Paolo Zampolli, President Trump's special envoy for Global Partnerships, who visited Albania a few weeks ago, has been dismissed by the US State Department.
During his stay in our country, he held a series of meetings with religious leaders and important representatives of Albanian politics.
In September, he visited the Bektashi World Patriarchate, met with representatives of the Albanian majority and government, and also held meetings with opposition officials.
Zampolli has already been dismissed from his duties at the US State Department, saying that his status "as an envoy has been terminated and he is no longer a government employee."
When asked to comment on his dismissal, Zampolli said in a statement: "Serving [President Donald Trump] and the United States has been the greatest honor of my life. I am deeply grateful to President Trump, Secretary Rubio and the entire team. Now it's time for the next chapter - getting back to business, building relationships and closing deals," he added.
He said Trump had told him: "Why would you work in government when you could close all these deals?"
In a brief phone interview, he said there was absolutely no surprise that he was fired after the article.
Zampolli, a personal friend of Trump, was fired hours after POLITICO published an article on Thursday detailing a months-long email spat he had with Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau.
The two officials were in a fight over authority and the chain of command. Landau tried to keep Zampolli focused on his role as cultural envoy. The fight had become apparent not only because of personal attacks and accusations of defamation, but also because more than a dozen government officials were implicated in some of the email chains. Zampolli went public in two interviews with Politico, in which he attacked Landau, saying that he had "attacked me from day one" and that "everything I did, he tried to destroy."
In the 1990s, Zampolli had worked as a modeling agent. He represented Melania Trump and introduced her to Donald Trump. Zampolli was appointed to the board of the Kennedy Center during the first Trump administration, and the president named him the U.S. special representative for global partnerships in his second administration. In this role, Zampolli was tasked with representing the United States at global cultural events and forming cultural partnerships around the world.
But, according to emails obtained by POLITICO, Zampolli strayed far from his duties and met with foreign officials to discuss non-cultural matters.
In June, Zampolli accused Landau in emails of being the source of an article in The New York Times. Although Zampolli did not specify the article, the details correspond to an article reporting that Zampolli had asked Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deport Amanda Ungaro, the mother of his son, to Brazil so that he could take custody of him.
Zampolli denied having asked ICE for this. Landau denied having leaked information to the NYT. / Prepared by LAPSI.al
