Kimberly Guilfoyle | The flashy diplomat

While the first (and last!) press briefing of Katie Zacharia on October 13 will go down in history as the reason for someone holding the shortest stint ever as White House Press Secretary, another reason why it was memorable was that it announced to the world that the Trump administration had asked Kimberly Guilfoyle, the U.S. Ambassador to Greece, to resign amid allegations of corruption and misconduct. Ms. Zacharia made the announcement and stated that the Ambassador “has been a wonderful asset to the team, and we wish her well”. Shortly after, Ms. Guilfoyle announced her resignation on X, stating that she “will forever be grateful to President Donald J. Trump” for the opportunity and addressed the allegations against her as “false”. She emphasised that she intended “to vigorously defend” her reputation and her years of public service.The resignation comes in the wake of a Wall Street Journal investigation, which claimed that Ms. Guilfoyle had asked Eric Deters, a top donor of the Trump administration and a former Congressional candidate, to help clear a massive American Express credit card bill of $1,00,000 (roughly ₹96 lakh) right before her confirmation hearing as Ambassador to Greece in 2025.In return, she offered to influence Trump administration officials in Mr. Deters’s favour as he faced personal tax and legal issues. Ms. Guilfoyle has denied these allegations and said that the money was payment that was owed to her for certain public speaking engagements. An earlier investigation by the same outlet had alleged that the Ambassador was misusing her position by promoting a Greek construction firm called Aktor, newly emergent in the gas industry and backed by a Greek energy company, across the European Balkan states in the name of the vertical energy corridor. The vertical energy corridor project intends to diversify Europe’s energy basket and wean off its dependence on cheap Russian gas. The project aims to replace Russian gas with U.S. liquefied natural gas via the TransBalkan Pipeline.The Pipeline, initially proposed to transport gas from Russia southwards towards Turkiye, has now been repurposed for reverse flow, wherein gas from the U.S., which will be imported to Greece, will flow northwards through the Balkan states to Ukraine. The corridor is among the U.S.’s major priorities in Europe, with Ms. Guilfoyle being one of its most prominent advocates. However, promoting one singular company as a government official is highly irregular, as it signals prioritising private interests over national priorities. The WSJ alleged that since November 2025, Aktor’s joint venture with the state-backed energy corporation has signed MoUs and commercial agreements with gas companies in Bulgaria, Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Romania.Other allegations against the former Ambassador involve accepting improper gifts and services from Aktor and other private parties, and threatening government officials by claiming that the U.S. was involved in the ouster of the Romanian government and could do the same in Greece if things did not go as Mr. Trump planned.Following such accusations, Democrats had called for a review into the conduct of the, now former, Greece Ambassador.Flamboyant riseMs. Guilfoyle is part of the new cohort of Trump officials who, taking a leaf out of his own book, combine politics, celebrity and business all in one. With 1.9 million followers on Instagram and a personal stylist always at the ready, Ms. Guilfoyle has been associated with multiple businesses, particularly in the beauty and wellness industry. She even founded a spirits branding company called American Dream Corp, which has now been dissolved.However, once upon a time, Ms. Guilfoyle was a practising lawyer and married to Gavin Newsom, who is now California Governor and, as per observers, one of the frontrunners to be the Democratic candidate for the 2028 presidential election. After her divorce from Mr. Newsom in 2006, the former prosecutor entered the media landscape by joining conservative TV news network Fox News, hosting their show, ‘The Five’.While her stint at Fox News established her as an up-and-coming conservative voice, her entry into the inner circle of Mr. Trump was accelerated when she started dating his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., in 2018, during the time of Mr. Trump’s first presidency. Through their relationship, Ms. Guilfoyle became one of Mr. Trump’s ardent loyalists. She was heavily involved in his fundraising campaign during the 2018 midterms, and later took on a more formal role as the chair of Mr. Trump finance committee for his second presidential bid in 2020. This obviously brought her in proximity to top GOP donors and sympathisers. After her relationship with the eldest Trump member fell through, Mr. Trump chose her as his envoy to Greece which was approved in July 2025.While the official narrative was that the former Ambassador had left Fox News to take a more proactive role in Trump’s electoral campaign, several media reports claimed that Ms. Guilfoyle was asked to resign by the news channel, following various sexual harassment complaints. The New Yorker alleged that Ms. Guilfoyle engaged in workplace impropriety by “displaying lewd pictures of male genitalia to colleagues”. The outlet alleged that the issue was solved by a hefty out-of-court settlement involving more than $4 million. Ms. Guilfoyle had, at the time, denied all allegations.While domestically, the scandal might not make a major dent, its ripples are being felt across diplomatic channels. The main Opposition party in Greece, PASOK, has called on the Greek government to clarify its position with respect to the allegations against the former U.S. Ambassador and has questioned whether they have sought an official explanation from the U.S.The road ahead for Ms. Guilfoyle does not look as flamboyant as it used to.