Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and Paolo Zampolli, a friend of President Donald Trump who serves as a State Department special envoy, have clashed for months over email, with up to 16 administration officials copied at times, according to messages obtained by Politico.
Landau, who directly supervised Zampolli until July, has pushed him to stick to cultural diplomacy. In a November 2025 email, he told Zampolli he had “no authority to engage in ANY issues of foreign policy outside of cultural diplomacy.” He also warned going beyond his legal authority could bring “disciplinary action, dismissal, and legal liability,” and wrote that he was informing the White House personnel office of what he called Zampolli’s insubordination. Politico couldn’t confirm he did. Zampolli denies any illegality.
Zampolli, a former modeling agent who introduced Trump to his current wife Melania, says his boss is the president, not Landau. His Instagram shows him meeting foreign energy and investment officials, which supports Landau’s claim that he’s strayed from cultural affairs. He argues his work, including a Boeing order from Uzbekistan, served Trump’s interests, and that Landau “has been attacking me from Day 1.”
The fight turned personal in June. Zampolli asked the department’s inspector general to investigate Landau and accused him of leaking to The New York Times a story about Zampolli’s custody dispute with his son’s mother. Landau called the charges “bizarre" and "defamatory” in an email and denied being the source. Zampolli says he still believes Landau was.
Earlier in February, after Zampolli met Serbian officials and the leader of Republika Srpska, Landau emailed Serbia’s foreign minister to say Zampolli couldn’t speak for the administration beyond cultural matters.
Landau didn’t respond to requests for comment. A State Department spokesperson said Landau oversees special envoys, and an administration official called the exchange “cartoonish and embarrassing.”