Paolo Zampolli has arrived in Tirana as President Trump's envoy for Global Partnerships, but it must be said that he is not your typical American diplomat.
His career neither began in embassy offices nor did he climb the ladder of the State Department.
The path that has brought him to Tirana today as Donald Trump's special envoy passes through the family business in Milan, fashion in New York, the real estate market, the United Nations and, above all, a decades-long friendship with the American President.
Zampolli, the man who introduced Donald to Melania
Born in Milan in 1970, Zampolli first became involved in the family business. His father, Giovanni, had founded Harbert, a company that distributed Hasbro products in Italy, including brands related to Star Wars and Marvel.
The death of his father in a skiing accident when Zampolli was just 18 years old changed the course of his life. He left his studies and then the family business, and in the mid-1990s entered the international fashion industry.
In 1994, while organizing the Look of the Year competition in Ibiza, she met John Casablancas, the founder of Elite Model Management. Casablancas encouraged her to move to New York.
There Zampolli founded ID Models and began building what would later become perhaps his most important asset: a network of contacts among business, celebrities, billionaires, and politics.
Renowned international fashion names passed through his agency, and it was this world that would ultimately connect him with Donald Trump.
Zampolli is known as the man who introduced Trump to Melania Knauss, the Slovenian model who would later become Melania Trump. The meeting took place at a New York Fashion Week party in the late 1990s.
But the relationship between Zampolli and Trump did not remain simply a social acquaintance.
Career in the shadow of Donald Trump
In 2004, at Trump's suggestion, Zampolli left the fashion industry and moved into real estate. He worked for several years as the head of international development for the Trump Organization, before continuing his activity in the real estate market.
At the same time, he also began to build a diplomatic profile.
Zampolli took on diplomatic duties at the United Nations as a representative of the Commonwealth of Dominica, a small Caribbean island nation. He has also been involved in international initiatives to protect the oceans.
What makes his profile even more unusual is his ability to survive politically across partisan divides in Washington. In 2021, the Joe Biden administration appointed him to the President's Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition.
But Donald Trump's return to the White House brought Zampolli much closer to the center of power.
In March 2025, Trump appointed him as the 4th Special Presidential Envoy for Global Partnerships.
This is also the function with which he comes to Tirana, a hybrid profile: politics, diplomacy, business and investment.
In a way, it is a typical product of Trump's diplomacy, where personal relationships and people who enjoy the President's trust can take on a weight that is not explained solely by the place they occupy in the traditional diplomatic hierarchy.
And Zampolli has one thing that is very valuable in Trump's Washington: personal access.
His relationship with Trump is much older than the presidential term and much older than the position he holds today.
But for Tirana, Zampolli's personal history is less important than the function he holds today. He is expected to have contacts with representatives of the Albanian government and politics, adding to the curiosity; what message does an old friend of the President of the United States bring with him?
