‘INCREDIBLE SITUATION’

Melania Aide Raves About Her ‘Direct Line’ to Putin

Marc Beckman said the first lady deserves a “formal recognition” for her work reuniting children with their families.

Melania Trump’s top adviser is touting her “direct line” to Russian leadership in her efforts to reunite children with their families during Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Marc Beckman hailed the first lady’s work in an interview Wednesday on Scott Jennings’ podcast, telling the MAGA-friendly CNN commentator that she should be recognized formally for her initiative. As of August, Trump said she had “facilitated” the reunification of 34 children and their parents since the summer of 2025, when her husband hand-delivered a letter from her to Vladimir Putin about the cause. Ukrainian authorities have said nearly 20,000 children were swept up and transferred to Russia in the war.

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“This is an incredible situation, Scott. I actually believe that the first lady deserves some level of formal recognition for what she’s done here,” Beckman said. “Thirty-four children have been reunited as a result of being displaced from the Ukraine-Russia war, and this has occurred now across six different events: six different moments in time.”

Trump, 56, “leads all of these negotiations,” and “has a direct line with leadership at both Russia and Ukraine,” Beckman said.

Trump is “extremely private” and doesn’t share clips of the reunifications. “But we have access to it, and we see it,” he said. “We respect everybody’s privacy, and it’s a very emotional situation, as you can imagine.”

“I wonder if anybody out there is going to formally recognize this work with some sort of an award or something because it really is incredible,” Beckman concluded.

Jennings agreed.

“Well, she deserves it, and the fact that she doesn’t really do it in front of the cameras—there’s no fanfare around it, she does it because of her heart for it—is really remarkable,” he said.

Trump, in an October 2025 speech, explained her communications with 74-year-old Putin.

“Since President Putin received my letter last August, he responded in writing, signaling a willingness to engage with me directly, and outlining details regarding the Ukrainian children residing in Russia,” she said.

“Since then, President Putin and I have had an open channel of communications regarding the welfare of these children... We have agreed to cooperate with each other for the benefit of all people involved in this war... My representative has been working directly with President Putin’s team.”

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In March, a United Nations commission found that over 1,200 children had been deported or forcibly transferred to Russia or to Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine since the lead-up to Russia’s invasion of its neighbor in February 2022. After four years of war, Russian authorities had not returned 80 percent of those children. This, the commission said, amounted to crimes against humanity.

“Russian authorities have systematically failed to disclose the whereabouts of the children to parents or legal guardians and have kept children in a coercive environment making their return to families almost impossible,” a press release announcing the finding said.

Meanwhile, President Trump, 80, has sparked an international outcry after lifting some sanctions and allowing Russia to sell its diesel to the U.S., a move that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warns will benefit Russia’s war effort.

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“Any easing of sanctions against Russia without a clear and lasting de-escalation agreement with Russia is an obvious weakness,” Zelensky said. “It plays into Russia’s hands – allowing it to kill more, wage war for longer, have even less respect for America, and inflict even greater losses and damage on the world.”

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