Summary

Melania’s Cynical New Scheme Threatens to Upstage Trump The Trump administration’s “exclusive intermediary” made a splash with a bombshell announcement. There’s a new power player in the long-running war between Russia and Ukraine. First Lady Melania Trump, 56, announced on Friday that she had successfully negotiated a temporary ceasefire in the Ukrainian city of Oleshky—potentially upstaging her husband, President Donald Trump, who has been itching to be recognized as a peacemaker. The localized ceasefire is set to take effect on Oct. 29 to allow humanitarian aid to enter the city and civilians to evacuate, according to a White House press release. Melania’s office said she worked with an unnamed representative, “in her formal role as Exclusive Intermediary,” to negotiate directly with Russian and Ukrainian leadership. The development suggests that the president’s top peace negotiators—special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner—may have been pushed down the pecking order, Daily Beast executive editor Hugh Dougherty said on an episode of The Daily Beast Podcast. “I think the management term is they’ve been ‘layered,’” he told co-host Joanna Coles, referring to corporate lingo for inserting a new layer between a manager and a subordinate. “The first lady is now involved, and apparently she learned about this when she was at the United Nations General Assembly, and she immediately, in her terms, ‘leveraged the communication channel we established with Russia and Ukraine,’” Dougherty said. Sign Up for The Swamp Newsletter By clicking “SUBSCRIBE” you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. But he added that Melania’s announcement included an eyebrow-raising statement. The first lady said that “non-military, civilian leaders from both countries will work together to visit Oleshky residents in their homes and determine the level of assistance they require. Residents who wish to evacuate will receive coordinated support and transportation to their preferred destination.” “I anticipate some will want to go to Russia, and some to Ukraine,” she noted. “This is kind of amazing,” Dougherty said. “We’re both-siding a siege. That’s like at the end of the siege of Stalingrad, if somebody turned up and said, ‘Do you know what? Some people will want to go with the Nazis. They’ll be really into it.’ Or at the end of the Siege of Leningrad, going, ‘Yeah, yeah, they’re going back to Germany now,’ even though they were starving and eating the cats and eating the dogs in real life—not in Ohio.” The office of the first lady did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The White House referred the Daily Beat back to the first lady’s office. Oleshky, located in Ukraine’s Kherson region, has been gripped by a devastating humanitarian crisis since it was occupied by Russian forces in 2022. Residents have faced severe shortages of food, water, and electricity since the destruction of the nearby Kakhovka dam three years ago. Residents told the BBC that the city is “constantly shelled” by Russian forces, while occupation authorities require a post-mortem examination by a Russian doctor before the dead can be buried—a requirement that cannot be met in Oleshky. “It is impossible to live in Oleshky,” one resident who fled the city told The Associated Press. “There is no life left there.” The Institute for the Study of War said the dire conditions have created a grim cycle in which “residents of occupied Oleshky found themselves dependent on, and indebted to, the Russian occupation administration to escape from the humanitarian devastation that Russian forces themselves caused.” But that forced dependence on Russian authorities doesn’t mean Oleshky residents have forgotten the past. “Oleshky was a European town, a prosperous town,” Tetiana Hasanenko, the exiled head of Oleshky’s military administration, told The Washington Post. “To live there before the beginning of the full-scale invasion was to have everything: the forest, the river, the desert. And now you see what we have. They came to kill us. So why would they save us?” New episodes of The Daily Beast Podcast are released every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday on YouTube, and on other podcast platforms the next morning. Follow our new feed on your favorite podcast platform at beast.pub/dailybeastpod and subscribe on YouTube to watch full episodes. Register below to read this article for free or subscribe to unlock unlimited access to The Daily Beast. Monthly $1 First month then $5.99/month Annual $35 First year then $59.99/year Premium $79 First year then $119.99/year *Substack access provided by the next business day, using your subscription email. Choosing the Premium plan constitutes your permission to share your subscription email with Substack and your agreement to Substack’s Privacy Policy. Already have an account? Sign In Looks like you already have a subscription! You're all set! Thanks for subscribing.