US Second Lady Usha Vance, Paolo Zampolli and Vice President JD Vance upon their arrival in Budapest on April 7. The US and Hungary reached an energy deal during the trip
Paolo Zampolli has a catchy slogan: "20 billion dollars in 20 minutes."
It's a motto for the man who has said he introduced Melania and Donald Trump and who flies between European and Middle Eastern capitals, sometimes alongside senior American officials, sometimes alongside runway models.
"My number one boss is the president of America," Zampolli told the Financial Times.
I take direction from the White House, the Department of Commerce, and the Department of War… everything to advance the ‘America First’ agenda.”
Last week, in his official capacity as a U.S. special envoy, Zampolli was with Vice President JD Vance in Hungary, where a deal was reached to sell nuclear power. A few months earlier, he was in Uzbekistan promoting Boeing aircraft.
“I have actually become the number two Boeing salesman in the world, right after the president… for free, but it’s true,” he said, with a mixture of pride and theatrical astonishment.
Boeing has not confirmed this description of his role. But the phrase is typical of Zampolli. It reflects a figure from an era where money-making and deal-making often take on exaggerated forms.
Zampolli's evolution from New York socialite and former modeling agent to Trump's global envoy offers a window into how the American president wields his transactional power. Loyalists are used as intermediaries in a system where access, relationships, and deals are often intertwined.
Recent reports suggest that Zampolli may have used his connections to the White House to oust his former partner Amanda Ungaro.
Zampolli's proximity to power has drawn attention. The New York Times recently reported that he had sought help from U.S. immigration authorities in a dispute with his former partner, Amanda Ungaro, a Brazilian citizen who was later deported. The report suggests that Zampolli may have used his White House connections to influence her case, with whom he has a custody dispute over their child.
He dismissed this as inaccurate and politically motivated, insisting that he had not asked for favors, but only clarification on the matter.
But the recent uproar hasn't stopped Zampolli from building a role and a business model around facilitating deals for Trump's America.
In his account, the trip to Uzbekistan encapsulates his approach. Officials there had initially proposed a $4 billion order for Boeing. He balked. "I said, 'Are you crazy? I'm not calling my boss for a ridiculous $6 billion deal... I want $50 billion.'"
Within hours, according to Zampolli, the parties agreed to a $20 billion deal. “20 billion in 20 minutes,” he repeated in a thick Italian accent.
“I’ve worked on many more… small deals that I’m embarrassed to mention because they’re under a billion.”
The reality is different. Trump announced in September that Uzbekistan Airways had agreed to buy 22 planes for more than $8 billion, with the option to buy more. Later, Trump said that Uzbekistan would invest “over $100 billion” in American industry.
“The President single-handedly closed the deal with Uzbekistan Airways for 22 Dreamliner aircraft during his September 5, 2025 phone call with President Shavkat Mirziyoyev,” a State Department official told the FT.
The President has built a strong team dedicated to implementing his vision of 'America First' and advancing our national interests."
Zampolli and Uzbekistan's President Shavkat Mirziyoyev at a meeting in September
Zampolli also promoted a recent deal to open a "Donald J Trump Park" in Romania's capital, Bucharest, to celebrate the 250th anniversary of US independence.
Like the American president, whose style he imitates, Zampolli is not fond of details and underestimates the mechanisms of his agreements.
"I bring people together, I create global partnerships. Then come the details... that's where the secretaries come in."
But the logic of his diplomacy is simpler and more revealing.
"Every time people see me, they want something. They want access to the president," he said.
"I tell them: buy Boeing. If you want to make the president happy, buy Boeing. It's the simplest thing in the world."
Boeing declined to comment. The White House referred a request for comment to the State Department.
Zampolli doesn't hide his role. Much of his work as an envoy is documented on his Instagram, a continuous "reel" of meetings, handshakes, and deals.
Long before he was making deals on behalf of Washington, Zampolli was part of New York's nightlife and fashion scene in the late 1990s — a confident figure, often with limited English.
Donald and Melania Trump with Zampolli at Mar-a-Lago in 2016. Zampolli has said he introduced them at a fashion week party in 1998.
A Vanity Fair profile in October 2001 described him with a mixture of irony and wonder at his influence on the city's social and fashion world.
“Zampolli's presence on 'Page Six,' the gossip column of the New York Post — where he is always described as a 'model mogul' — is surpassed only by Paris Hilton,” Vanity Fair wrote in a nearly 3,000-word profile titled "Ze-e Ee-en credible Paolo!", an ironic and not entirely politically correct portrait.
At that time, Zampolli — a scion of an Italian family with roots in the steel and railroad industries, who claims distant ties to the Agnelli dynasty and even to a pope — made the deal that would define his life. He has said that in 1998 he introduced a young Slovenian model, Melania Knauss, to Trump at a party during fashion week.
Zampolli's role in the history of the first couple came into focus again, after Melania Trump held a surprise press conference where she denied any connection to Jeffrey Epstein and said that he had played no role in her acquaintance with her husband.
Shortly after, Ungaro, Zampolli's former partner, implied on X that Melania Trump had an affair with Epstein, before deleting the posts.
Melania Trump held a surprise press conference in which she denied any connection to child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Zampolli, in his characteristic way, dismissed everything.
“And what does Jeffrey Epstein say about me? ‘He’s a problem, stay away.’ And so it was, he hated me. It’s not like Epstein’s files say, ‘If you want prostitutes, call Paolo,’ or ‘Paolo is on the island.’ No, he never invited me to the island.”
In a Trump administration that values loyalty and results over process, Zampolli represents a kind of parallel diplomacy: informal, personality-driven, and focused solely on deals.
The effect is the disappearance of the boundaries that have long shaped American foreign policy: between state-building and sales, public function and private networks, diplomacy and business.
For Zampolli, there is no contradiction. The slogan remains the same, whether in a ministry in Budapest or a Central Asian capital: big numbers, short deadlines and a clear message about how you can get what you want.
“Buy American goods,” he says.
If this doesn't work: “20 billion in 20 minutes.”
