The Spy at the First Lady's Side
A Russian-cultivated fixer has Melania Trump's ear. He texts her, travels with the Vice President, and spent thirty years working the Russians. Now he works for the US with no security clearance.
Paolo Zampolli was holding court in early April 2013 at his birthday party at the boisterous Provocateur nightclub in Manhattan's swishy Meatpacking District. Zampolli feted guests that spanned the world of international diplomacy and modelling, yet none was more important to the modeling agent turned international diplomat than Vitaly Churkin.
Russia's ambassador to the United Nations raised a toast. "I've been wondering, and it's been something of a mystery to me until today. Why would an Italian guy care about tigers so much?" Vitaly Churkin smiled at what was clearly an inside joke. "Russia is also rich in so many things. Tigers is one treasure we're trying to cherish and trying to preserve. So I highly appreciate Paolo's initiative."
Paolo's initiative promoting the conservation efforts of tigers was a big deal at the UN that year. It was also Vladimir Putin's pet preservation cause, and the Russian ambassador to the UN made sure the signal was heard loud and clear at the party. Paolo was one of theirs.
To be clear, Paolo Zampolli is not a Russian diplomat, nor Russian — he's Italian by birth and has spent most of his adult life in the United States, where he raised a family, but he functions within the UN as an ambassador for the tiny Caribbean island of Dominica — a separate country from the larger, better-known Dominican Republic. It's now an open secret in diplomatic circles that smaller Caribbean nations raised significant revenue by selling their diplomatic positions and passports to the highest bidder.
But despite his lack of Russian-ness, his diplomatic track record seems to fall in line with Russian national interest more often than not.
The previous September, Zampolli announced to a Russian diplomat, Dmitry Maksimychev, that the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had agreed to a tiger parade at the United Nations, and asked Moscow to send over materials — "Please have Capital send me all the information so we can organize" — and closed with a request that stands out a decade later: "Please be so kind to inform Ambassador Churkin and Ambassador Kislyak."
Sergey Kislyak was Russia's ambassador to Washington. He had no role at the UN. Four years later his meetings with Trump campaign figures would end a national security adviser's career and force an attorney general's recusal.
Back at the birthday party, models including Amanda Ungaro, the then Brazilian-born partner of Zampolli, wished him a happy birthday, as did Vuk Jeremic, the Serbian president of the UN General Assembly, whose election to that post, diplomats told Reuters, Russia had engineered.
"I just wanna say how much I appreciate Paolo's work and Paolo's friendship," Jeremic said. "This guy is going to outlast not only me in the United Nations, but most of the people who are present here from the East River." Also present was Francis Lorenzo, the Dominican Republic's deputy UN ambassador, who three years later would plead guilty to bribery in the scheme that bought and sold the president of the General Assembly.
Jeremic was right. Zampolli outlasted them all — and today he is inside the United States government. He is the Special Envoy for Global Partnerships, appointed by President Donald Trump on March 11, 2025. It's a role which grants him diplomatic immunity and doesn't require Senate approval, yet carries the rank of ambassador. In April 2026 he landed in Budapest alongside Vice President JD Vance for talks on ending the Iranian war. He is the man who, in the Associated Press's words, "recruited Mrs. Trump to come to the U.S." — now enjoying the benefits of his long-term friendship with Melania and Donald Trump. Melania and Paolo text each other all the time, Ungaro said.
The friendship between Zampolli and Melania Trump is long and binding, and remains very close to this day. When Zampolli recently used his Trump position to get Ungaro arrested and deported, the First Lady knew about it and apparently still did nothing, despite their years of friendship.
There is no precedent for it in the record of the First Family. A foreign-cultivated fixer with a two-decade Kremlin-orbit paper trail texts the First Lady of the United States, and no one in the United States government has explained who vetted him, why they initially rejected him as an ambassador, before settling on a new role that required no Senate and no clearance at all.
Last month, Ungaro, now back in Brazil, began speaking out about her treatment at ICE and her deportation, which she claims was all done on Zampolli's instructions. In June 2025, after Zampolli called a senior ICE official named David Venturella, Ungaro was arrested and deported to Brazil; the New York Times reported her case had been flagged as important to "someone close to the White House."
Ungaro has known Melania Trump since she was 18. She and Zampolli were regularly at the Trumps' dinner table, and Melania always sent Amanda and Paolo's son gifts on his birthday. Amanda has now released another set of emails to Narativ that she says Paolo had sent to her, and what they reveal about Zampolli and his Russian ties is staggering. Narativ vetted the documents against the Epstein files, court records and contemporaneous reporting.
Ungaro is a woman on a mission. She is a source with a war to win — a custody fight, a deportation, and a husband who until recently was still facing criminal charges.
And that's what makes this a national security crisis and not an immigration case, nor a custody battle. Why was Ungaro really deported, and on whose orders? Did the First Lady know, and when did she know, and why did she do nothing to help a friend? Was it to cover up Zampolli's past? After all, it was Melania who first proposed Zampolli as an ambassador, and when he was rejected for failing his security clearance, the First Lady insisted the president give him the newly minted title of Ambassador for Global Partnerships.
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