In April 2026, after U.S. First Lady Melania Trump unexpectedly read a statement about her lack of affiliation to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a claim circulated online that Amanda Ungaro, a former model and United Nations ambassador, threatened the first lady in a series of X posts on April 9, 2026, prompting her to make her statement that day.
One X account wrote (archived):
For those still behind: Melania's Epstein presser yesterday ("I was not a participant") was almost certainly driven by Amanda Ungaro, an Epstein victim who had a child with Paolo Zampolli, who brought Melania to the US. Zampolli just got Ungaro deported; she's vowing revenge.
Claims about the connection between Ungaro's alleged threats and Trump's news conference also circulated on Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), Threads (archived), Bluesky (archived) and Reddit (archived). Snopes readers also contacted us about the claim.
It was unclear at the time of this writing whether there was any connection between posts attributed to Ungaro and Trump's April 9, 2026, news conference denying any affiliation with Epstein. The @AmandaUngaroA X account later deleted the posts in question. Snopes could not independently verify that the account belonged to Ungaro, and its posts did not directly connect Trump and Epstein.
It was also unclear whether Ungaro would pursue legal action against Melania Trump and President Donald Trump, as the since-deleted posts attributed to her threatened. An April 12 interview with Ungaro did not mention the since-deleted posts but instead focused on Ungaro's deportation from the U.S. and custody battle over her teenage son, whom she shares with the former modeling scout and long-time Trump associate Paolo Zampolli.
Given the many unknowns related to this claim, we have not given it a rating.
Snopes contacted the first lady's office to confirm Ungaro's claimed relationship to her and whether she had taken legal action against Melania Trump. We also contacted a lawyer for Ungaro to confirm that the account that posted and deleted threats of legal action belonged to her.
Trump statement followed 'Ungaro' X posts
In a series of posts early on April 9, the X account carrying Ungaro's name, while replying to posts by the first lady,
In another post, which Snopes could not view an archived version of, Ungaro allegedly wrote in reply to a post by Trump, "I will tear down your corrupt system, even if it's the last thing I do in my life. I will go all the way — I am not afraid."
The final archived post from the account that Snopes viewed began, "Melania, do not threaten me again," which appeared to suggest the threats attributed to Ungaro related to a previous exchange between her and Trump.
Later on April 9, after the @AmandaUngaroA X account published its posts, Trump made a short address at the White House, denying any affiliation with Epstein. During the statement, Trump said she was never friends or accomplices with Epstein or his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, nor did she ever participate in Epstein's alleged crimes, fly on his private plane or visit his island.
Twice during the roughly five-minute address, Trump referenced unnamed people who she said were lying about her affiliations with Epstein. She described people who allegedly spread "lies" and "smears" about her and Epstein as "devoid of ethical standards, humility, and respect" and "mean-spirited and politically motivated."
Snopes asked the first lady's office whether the unnamed people Trump mentioned in her news conference included Ungaro, or whether the posts on the @AmandaUngaroA X account had any connection to Trump's decision to make the statement. We await a reply.
Uncertainty over ties between Epstein, Ungaro, Trump
Many social media users were quick to assume that the @AmandaUngaroA X posts threatened to reveal a connection between the first lady and Epstein. In reality, the posts on the account were vague and did not mention Epstein or Maxwell by name.
One of the since-deleted posts appeared to suggest that Trump had attempted to involve Ungaro in illegal activities that involved children. The X account wrote: "Something was clearly wrong, but I am not part of any evil mission involving children. So what did you do, Melania? You tried to involve me, but you failed — because I have character."
That post did not mention Epstein by name.
It was unclear how much knowledge Ungaro might have about Epstein, his alleged crimes and any involvement by Trump. In an interview with the Brazilian newspaper O Globo in March 2026, Ungaro reportedly recalled that she met Epstein and flew on his private plane once in 2002, when she was 16 or 17. She said Maxwell (who was later sentenced to 20 years in prison) and around 30 girls "between 14 and 16 years old" were also on board the flight, according to O Globo.
Ungaro's modeling agent at the time was reportedly Jean-Luc Brunel, a longtime Epstein associate who died by suicide in a prison cell in France in 2022 while awaiting trial for rape of a minor over 15. French prosecutors reportedly first investigated Brunel due to his association with Epstein. O Globo reported that Brunel also was on the flight with Ungaro in 2002.
It was also unclear at the time of this writing how well Ungaro and Trump knew each other both in 2026 and while Epstein was still alive.
Ungaro's former partner Paolo Zampolli posted a picture (archived) on Instagram of himself and Ungaro with the Trumps in 2022. Zampolli reportedly recruited Melania Trump, then Melania Knauss, to model in the U.S. and introduced her and Donald Trump to each other in 1998, four years before Ungaro reportedly came to the U.S. Ungaro told O Globo she attended New Year's parties at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, after his 2016 presidential election win and sat at a table with the president and first lady.
Despite Zampolli's Instagram post that showed Melania Trump and Ungaro together in 2022, he reportedly told the Daily Beast in an interview published on April 10, 2026, that the first lady had not spoken to Ungaro in "maybe 10 years, maximum 13 years."
Given the above, it was unclear what, if anything, Ungaro might know specifically about Epstein and Melania Trump and whether any such knowledge could cause the damage to the Trumps' reputation that the posts attributed to her threatened.
We asked both the first lady's office and Ungaro's lawyer about the duration and nature of their friendship and await replies to our queries.
Ungaro interview did not cover X posts
Three days after Ungaro's alleged posts and Trump's address, the Spanish newspaper El País published an interview with Ungaro from Rio de Janeiro in her native Brazil. That interview mentioned Melania Trump by name only once and hardly referenced Ungaro and the first lady's alleged 20-year affiliation.
In the interview, Ungaro did not explicitly repeat the threats about legal action against the president and first lady that she allegedly posted on X, instead focusing on her custody battle with Zampolli and her 2025 deportation from the U.S.
In March 2026, The New York Times reported that Zampolli had used his connections within the Trump administration to ask Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to detain Ungaro, whom police in Florida arrested in June 2025 for allegedly carrying out allegedly unlicensed cosmetic procedures.
After Zampolli learned of this arrest, the Times reported, he contacted the former private prison executive and current ICE detention center contract manager David Venturella. Following that conversation, the Times reported, ICE agents detained Ungaro, whose legal status in the U.S. expired in 2019. According to the Times, Ungaro eventually asked an immigration judge to deport her to Brazil.
Ungaro did not say in her interview with El País whether she planned to return to the U.S., where it appeared both her son and Zampolli remained.