Nasty Email Fight Between 2 Top Trump Appointees Spills Into The Open

Two top appointees of President Donald Trump, including the deputy secretary of State, have been embroiled in a monthslong fight that include accusations of leaks to the media and “bizarre” threats of defamation — all over emails that at times included more than a dozen administration officials.

The conflict centers on Paolo Zampolli, a personal friend of Trump’s and a special envoy at the State Department, and Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, according to the messages obtained by POLITICO. The emails stretch over almost a year and show Zampolli and Landau disagreeing over chains of command as Landau admonishes Zampolli to stick to his remit on cultural issues — but devolve into bitter arguments and unproven allegations.

The messages stand out not just for the personal vitriol but because upward of 16 administration officials were included at times on the email chains, with the dispute at least once spilling over into communications with a top foreign official, opening a window into delicate State Department back-channeling to allies about apparent violations of diplomatic protocol.

“I am hereby ordering you–once again–to immediately stop all work on ANY issues not directly tied to cultural diplomacy, including every one of the issues you mentioned in your recent emails,” Landau wrote to Zampolli in one email from Nov. 14, 2025.

“You have no authority to engage in ANY issues of foreign policy outside of cultural diplomacy, including all the issues you have named,” he wrote.

The next day, Landau emailed Zampolli, along with 15 other administration colleagues on the email chain, alleging that Zampolli had “no intention of staying in the cultural diplomacy lane that you were assigned and accepted, and that you fully intend to continue undertaking unauthorized and possibly unlawful ventures in commercial and economic matters.”

Landau didn’t exactly specify what he meant but said in another email to Zampolli that working on issues outside the scope of his legal authority “and in contravention of my express directives, may expose you to disciplinary action, dismissal, and legal liability.” Zampolli denied any such claims of potential illegality to POLITICO.

Landau wrote that Zampolli was “committed to a path of insubordination and hereby so inform the Presidential Personnel Office at the White House.” It was unclear if he did, in fact, notify the White House.

In two in-depth telephone interviews with POLITICO, one of which lasted more than 45 minutes, Zampolli continued his criticism of Landau, saying that he “has been attacking me from Day 1” and “everything I did, he tried to destroy it.”

“Definitely, he has a problem with me,” he said. “It’s out of control what he’s doing, and I serve at the pleasure of the president of the United States of America. The only person that can give me this job and can terminate me is the president of America.”

Landau, who until July directly oversaw Zampolli, didn’t respond to requests for comment. A State Department spokesperson said in a statement: “Deputy Secretary Landau is focused on ensuring the department works together to accomplish President Trump and Secretary Rubio’s foreign policy agendas. That includes oversight of special envoys.”

An administration official familiar with the email exchanges called the sniping “cartoonish and embarrassing.”

“The State Department is generally squeaky clean and professional and above it all, and this is a funny contrast,” said the official, who was granted anonymity to discuss the internal conflict.

Zampolli, a former modeling agent, represented Trump’s wife Melania Trump in New York City in the 1990s and introduced Melania to Trump at a party. Trump named Zampolli to the board of the Kennedy Center during his first administration and made Zampolli the U.S. special representative for global partnerships in the current administration. In one of the emails, Landau said that in the administration’s notification to Congress, Zampolli’s job’s “primary objective … is to represent the United States at global cultural events and to form global cultural partnerships.”

Landau served as the U.S. ambassador to Mexico in the first Trump administration and attended Harvard before becoming a Supreme Court clerk and partner at major law firms.

Even though he’s assigned to the State Department, Zampolli, who last year posted on social media that he’s “never had a boss in my life,” has publicly indicated that typical bureaucratic org charts do not apply to him.

“My number-one boss is the president of America,” Zampolli told the Financial Times. “I get my instructions from the White House, Commerce and the Department of War … anything to advance the America First agenda.”

But many of his Instagram posts also appear to provide backup to Landau’s assertions that Zampolli has gone far beyond his remit on cultural issues, including posts of meeting the energy minister of Romania, working on nuclear energy issues in Hungary, attending World Bank/International Monetary Fund meetings, meeting with the United Arab Emirates’ director of foreign direct investment and even discussing with an Argentine official how to send that country’s astronauts to space.

In the emails, Zampolli has defended his actions, writing in one that he disagreed that his “work has strayed from the President’s interests,” and cited his endeavors on a Boeing deal that brought jobs and was welcomed by Trump.

“He should be busy worried about the careers, about the polling,” Zampolli told POLITICO of Landau, not “one of the most loyal friends of the president.”

Zampolli said the conflict escalated up to Trump, who “has been unhappy from Day 1 on both sides, and he was very happy when supposedly we made the peace.” Zampolli said in July that Dan Scavino, the presidential personnel director, told him that instead of reporting to Landau, he would report to Sarah Rogers, the undersecretary of State for public diplomacy, who in turn reports to Landau. (A White House official said that the presidential personnel office has never changed who Zampolli reports to but did not offer further comment.)

