Former Brazilian model Amanda Ungaro41, came into the spotlight after a profile on X attributed to her threatened the first lady of United States, melania trumpand call the American president, donald trump“pedophile”. Before that, however, Ungaro was close to the couple for almost two decades, while she was married to Paolo Zampolli, 56, an ally of the republican.
Ungaro traveled on the sex offender’s plane Jeffrey Epstein in 2002, at the age of 17, to leave Paris and go to New York with his French agent, Jean-Luc Brunel. On this occasion, said in an interview with the newspaper O Globohe reportedly saw around 30 girls that he classified as “pretty and very young”, but “more like students than models”, with Epstein and his then partner, Ghislaine Maxwell.
The former model met Zampolli, then the owner of a modeling agency and aged 32, in a nightclub in Manhattan also in 2002, and married him after turning 19. The businessman, who was already a friend of the current US president, is often remembered for introducing the then Slovenian model Melania Knauss to Trump in 1998, at the Kit Kat Club, in Manhattan, during a party organized by the Italian.
Today, Zampolli is now the U.S. special envoy for global partnerships. This week, he published photos on X alongside the US Vice President, JD Vanceand of Viktor OrbánPrime Minister of Hungary. defeated at the polls this Sunday (12).
Over time, as shown by the American newspaper The New York Timesthe Italian and the Brazilian began their friendship with Trump and Melania, participating in New Year’s parties at the Mar-a-Lago resort and with Melania sending gifts to the couple’s son — now a 15-year-old teenager whose custody is being disputed in American courts.
“I’ve known you for 20 years”, Ungaro reportedly wrote in the X publications, addressing the first lady. “You knew I was detained by ICE. You were present in my life — every year on my son’s birthday, including sending the Secret Service and being the first to congratulate him, back in 2016. Clearly there was something wrong, but I’m not part of any evil mission involving children. So what did you do, Melania? You tried to involve me, but you failed — because I have character,” he accused.
“I will destroy your corrupt system, even if it is the last thing I do in my life. I will go to the end — I am not afraid. Maybe you should be afraid of what I know about who you are and who your husband is. I have nothing left to lose in my life. (…) Be careful with me”, wrote the account attributed to Ungaro, from which all posts were deleted after the accusations.
After separating from Zampolli in 2023, according to the NYT, Ungaro moved to Florida and married a Brazilian doctor. The new couple was arrested in June 2025 on charges of fraud, illegal drug use and other crimes following a local police investigation into the spa they worked at, which offered cosmetic procedures. They plead not guilty.
Ungaro’s new husband, a green card holder, was released on bail. The former model, as her most recent visa expired in 2019, remained in detention. Zampolli reportedly discovered that his ex-wife was imprisoned in Miami and contacted David Venturella, a senior official at the ICE (Service Immigration and Customs), to report that she was in the US illegally. Ungaro was deported in October 2025.
To the New York Times, Zampolli denied having asked ICE for any favor related to her and said she had spoken to Venturella to understand the case.
In a note to Sheet, the Department of Homeland Security, responsible for ICE, issued a statement denying any type of external interference in the deportation process.
“ICE arrested, detained, and deported Amanda Soares Ungaro-Felizardo because she is a criminal illegal alien who was defrauding Americans and putting people’s lives at risk by running an unlicensed medical clinic. Any suggestion that she was arrested and deported for political reasons or favors is false,” it reads.
“She was charged with organized fraud, two counts of grand larceny and illegal practice of medicine. Ungaro-Felizardo originally came to the United States on a visa that required her departure by November 3, 2019. She remained in the country illegally for nearly six years, violating our immigration laws. An immigration judge issued a final order of deportation on September 15, 2025. She was deported on October 1, 2025,” the Department of Homeland Security adds. Internal.
Despite Ungaro’s threats, a spokesperson for Melania Trump stated in a statement to the NYT that she “has no knowledge of or involvement in Zampolli and Ungaro’s personal matters” and “has had no contact or involvement” with ICE.
