Trump's Fine Arts Chief Spoke With Kremlin Officials During Russia Visit

Jonathan Ernst / REUTERS The MAGA goon in charge of Donald Trump’s most ostentatious D.C. vanity project held secret talks with Vladimir Putin’s aides during a trip to Russia.

Rodney Mims Cook Jr., 70, who serves as chair of the U.S.

Commission of Fine Arts, put in an appearance at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum in June.

The event is widely known as the Russian tyrant’s answer to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and Cook had already, in 2018, become the first U.S. official ever to attend.

The fine arts chief sparked backlash at home after parading designs for Trump’s various pet projects at the Russian forum, preening that the U.S. president had “asked me to help him oversee” the new White House ballroom during a roundtable that included American actor Steven Seagal, a notorious Putin apologist.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at the time he was “not aware” that a U.S. delegation was attending the event.

But behind the scenes, Cook appears to have been working on a covert diplomatic mission that cuts directly to the heart of Rubio’s portfolio.

Sources with knowledge of the ballroom maestro’s meeting with Kremlin officials say the hope was that he might be able to help nudge along negotiations for an end to Putin’s war on Ukraine, the Financial Times reports .

They added that one of the people he spoke with, Anton Kobyakov, works as a senior aide to the Russian president.

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment on this story.

Cook declined to answer the FT’s questions about the talks, and particularly whether Trump had personally tasked him with them or whether there were plans for him to make a similar trip in future.

“There are many requests,” he said.

“We’re working on that now.” Whether or not the trip came at Trump’s direct request, the fine arts chief was eager to pass along the U.S. president’s best wishes during a question-and-answer session at the event with Putin himself.

He offered a “good hello from your friend, President Trump,” and told the Russian leader that, “We have a lot of ideas to talk about between our two capital cities in the next week.” Cook spent much of his time in St Petersburg talking up Russian culture and architecture, delivering a lengthy presentation on his own “dacha” in Atlanta, Georgia, and the aesthetic merits of Russian Orthodox churches.