President Donald Trump, less than a month away from leaving office, has named a spate of loyalists to plum boards – placing longtime aide Hope Hicks get the group overseeing Fulbright scholars and putting the businessman who introduced him to the first lady on the Kennedy Center board.
Paulo Zampolli introduced Trump to the the former Melania Knauss when she was a Slovenian model at the Kit Kat club in 1998. He will not sit on the board of the Kennedy Center – nabbing a prestigious perk in Washington social circles (although indoor concerts are shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic).
The Italy-born Zampolli ran a modeling business in New York, and attended the couple s wedding at Mar-a-Lago. He also helped secure Melania her first visa (she is now a U.S. citizen, as are her two parents).