Marc Beckman made his name selling sneakers, soda and fashion. 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.

He has labeled himself her “exclusive senior adviser,” an amorphous title that over the past year has also included diplomacy on her behalf.

Beckman and 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 in the war.

Top Russian and Ukrainian officials involved in the limited ceasefire efforts were also there and credited Beckman — a little-known Trump adviser with no official U.S. government role — with bringing the effort over the finish line.

To mark the occasion, Beckman posted a black-and-white photo of himself standing between top Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev and Ukrainian official David Arakhamia under a portrait of Andrew Jackson inside the White House.

Beckman, a man in his 50s with chin-length, feathered brown hair and salt-and-pepper scruff, wore a black blazer over a black T-shirt for the White House meetings. Dmitriev and Arakhamia were both in suits and ties.

The temporary humanitarian ceasefire in Oleshky is one of the Trump administration’s few concrete achievements since getting involved in the peace process between Russia and Ukraine. Russia and Ukraine on Wednesday agreed to a large prisoner swap after trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi, the first in nine months, ended in no major breakthroughs. Beckman was not present.

‘The guy who looks like Fabio?’

Beckman has no diplomatic experience or security clearance. He does not report to the National Security Council, the State Department or any White House staff, according to two people familiar with the matter who were granted anonymity to discuss internal dynamics.

Asked about his role in the administration’s diplomacy, one senior official responded, “Is that the guy who looks like Fabio?”

Beckman’s work on the ceasefire and his ambiguous role in the government is the latest example of the unconventional way the Trump administration conducts foreign policy — an approach expected to come under deep scrutiny when Democrats assume control of the House and the Senate next year.

“The State Department continues to work in close collaboration with those involved in negotiations to see an end to the violence and killing this conflict has caused,” a State Department spokesperson said.

Beckman didn’t respond to MS NOW’s requests for comment. The White House referred questions to the first lady’s office, which declined to comment.

Russian and Ukrainian officials have been in regular contact with Beckman for more than a year, according to a person familiar with the matter and Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, who is involved in the talks.

Trump announced at the White House in October 2025 that she had established a channel with Russian President Vladimir Putin and had directed a representative to talk with Russia about children separated by the war. She and Beckman facilitated the returns of dozens of children since that began, her office said.

Ukraine began urging the world to do more to resolve the humanitarian crisis in Oleshky in February. A Ukrainian official said he first began engaging with Beckman about the dire situation in the besieged city in May of this year.

‘He’s like the shadow first lady’

Beckman told Newsmax in late October that Trump learned about the crisis facing mostly elderly residents trapped in Russian-occupied Oleshky, in Ukraine’s Kherson region, at an event on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September. Speaking to the network in a separate interview a week later, he said the effort “could become the blueprint for everlasting peace.”

“Perhaps it starts in this region and sticks, and then it goes across all of Ukraine and Russia,” Beckman said in the interview. “That’s the way both the Ukrainians and the Russians have been speaking with the first lady about this.”

Beckman’s sudden public debut as a wartime dealmaker came as a surprise to current and former officials.

Stephanie Grisham, who served in various adviser roles to first lady Melania Trump for four years during President Donald Trump’s first term, said she “never heard her utter his name for the whole time I was around her.”

“He’s like the shadow first lady,” Grisham said. “She does want to do meaningful things, but she lets you bring them to her in a bow. The whole thing is bizarre. I’ve thought, ‘Who the f— is this guy?’”

Grisham said the first lady has also long opposed advisers speaking out on her behalf, making Beckman’s frequent television appearances mostly in conservative media as her self-described “exclusive senior adviser” abnormal.

“I remember her saying she felt like she was losing her voice because I was putting so many statements out,” Grisham said. “She doesn’t like people speaking on her behalf yet he keeps speaking.”

Beckman founded the New York advertising agency DMA United and has worked with the NBA, Pepsi, Karl Lagerfeld and others, according to a New York University biography for him, where he is an adjunct professor. His LinkedIn profile says he remains with DMA.

Two Ukrainian officials, Lubinets and Arakhamia, said Beckman first approached them in 2025 about directly assisting with the first lady’s efforts to reunify Ukrainian children taken by Russia during the war with their families. The officials said they communicated with Beckman “sometimes everyday.”

Beckman pitched the Ukranians

Beckman first pitched the Ukrainians on a humanitarian ceasefire in Oleshky earlier this year, said Arakhamia, the head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s parliamentary faction. Beckman was the main go-between, he said.

Ukraine would propose a detail, call Beckman to share it, Beckman would inform Trump and then discuss it with the Russians. “We always received a positive reaction from the Russian side,” Arakhamia said, who added that Moscow seemed inclined to work with the first lady.

“I think they want to support the first lady’s initiatives,” Arakhamia said about the Russian side. In the Kremlin, the Ukrainian negotiator said, “There is a general will to support Melania Trump’s efforts, and that helps a lot on the lower levels.”

While Beckman has been optimistic that his humanitarian efforts could more broadly influence the peace process, others involved said they expected the tracks to remain separate.

Ukraine credited Beckman with convincing Moscow to allow Newsmax to observe the evacuation efforts in Oleshky connected to the limited ceasefire there.

Arakhamia said he met with Beckman in Washington last week after the White House event to brainstorm other places in Ukraine they could broker humanitarian ceasefires.

“Now they need to do their homework and talk to the Russian side and pre-agree about the sequence,” he said.

Beckman said in a February interview with an Israeli journalist that he met Trump before her son Barron was born, after she approached him with an idea to build out her lifestyle business.

He said he worked with her at first on luxury jewelry and watches and other fashion ventures. Now, he told journalist Libby Alon, he works on her personal branding and commercial projects, including the “Melania” documentary Amazon MGM Studios released earlier this year, a two-part docuseries about her set to begin airing on Amazon next week, a book project, Christmas ornaments, philanthropy and communications.

Beckman said he had also helped with Trump’s work on Israeli hostages captured by Hamas.

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.

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.

“I’m so grateful to have been a part of it. Something I learned is that there are no coincidences in life,” he told the Israeli journalist. “Aviva Siegel did not know about my relationship with the first lady, and it was incredible how we came together.”

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