A former modeling agent who has been a trusted figure around Donald and Melania Trump for decades, Paolo Zampolli, is now at the center of a report claiming he reached out to a senior ICE official after his Brazilian ex, Amanda Ungaro, was arrested in Miami in June 2025, coincidentally while the two were in a custody battle over their teenage son.
The actual arrest was for charges of fraud and practicing medicine without a license at a med spa she ran with her husband — then ICE came for her. Zampolli allegedly called a senior ICE official to make sure she’d be taken into custody the moment she walked out, since her visa expired back in 2019.
She had been renewing her visa for almost 20 years before it expired. Interestingly enough, Ungaro arrived in the U.S. in 2002 at age 17 on Jeffrey Epstein’s private plane.
Epstein victim Amanda Ungaro met Melania Trump for the first time when she was 18 years old on Trump’s plane traveling from Miami to New York City.
She was dating Paolo Zampolli, age 33 at the time, who is now Trump’s Special Representative for Global Partnerships https://t.co/OXKn2kKXbd pic.twitter.com/uDX1f4YR7z
— grizzy (@Furbeti) February 26, 2026
According to The New York Times, Zampolli has admitted he made the call to the agency about his ex. What he strongly denies is that he was trying to get her held so the situation would tilt in his favor.
Once that report started making the rounds, voices from across social media wasted no time weighing in, most believing that he used his power to get her detained.
“And I’m sure the cult will find nothing wrong with this,” one People magazine reader wrote.
One Threads user wrote, “This used to be a crime that saw people loose their jobs and serve time. Now is your typical Saturday,” turning the allegations into a broader complaint about power and accountability.
According to the report, Zampolli contacted high-ranking official David Venturella after learning Ungaro had been taken into custody.
The claim is that he raised questions about her immigration status and whether she could be transferred to ICE detention while their custody case was ongoing. Zampolli, for his part, said he was only trying to understand what her arrest meant and what the process looked like.
Still, the details did little to calm the online reaction.
“It’s impossible to wrap a normal thinking brain around!!” another Threads user declared.
Another labeled the situation “utterly disgraceful and diabolical.”
Someone else tried to connect it to a bigger pattern, writing, “This isn’t the first time I heard ice called on an ex in regards to custody battle. Levits brother did it too.”
Karoline Leavitt’s family faced similar scrutiny after her brother Michael’s former partner, a Brazilian immigrant and mother of his child, was taken into ICE custody during their custody dispute. The case raised questions about influence, immigration status, and how personal conflicts can spill into public view, according to WBUR.
Whether people saw both cases as personal, political, or both, the response was intense.
Ungaro was sent back to Brazil. She reportedly said it was devastating to learn that outside influence may have touched her case.
What makes Zampolli especially interesting in Trump-world is that he is not just another name floating around the orbit. He is the man widely credited with introducing Trump to Melania in the late 1990s, back when he was working in the modeling business and helping bring her to the United States. Their friendship lasted long after that first introduction.
Over the years, the confidant stayed close, moved through Trump’s social and business circles, and now serves in an administration role tied to global partnerships.
Like Ungaro, Melania is also an immigrant, but their paths in America turned out very differently. The first lady secured citizenship, while Ungaro, according to the report, remained on temporary visas, expecting marriage to her child’s father would eventually make her status permanent. Now, despite being mentioned in the Epstein files as a teenager, she has been deported.
Amanda Ungaro, former UN ambassador and Paolo Zampolli’s ex-wife was deported by the Trump administration last year.
Why is this significant?
Paolo Zampolli serves as the United States Special Representative for Global Partnerships, and they were going through a nasty custody… https://t.co/keS4FBdJy0 pic.twitter.com/BkJyVYb2Io
— Dittie (@DittiePE) January 21, 2026
The Trump marriage has long drawn public curiosity, with critics questioning whether the relationship has always been more strategic than romantic.
That contrast is what gives this story its edge. It is not only about custody or immigration rules, but about how personal choices can shape a family’s future — and why the Brazilian ex should have taken a page from Melania’s book and locked down citizenship first.
Leave a Reply