Kimberly Guilfoyle spent years as one of Donald Trump's most prominent campaign surrogates and fundraisers.
Now her own conduct in Greece has Trump and Rubio ready to end her job instead.
A secret donor payment and a vanishing paper trail are now threatening to end the ambassadorship.
She Asked A Trump Donor To Pay Her $100,000 Credit Card Bill
The Wall Street Journal reported Guilfoyle urged Trump donor Eric Deters to pay off a $100,000 American Express bill shortly before her Senate confirmation hearing.
Messages reviewed by the Journal show she told him to send the money straight to American Express so there would be no record of where it came from, while offering to help him get face time with senior officials.
Deters says he never sent the money.
Guilfoyle's attorney, Jesse Binnall, disputes that the messages are real.
Trump and Rubio are "extremely pissed off," according to the Associated Press, with a decision on her future expected this week.
Rubio delivered remarks in Greece this week with the Acropolis as his backdrop and refused to address the allegations directly.
"You guys walk around thinking that because some source told you something and you reported it, it's the gospel. It's not the gospel," Rubio told reporters Thursday.
He had defended her performance one day earlier, calling her "a strong ambassador" – before the newest allegations piled on.
Guilfoyle Let A Greek Lobbyist Into Private Diplomatic Meetings
The Journal also reported Guilfoyle steered favor toward a Greek construction and energy company and brought its own registered lobbyist into private diplomatic meetings with senior officials.
She suggested to Greek officials at a dinner that Washington could undermine their government, citing political developments in Romania.
The State Department's Inspector General has now opened a separate investigation into how she treated embassy staff, her private travel, gifts she accepted, and her relationships with business interests.
Staffers say she demoted a member of her security detail who didn't answer a 4 a.m. request for ice while she vacationed in Mykonos.
Vice President JD Vance addressed it Friday, saying "if there was something bad that happened, then people have to suffer consequences for it."
Trump Fired Ambassador Gordon Sondland For This Exact Reason In 2020
This isn't Trump's first time cutting a loyalist loose the moment they became a bigger story than their job.
Gordon Sondland donated a million dollars to Trump's inauguration and got the EU ambassadorship in return – then Trump fired him within days of Sondland's own testimony turning him into a liability.
Trump didn't protect Sondland because Sondland had once been a megadonor – he fired him the moment keeping him around cost more than cutting him loose.
Guilfoyle was almost family to this president – engaged to Donald Trump Jr. for four years before the president nominated her to Athens the same month they split.
A federal official soliciting a secret cash payment and dangling access to senior officials in return is not a gray area – it is the exact conduct ethics law was written to stop.
Democrats who spent years defending their own fundraising scandals are suddenly very interested in ambassador ethics.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and Rep. Gregory Meeks are already circling, hoping to turn one ambassador's alleged greed into a story about the whole administration.
Moving fast and cutting her loose denies them that story.
Firing her isn't disloyalty. It's how "America First" keeps from becoming "access for sale."
Sources:
- Morgan Phillips and Stepheny Price, "Trump and Rubio Weigh Firing Kimberly Guilfoyle as Misconduct and Donor Bailout Allegations Mount," Fox News, October 11, 2026.
- Axios, "Trump Retaliates: Sondland Fired After Vindman," Axios, February 8, 2020.
