President Donald Trump dismissed Kimberly Guilfoyle, who has deep ties to California, as U.S. ambassador to Greece after a series of reports raised questions about her conduct on the job.
The White House said Guilfoyle had been asked to resign after nearly a week of speculation that Guilfoyle, the former fiancée of Trump son Don Jr., would be let go.
“We have asked Ambassador Guilfoyle to resign. She has been a wonderful asset to the team, and we wish her well," White House press secretary Katie Zacharia said during her first briefing with the media.
Trump campaign donor Eric Deters says Guilfoyle pushed him to pay off her $100,000 American Express bill while she was preparing for her Senate confirmation hearing last year. Guilfoyle is also said
to have offered to make a businessman "a lot of f---ing money" during a conversation, in which she touted her connections to the Trump family earlier this year, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The Wall Street Journal reported both alleged incidents and said a lawyer for Guilfoyle disputed the authenticity of the messages she's said to have sent to Deters, a former congressional candidate.
Who is Kimberly Guilfoyle?
Before her proximity to the Trump administration through her role as ambassador and her failed engagement to Donald Trump Jr., Guilfoyle had deep ties to California and San Francisco politics.
Guilfoyle was born and raised in San Francisco and studied at UC Davis and the University of San Francisco, according to the Sacramento Bee.
She began working as an attorney for the San Francisco District Attorney's Office in 1994 and met Gavin Newsom while dating Billy Getty, Newsom's former business partner.
She was fired in 1996, then returned to the DA's office in 2000, where she briefly worked with Kamala Harris.
Guilfoyle reconnected with Newsom, and they married in 2001. She served as first lady of San Francisco when Newsom was elected mayor in 2003, the Bee reported.
The two divorced in 2005. A year later, Guilfoyle began working for Fox News.
She worked for the network for several years as a contributor and on different programs, including The Five, until she was let go in 2018 due to sexual harassment allegations, the Bee reported.
Guilfoyle stayed in the conservative media ecosystem, however, fundraising for Trump and later dating the president's eldest son until their 2024 breakup.
President Trump did not forget about her, however, as he appointed her to the position of the U.S. ambassador to Greece, and she was confirmed by the Senate in September 2025.
Why is Kimberly Guilfoyle being asked to resign?
Trump acknowledged on Oct. 12 that he was weighing whether to fire Guilfoyle.
"Well, we're looking at it. Yeah, we're not happy," Trump told reporters, as he departed the White House for a campaign event.
Guilfoyle's fall from grace was a sharp turn of events, as she was once part of the Trump family's inner circle.
At a Greek Independence Day event at the White House on March 26, Trump embraced Guilfoyle and asked her to join him at the front of the East Room.
"Kimberly Guilfoyle has been my friend for a long time. I love calling her Kimberly. That's my little pet name, right? But you are the greatest, and I heard they love you over there. I hope you come back here in 12 years or whenever the term ends," Trump said at the time. "Come on up here, Kim, stay alongside of us."
Six months later, she faced a congressional investigation over an allegation that she advocated U.S. interference in the democratic elections of NATO allies.
Democratic Rep. Gregory Meeks asked the State Department's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) to launch its own investigation and requested that Guilfoyle appear before the House Foreign Affairs Committee and testify under oath.
The Justice Department could also end up investigating the allegation that Guilfoyle pushed a campaign donor to pay off her credit card bill, Washington, D.C., U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro indicated at an Oct. 13 press conference.
"I think right now that there is an inspector general investigation in the Department of State. We probably wait to see ... what happens with that," Pirro said.
'Obviously, I don’t love that'
At first, Guilfoyle seemed poised to potentially survive the allegations, with top Trump administration officials side-stepping questions about her conduct last week.
"Obviously, I don’t love that,” Vice President JD Vance told a reporter on Oct. 8 when asked about the idea of selling access to the Trump administration without using Guilfoyle's name or getting into the specifics.
The following day, he defended Guilfoyle to reporters, saying the administration would follow the facts. "Let's see what the truth is. And obviously, if there was something bad that happened, then people have to suffer consequences," Vance said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who happened to be in Athens at the time, said on Oct. 8 during a joint news conference: "The questions you’re asking me, we’re not addressing those at press conferences in Greece with the foreign minister and in another country."
He flashed anger later as a journalist asked him about the report again on the tarmac in Athens.
"I’m not going to comment on a story that literally posted a few hours ago," Rubio said. "I don’t even know if it’s true or not true. So it’s just not going to work that way, and it most certainly is not going to work that way when I’m sitting in another country."
It was not immediately clear who Trump planned to tap to fill the role, which requires Senate confirmation. Greece is considered one of the more plumb ambassadorial positions as both a NATO nation and a member of the European Union.
Contributing: Aysha Bagchi – USA TODAY
Ernesto Centeno Araujo covers breaking news for the Ventura County Star. He can be reached at ecentenoaraujo@vcstar.com, 805-437-0224 or @ecentenoaraujo on Instagram and X.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Who is Kimberly Guilfoyle? What are the former ambassador's ties to California
