U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump depart for the State of the Union Address at the U.S. Capitol from the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 24, 2026. REUTERS/Tom Brenner
President Donald Trump may fear his own wife, First Lady Melania Trump, as she navigates the fallout of her longtime friendship with the late Jeffrey Epstein.
“Why had the presser been called?” wrote The Independent’s Sarah Beth Spraggins about the first lady’s surprising April 9th press conference. “There have been growing rumors that Paolo Zampolli – the modeling agent Melania credits with encouraging her to move to the United States – may have used his ties to the Trumps to have his ex-partner Amanda Ungaro deported.”
If true, this detail would fill in a lot of blanks in a life that has remained mysterious. Melania Trump is widely known to spend most of her time in New York City despite listing her legal residence as Palm Beach, Florida, and she has deliberately avoided providing details about her childhood or career. Even her documentary “Melania,” released earlier this year (and directed by Epstein associate Brett Ratner), avoided any of those subjects.
“She is the First Lady of the United States and nobody knows anything about her,” Michael Wolff, the journalist engaged in a lawsuit with Melania Trump that may have inspired the April 9th press conference, told The Independent. He also expressed doubt that Melania Trump has any empathy for Epstein’s victims.
“Zero, zero! My God!” Wolff replied. “I mean, you know, she has never shown an ounce of empathy toward anyone, ever. That is a cold, calculating, hollow person. That is the portrait.”
At the same time, because of the increasing attention on the Epstein files (and her litigation against those who attempt to shed light on her involvement with him), Melania Trump clearly feels a need to protect herself. With that in mind, Spraggins asked Wolff if the president is afraid of his own first lady.
“Well, I would be,” Wolff replied. “So who knows what he is. But I certainly would be. I think that she’s a wild card, if not, to switch metaphors, a loose cannon.”
Melania Trump is accused of using her influence with the White House to help Zampolli get Ungaro deported to Brazil so he could prevail in a custody dispute. As former President George W. Bush aide Steve Schmidt recently pointed out, “Melania claims it was Zampolli who introduced her to her soulmate at the Kit Kat Klub in Manhattan in 1998. That’s the story at least. Ungaro came to the United States via airplane at age 16 or 17 from Brazil. She arrived via private jet.”
In addition to the Ungaro theory, Wolff speculated at the time of the press conference that the first lady was reacting to an upcoming book linking the Trumps to the former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor by historian Andrew Lownie.
“A new book was published yesterday in the US and UK, entitled ‘The Rise and Fall of The House of York,’” Wolff posted on X. “It's by a British journalist by the name of Andrew Lownie, and it's about the life of Prince Andrew. But it is also about his connection to Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, and Melania Trump.”
Wolff added, “In fact, it contains a passage in which Epstein is quoted — apparently from a 2007 interview — where he says that he had sex with Melania a full year before Donald Trump commenced his relationship with her.”
In addition to his wife’s links to Epstein, Trump himself was close friends with Epstein from the 1980s through the 2000s, when their friendship fell apart due to an unsuccessful business deal.