Melania’s Matchmaker Fired from Trump Job in MAGA Blood Feud

Paolo Zampolli/Instagram The modeling agent turned presidential envoy who claims he introduced Donald Trump to Melania has been fired from his official role amid a bitter internal feud.

Paolo Zampolli, a longtime ally of the President and First Lady was notified Thursday that his appointment as the administration’s special envoy for global partnerships had been terminated, a U.S. official told the Daily Beast.

The move comes after months-long, and increasingly public, bitter clash with Christopher Landau, the deputy secretary of Marco Rubio’s State Department, who had accused Zampolli of exceeding his authority.

The dispute, first detailed in emails obtained by Politico , was punctuated by threats of dismissal, allegations of misconduct and accusations of leaking damaging information to the press.

“I am hereby ordering you–once again–to immediately stop all work on ANY issues not directly tied to cultural diplomacy, including every one of the issues you mentioned in your recent emails,” Landau wrote to Zampolli in one email from Nov.

14, 2025.

Zampolli’s departure also follows a revelations in the The Daily Beast’s sister investigative Substack, PunchUp , which disclosed that he named in a lawsuit filed by tech entrepreneur Victoria Drake, 33, who alleged he drugged and sexually assaulted her at his Manhattan town house in October 2023.

Zampolli, 56, has emphatically denied the allegations, accusing Drake of making false statements and threatening to countersue her for $100 million.

He has also filed a criminal complaint against her in Rome, threatening defamation.

In a lengthy statement following his departure, Zampolli sought to portray the move as a natural return to the business world, rather than a dismissal.

“Special Envoys appointments are for one year.

President Trump extended it for more than six months,” he told the Daily Beast.

“Years ago, he told me I was too good for modeling and brought me into real estate.

Now he told me: ‘Why do you want to work in government when you can close all these deals?’ The President is always right.” The departure marks an extraordinary turn for a former modeling agent whose access to Trump helped turn personal connections into an official diplomatic role, but whose controversies ultimately threatened to overshadow it.