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).
Ezra Cohen appointed Public Interest Declassification Board Chair
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Trump selects Hicks, Bondi, Grenell and other allies for positions
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POLITICO
The president has been rewarding his allies with such positions in recent weeks.
The president named long-time confidant Hope Hicks to be a member of the board overseeing the prestigious Fulbright scholarship. | AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
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President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced plans to appoint another slate of top allies to various government boards, yet another sign that his time in office is winding to a close.
The president named Hope Hicks to be a member of the board overseeing the prestigious Fulbright scholarship. Hicks has long been one of Trump’s closest confidants outside of members of his own family and returned to the White House this year after leaving earlier in his presidency. Her Covid-19 diagnosis this fall touched off a deluge of positive tests throughout Trump’s orbit, including the president himself.