Trump surrogate Kim Guilfoyle slams home state, suggests Puerto Rico isn't part of U.S., in loud, dark RNC speech

(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

last updated 25 August 2020

Kimberly Guilfoyle, the former Fox News host who now reportedly earns $180,000 a year traveling to promote President Trump, delivered an animated prime-time speech Monday during the first night of the Republican National Convention. Most of her remarks focused on Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, portraying his agenda for America as aimed at authoritarian strong-man socialism and rampant crime. She also suggested Puerto Rico isn't part of the U.S. and said Democrats had ruined California, her home state, currently run by ex-husband Gov. Gavin Newsom (D).

"As a first-generation American, I know how dangerous their socialist agenda is," Guilfoyle said of Biden's proposals. "My mother, Mercedes, was a special education teacher from Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. My father, also an immigrant, came to this nation in pursuit of the American Dream." That dream brought him from Ireland to San Francisco, where Guilfoyle was born and raised. Puerto Ricans have been U.S. citizens since 1917.

"The socialist policies which destroyed places like Cuba and Venezuela must not take root in our cities and our schools," Guilfoyle said. "If you want to see the socialist Biden-Harris future for our country, just take a look at California," which the Democrats have turned from a sort of paradise "into a land of discarded heroin needles in parks, riots in streets, and blackouts in homes. In President Trump's America, we light things up, we don't dim them down." The rolling blackouts in the state now are due to rampant wildfires, unusually high temperatures, and also the large amounts of energy being used on things like air conditioning and, well, lighting things up.

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Near the end, Guilfoyle turned to promoting what she called Trump's sunny plans for the U.S., getting progressively louder until she yelled the finale to the empty room: "The best is yet to come!" Watch below. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.