In February, Zampolli and Landau butted heads after Zampolli went to the Balkans, which included a meeting with the head of the government of Republika Srpska, a pro-Russian, Serb-run part of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Two of Trump’s top political advisers, Chris LaCivita and James Blair, faced blowback after they traveled this fall to Republika Srpska to help advise the government’s reelection effort.

During his trip, Zampolli discussed financing solar and hydroelectric projects, according to a Feb. 10 government press release that called him “an extremely important and influential diplomat in many spheres of society.”

A couple of days later, Landau emailed Serbian Foreign Minister Marko Đurić to warn him against dealing with Zampolli on issues outside of his cultural remit. Landau noted that the State Department authorized Zampolli to travel to Belgrade after the Serbian government’s sports ministry invited him. But Landau noted he had just learned that Zampolli had made contact with Đurić, his ministry and other economic and political figures of the Serbian government.

“Such contacts were not authorized by us and I wanted you to understand that he has absolutely no authority to speak for our Administration beyond the realm of cultural affairs,” he wrote in an email that was forwarded to other administration officials. “I apologize if his visit caused any confusion.”

It’s unknown if or how Đurić responded and a spokesperson for the Serbian embassy didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Zampolli told POLITICO that he had heard from numerous foreign ministers that Landau didn’t want them to meet with him but said he didn’t know Landau had contacted Đurić.

In another email, Zampolli wrote that he was upset that Landau apparently blocked him from visiting Albania for a trip on sports diplomacy, writing, “Could you please explain your action before I speak to the President of the United States?”

Zampolli said that he believed the clash started after Landau disregarded his advice to mention fentanyl in a speech to the general assembly of the Organization of American States last year.

“He didn’t want to include fentanyl, and I said ‘No, this is very important,’” he said. “That’s the first clash we had on fentanyl, and since then, he made my life miserable.”

In one particularly heated exchange on June 19, Zampolli asked State Department Inspector General Arne Baker to investigate Landau, complaining that Landau was restricting his authority. Zampolli asked for a meeting with Baker to discuss his concerns about Landau. (A spokesperson for the inspector general declined to comment on whether any investigation was opened.)

The same day, Zampolli accused Landau of being the source for a New York Times story “that caused irrepable [sic] harm to the First Lady and to my family.” He doesn’t cite the Times story. But several months earlier in March, the Times reported that during a custody battle, Zampolli had asked Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deport Amanda Ungaro, the mother of Zampolli’s son, to Brazil, to help him gain custody of their teenage son. The story mentions Melania Trump in passing. Zampolli denied that he ever asked ICE to detain Ungaro.

Zampolli told Landau, along with 16 other officials on the email, that Landau committed a “breach of trust” but also a violation of State Department regulations against speaking to the media without getting the approval of the State Department’s press department.

“Unauthorized disclosures of the kind you made are expressly subject to disciplinary action, including referral to the Bureau of Diplomatic Security,” Zampolli wrote. “These are dismissable offenses.” He noted that he would prefer to resolve the matter quietly to avoid further damage to the administration and the department.

Landau did not respond well to Zampolli’s charge of leaking.

“Your threats and accusations are getting more and more bizarre, defamatory, and inappropriate for broad dissemination on email,” Landau replied. “I have no idea what you are talking about and categorically deny being the source of anything.” (In the interview, Zampolli said he still believes that Landau was the Times' source and didn’t believe Landau’s denial.)

He added that because he was Zampolli’s supervisor, he ordered him to stop sending “unhinged emails until I receive further directions from the White House on how to proceed.”

Asked whether Landau is correct in asserting that the administration would need to inform Congress about expanding his role, Zampolli said Landau doesn’t understand the process.

“Arts and culture? What do you want me to talk about arts and culture? You want me to do the ribbon cuttings at museums?” he said. Discussing the notification to Congress about how his role would be limited to cultural affairs, he said: “I didn’t even read the notification. I don’t know about the notification. … Why didn’t they change it?”

He said he would be happy to explain to Congress that his work had helped create many jobs.

“If Congress asks me what did you do, I sold Boeing. How many? Lots of plane. Which kind? Big plane,” he said, referring to how he had helped Boeing land a multibillion-dollar plane order from Uzbekistan earlier this year. “Maybe they should give me a statue.”

In July, Zampolli emailed Scavino a link to an Axios story about Landau headlined “How a top State Dept. official ‘went rogue’ over Machado’s Venezuela plans.”

“This is only a small example of how the Deputy Secretary continues to undermine the President’s and the Secretary agenda,” Zampolli wrote.

Zampolli said that he had tried to meet with Landau multiple times but the deputy secretary of State only met him twice.

“I just wanted to sit down with the guy,” he said, later adding, “he never had time to meet me. He’s a busy guy, good for him. Not that I really wanted to meet him.”