Corruption in Trump-world: the downfall of Kimberly Guilfoyle

In late 2024, Donald Trump faced a “ticklish family situation”, said Ruth Marcus in The New Yorker. Until recently, his eldest son had been engaged to Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former Fox News host who had become a prominent figure in Trump’s orbit. But the couple had split, and Donald Jr was now seeing someone else. “I had to get her out of here,” Trump reportedly told people, and he duly did – by appointing her as ambassador to Greece.

Guilfoyle was sacked from that role last week over corruption accusations. A Wall Street Journal exposé alleged that, before being confirmed to the post, she had pressured a Trump donor to pay off her $100,000 American Express bill in return for a promise of access to “the Trump world”. As ambassador, she reportedly bragged about Greek tycoons funding her luxury trips, and brought an energy company lobbyist along to so many meetings that people assumed he was her chief of staff.

Bought and paid-for

Guilfoyle’s corruption was too blatant for Trump to ignore just before the midterms, said Nick Catoggio on The Dispatch: Democratic candidates are pushing hard on the corruption theme. But he can’t afford to alienate her entirely. As a Trump-world insider, she knows too much about “family malfeasance” to be exiled with no means of support. Trump will no doubt buy her silence by lining her up with a “well-paid sinecure” somewhere.

For him, everything is transactional, said Eleanor Clift on The Daily Beast. He has shown Guilfoyle the door, but he could also offer her a pardon – “a powerful incentive to swallow her pride and accept Trump’s terms”.

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‘Pathetic’ behaviour

In a Trump team that now consists almost exclusively of “sycophants and family members”, Guilfoyle is just a small-time grifter, said Tom Nichols in The Atlantic. The president has engaged in epic levels of self-dealing, and plenty of other, still-serving officials – from his envoy Jared Kushner to FBI director Kash Patel – have faced serious corruption claims.

Guilfoyle’s real sin was the “pathetic” nature of her behaviour. “Honey please I need you to get this done for me today,” she texted the donor when asking for the $100,000. “You know, I can deliver the world to you. Which you deserve,” she was recorded gushing to another US businessman. Guilfoyle made a fool of herself, and in so doing committed the worst crime of all: she embarrassed the boss. That was why she had to go.