General Discussion

Amid all the rest of the madness, the first lady of the evening held a press conference completely out of the blue yesterday, at which she robotically stumbled through a statement in which she claimed not to have ever had any relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. She attacked the very many stories linking her to Epstein (if there were a photo of myself while obviously eight miles high, posing for the cameras with Epstein and his procuress at a high-profile public event, I would make it a policy not to speak of the whole subject unless under subpoena, but whatever), denied she had been victimized by Epstein or that he had introduced her to her current husband, and, most curiously, called for public hearings for Epstein’s victims.

Nobody, including the best-connected propagandists inside the right wing scream machine, had any explanation for this development. Mrs. Trump wasn’t reacting to a new story, nor did it appear she was trying to get ahead of something that was about to break, although apparently there’s a book coming out in Merrie Olde Ynglande next week about the pervert formerly known as Prince Andrew, which contains a quote from Epstein in 2007, in which he said he had carnal knowledge of Melania before she ever met Donald Trump. But that seems like a weird thing to bring more attention to via this inexplicable stunt.

So, as Nice Guy Eddie might put it, why doesn’t somebody tells us what’s really going on here?

Which brings us to Amanda Ungaro, a Brazilian former model, and apparently a long-standing close friend of Melania and her family.

Amanda was married to wealthy Trump supporter, Paolo Zampolli, who owned a modeling agency known for bringing in young women from Eastern Europe with dubious visa arrangements. Zampolli is rumored to have secured the original visa for young Melania. He is currently on the new Kennedy Center Board of Trustees.