Questions about the reach of Paolo Zampolli's departure from the Trump administration extend well beyond any friction between him and Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau. At the centre of the removal of the Italian-American businessman — a close associate of the president who held the post of US Special Representative for Global Partnerships through 15 October — sits an unresolved question about who ultimately directs foreign policy: to what extent can a White House insider independently pursue diplomatic contacts, hold meetings with officials of other governments, and advance international agreements while operating outside the State Department's channels?
A broadcaster pieced together the chain of events leading to his removal by tracing an exchange of emails that documented friction between Zampolli and Landau over several months. A review of the former representative's overseas conduct points to a conflict rooted in more than a straightforward chain-of-command dispute.
Written correspondence attributed to Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau has brought into view a tension between competing claims over diplomatic authority and the direction of economic programmes. Disputes between Landau and Zampolli centred on foreign policy moves and commercial and economic activities that Landau viewed as falling outside Zampolli's authorised scope, with the friction reaching a point where potential disciplinary measures and removal from the post were put on the table.
Email records, as reported by two separate news outlets, show that by 14 November 2025, the deputy secretary of state had directed Zampolli to halt any work falling outside the boundaries of cultural diplomacy. Distributed to 15 other officials, the communication pointed to a tension embedded within the institution itself. Facing those allegations, Zampolli pushed back by pointing to his personal ties with Trump.
On 15 October, within hours of a TASS interview touching on relations with Moscow, the scheduled appointment did not go ahead. On that same date, TASS — a news outlet operating under Russian state control — published an extended profile of Zampolli, portraying him as someone holding a special representative position attached to the US presidency.
Ties spanning Russia, Serbia, Republika Srpska, and Central Asia had brought Zampolli into a web of political and economic connections that, by some accounts, stretched well past what his cultural role would ordinarily have encompassed. Contacts spanning Russia's sports ministry and Republika Srpska — where Milorad Dodik held influence — formed part of a broader professional network the US special representative had assembled, one that reached further than cultural diplomacy alone.
A meeting between Zampolli and Russian Sports Minister Mikhail Degtyarev had taken place on 1 September in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek. Speaking to TASS, he noted that the pair had touched on the 2028 Olympics along with avenues for athletic collaboration between their two nations. A readiness to make the trip to Moscow was put forward, on the condition that tangible goals had been set out in advance and that backing from the relevant institutional bodies was in place.
Nominally framed around athletic cooperation between the United States and Russia, the talks ranged far wider than any agenda of organising competitions. Pathways for reviving political dialogue through sport formed the heart of Zampolli's pitch, which laid out a framework for bilateral engagement — covering hockey fixtures, football contests, athlete and coaching exchanges, and a shared coordination body — between Washington and Moscow.
Backing a phased return of Russian athletes to world-level competition, Zampolli pointed to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics as a milestone for broader involvement. Viewing the reinstatement of Russia's flag and anthem at the Paralympic Games in Italy as a noteworthy development, he expressed support for the move. No formal declaration from the administration addressed the question of whether Russia would be permitted to compete again under its own flag. Zampolli put forward those remarks in an interview, and neither US authorities nor Olympic governing bodies had taken any corresponding action to back them up.
A gathering in Banja Luka between Zampolli and Milorad Dodik — who heads the SNSD party and previously held the presidency of the Serb entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina — was documented by the Republika Srpska state news outlet SRNA on 10 February 2026. Framing the trip to Washington as a backdrop, Dodik portrayed the encounter as a chance to deepen ties with influential global actors, pointing to Zampolli's personal connection with Trump as part of that rationale.
Republika Srpska functions as one of the two governing entities within the constitutional framework of Bosnia and Herzegovina, rather than a sovereign nation in its own right. Dodik's push for expanded autonomy within the Serb entity, together with his sustained friction against Bosnia's central institutions and a broader set of political manoeuvres, has drawn attention well beyond the country's borders for some time.
Landau moved to define the boundaries of Zampolli's role, communicating directly to Serbian officials the point at which that authority no longer applied. Questions about the legitimacy of certain commercial activities attributed to Zampolli were also put forward by Landau. Zampolli's own account of his contributions included a role in brokering the sale of 22 Boeing aircraft to Uzbekistan Airways. What Landau put forward as allegations falls short of establishing that any unlawful act took place.
No determination has yet been reached on whether Trump personally authorised those activities, whether the White House chose to overlook them, or whether certain officials acted on their own beyond the boundaries the State Department considered appropriate.
The termination of Zampolli's appointment was relayed by a White House official, who noted that the businessman had left government service. On X, Zampolli shared a post acknowledging that Trump had extended his appointment by over six months, and expressing gratitude toward the president, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and the broader administration. Zampolli told a news outlet that Trump reached out to him by phone and urged him to get back into business.
