself the first lady's "exclusive senior adviser," an amorphous title that carries no formal government authority and that over the past year has also encompassed diplomacy on her behalf. Beckman and Melania Trump were the top American representatives at a White House ceremony on Nov. 5 commemorating a humanitarian ceasefire in one of Ukraine's hardest-hit frontline cities. Top Russian and Ukrainian officials involved in the limited ceasefire efforts were also present and credited Beckman — a little-known Trump adviser with no official U.S. government role — with bringing the effort over the finish line. That kind of ceasefire diplomacy has typically been carried out by officials with formal government mandates; the report instead centers on a private citizen whose standing rests on his work for the first lady.

The MS NOW journalists noted that Beckman has even helped shape the first lady's public image around the war in Israel.

"Beckman said he had also helped with Trump's work on Israeli hostages captured by Hamas," they wrote. "He hosts his own podcast where he has interviewed former Israeli officials as well as Aviva Siegel, wife of released hostage Keith Siegel. He said he got involved with work on antisemitism after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel."

They continued: "Beckman interviewed Aviva Siegel on his podcast in 2024 and said he was involved in Trump's meeting with Siegel and her daughter in January 2025, while her husband, Keith, was still in captivity. The private meeting in New York was shown in the Amazon documentary."

Though he remains little known outside those circles, observers say Beckman clearly wields considerable power within the Trump administration.

"Power in the East Wing is inherited," Michael LaRosa, former spokesperson for former First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, posted on X on Thursday. "But inside the White House, the first lady's authority is understood to be separate but equal from the West Wing's. A first lady can exercise power quietly and shrewdly because in every administration, she has one distinct advantage: Nobody in the White House wants to be the one to tell the first lady 'no.'" The East Wing houses the first lady's operation, which has historically functioned apart from the president's West Wing staff.

In her 2026 documentary "Melania," the first lady discusses her life preparing for the start of Trump's second term. She also talks about attending President Jimmy Carter's funeral, although the film declined to state Carter's low opinion of the Trump administration — views the 39th president expressed to a Salon journalist in 2018.

"I think that under Trump the government is worse than it has been before," Carter said at the time. "This is the first time I remember when the truth is ignored, allies are deliberately aggravated, China, Europe, Mexico and Canada are hurt economically and have to hurt us in response, Americans see the future worse than the present, and immigrants are treated cruelly."