Paolo Zampolli is a minor but important figure in the ongoing Donald Trump saga. The Italian-born former modeling agent is best known for being the man who introduced Trump to Melania at a New York Fashion Week party in the late 1990s, but has quietly risen into positions of political power in both of Trump’s terms.
In 2020, Zampolli was appointed by Trump to the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees and, in January 2021, was briefly on the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition. In the second administration, Zampolli was at the State Department and dubbed himself the “Special Envoy to Italy,” though this was not an official title.
