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Italian businessman
Donald and Melania Trump first crossed paths in New York during Fashion Week in 1998, according to multiple contemporary timelines and later accounts; the encounter is widely reported as taking place ...
began modeling as a teenager in and built an international portfolio in before relocating to in 1996; she worked in and , did editorial and runway work, and by the late 1990s was working in Manhattan ...
Multiple reputable accounts say Paolo Zampolli—then a New York modeling-agent and co‑owner of Metropolitan/ID Models—discovered Melania Knauss in the mid‑1990s, sponsored her move to the U.S., and int...
Reporting shows Melania Knauss (now Melania Trump) worked as a model in Europe and later for agencies tied to Paolo Zampolli and, briefly, Trump’s own agency; multiple outlets note Paolo Zampolli (ID ...
Melania Trump and Ghislaine Maxwell in Manhattan and Palm Beach in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and there are authenticated photographs of Melania with Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein at events; howeve...
Paolo Zampolli has consistently denied that Jeffrey Epstein introduced Donald and Melania Trump, saying Zampolli himself arranged their meeting at his Fashion Week party; multiple outlets reporting on...
Paolo Zampolli is an Italian-born, New York–based entrepreneur who began in fashion (founding ID Models), moved into real estate and international business, and has held diplomatic roles for Caribbean...
Paolo Zampolli figures in reporting about Jeffrey Epstein chiefly as a connector in New York’s modeling and social scene: multiple sources say Zampolli introduced Donald and Melania Trump at a 1998 Fa...
Melania Trump began modeling in Slovenia as a teenager after meeting photographer Stane Jerko and went on to work in fashion hubs across Europe and later in the United States; sources say her career i...
Reporting from 2016–2018 shows documents and contemporaneous accounting ledgers indicating Melania Trump was paid for 10 U.S. modeling jobs worth about $20,000 in the weeks before she obtained a work ...
Paolo Zampolli is consistently identified in multiple news accounts and by Mr. Trump as the person who , a claim Zampolli himself has confirmed in interviews and which has been repeated by several out...
Melania Trump built a transatlantic modeling résumé before her 2005 marriage, beginning work at 16, reaching the Look of the Year finals in 1992, and working through Paris and Milan agencies before mo...
Multiple July 2025 accounts present conflicting narratives about how Melania Trump and Jeffrey Epstein first met: Michael Wolff and several reporters claim Epstein knew Melania through modeling and so...
Paolo Zampolli has been linked in reporting to Jeffrey Epstein’s social circle and to controversies around his New York modeling agency, including allegations that the agency doubled as an escort oper...
Melania Trump worked with Metropolitan International Management (also referenced as Metropolitan Models) in , and her longtime association with Paolo Zampolli — a partner at that agency — is central t...
worked with several modeling agents and firms in the 1990s: European agencies early in her career, ’s New York operation (often described as ) which helped bring her to in 1996, and she was later list...
Melanija Knavs—known professionally as Melania Knauss and later Melania Trump—grew up in Sevnica, then part of Yugoslavia, left university after a year to pursue modeling, and built an international f...
The Trumps first crossed paths in New York in 1998 — most accounts place their meeting at a party during New York Fashion Week where Donald Trump, reportedly with another date, noticed model Melania K...
Melania Knauss (Melania Trump) has documented ties to the New York and Miami modeling world of the 1990s, and several recent investigative pieces raise questions about overlaps between that industry a...
Available sources say Melania Trump (born Melania Knauss) worked with European agencies in Paris and Milan before moving to New York in the mid‑1990s and that Paolo Zampolli (of Metropolitan Models) p...