Amanda Ungaro: From Dining With the Trumps to ICE Deportation

Amanda Ungaro, a 41-year-old Brazilian former model and former ambassador to the United Nations, was deported to Brazil in October 2025 after spending nearly half her life in the United States. Ungaro, who had previously maintained close social ties with Donald and Melania Trump, spent three months in a detention center before her expulsion.

The deportation occurred amidst a broader effort by the Trump administration to carry out large-scale removals following Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January 2025. According to reporting from El Pais, Ungaro attributes her removal from the country to maneuvers orchestrated by her former partner and the father of her child, businessman Paolo Zampolli.

Custody Dispute and ICE Detention

Ungaro and Zampolli were partners for approximately two decades before separating in 2023. The two are currently engaged in a bitter custody battle over their 16-year-old son, G. The New York Times reported that Zampolli specifically asked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain Ungaro.

Ungaro described her time in the detention center as hellish before she was ultimately expelled. She has since spoken publicly about the situation, stating that she had remained quiet for years but felt compelled to speak because Zampolli would not let me live in peace.

Ties to the Trump Family

Before her deportation, Ungaro and Zampolli were frequent guests of the Trump family at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach. They attended various high-profile events together, including a New Year’s Eve party in 2022, a Fourth of July celebration, and a children’s Easter party at the White House.

Paolo Zampolli, an Italian-American modeling agent, has known Donald Trump since the mid-1990s. Zampolli is recognized as the person who introduced Melania Trump to the future president in 1998. In the current administration, Zampolli serves as the special envoy for global partnerships, a role that reports suggest was created specifically for him.

Connection to Jeffrey Epstein

Investigation by The New York Times and other outlets revealed that Ungaro arrived in the United States around 2002 when she was 16 or 17 years old. She traveled from Paris to New York on the private plane of Jeffrey Epstein.

At the time of her arrival, Ungaro’s modeling agent was Jean-Luc Brunel. Brunel was later accused of procuring young women for Epstein and died in a French prison in 2022 while awaiting trial on charges of sexual assault and rape of minors. Ungaro has been cited as a survivor of the Epstein network.

Recent Public Conflict

In April 2026, Ungaro engaged in a public confrontation with Melania Trump on the social media platform X. This followed a surprise announcement by the First Lady in which she denied allegations regarding a relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and reports that she had flown on his plane.

Ungaro responded with a series of combative posts, claiming a relationship with the First Lady that spanned two decades. In these posts, she referenced her own detention by ICE and threatened legal action. Some of these posts garnered hundreds of thousands of views, drawing public attention to the connection between the Epstein network, the Trump family’s inner circle, and Ungaro’s deportation.