After the brutal thumping MAGA took across the nation earlier this week, the White House is probably not a particularly fun place to be. Donald Trump himself was said to be “furious” (per The Daily Beast) with Republicans searching for a scapegoat they can pin the debacle on.
Now, per a new story in The Wall Street Journal titled “How Trump Lost the Midterms“, there’s a little bit of inside gossip that hints at tensions between Trump, Melania Trump, and White House deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security advisor Stephen Miller.
The WSJ claims that Melania became deeply unhappy after people she knew personally were detained and deported by ICE. The article reports White House sources saying she took her concerns directly to her husband, who promptly began telling his aides that he thought Miller had “gone too far” or “pushed too far.”
Which friends could they mean?
The Daily Beast named former model Amanda Ungaro as someone who was part of Melania’s inner circle and has now been targeted by ICE. Ungaro’s case is particularly controversial as she’s the former partner of former State Department envoy Paulo Zampolli, who’s said to have introduced Donald to Melania at a New York fashion week party in the late 90s.
Ungaro was brought to New York by Jeffrey Epstein, had a successful modelling career, and went on to have a child with Zampolli. It was in the midst of a custody battle over this child, now a teenager, that Ungaro was arrested by ICE and deported to Brazil. She alleges that this happened at the direction of Zampolli (per Miami Herald), who was recently removed from his position.
Raw Story claims that before the midterms, Trump dismissed repeated warnings from aides and advisors that the Republican Party was cruising for a miserable night, with voters deeply unhappy about the Iran war, the consequential cost-of-living crisis, and ‘culture war’ campaigning that didn’t address voters’ kitchen table concerns.
But, apparently, he listened to Melania. White House sources (per WSJ) say her warning registered with him and he took her side on this particular issue, pushing back against Miller and ICE. So what does this mean in practical terms? Well, there doesn’t appear to be any official softening of Trump’s position on immigrants and there’s no suggestion that ICE’s powers are to be curbed. However, if Miller finds himself out of a job soon, we may know why.
Published: Nov 6, 2026 10:00 am