Donald Trump said on Monday he is considering firing Kimberly Guilfoyle as the U.S. ambassador to Greece after reports of alleged misconduct in Athens. Speaking to reporters at the White House, he said, "We're looking at it. Yeah, we're not happy."
That puts Guilfoyle, who was appointed envoy to Athens in December 2024, in the middle of the first serious public test of her posting. Trump had praised her then, saying her "extensive experience and leadership in law, media and politics, along with her sharp intellect make her supremely qualified" to represent the U.S. abroad.
The scrutiny now comes from a set of claims that go beyond routine political noise. The reported that Guilfoyle allegedly asked a Trump donor to pay a hefty credit-card bill in exchange for access to his administration. A series of text messages seen by the and first reported by The appeared to show her asking Eric Deters for the money. In one Signal message, she wrote, "It won't show up anywhere if you wire money to American Express." In another message dated just days before her U.S. Senate confirmation hearing last July, she wrote, "Honey please I need you to get this done for me today." Deters never sent the money.
Guilfoyle's lawyers have denied wrongdoing and disputed the authenticity of the messages. On 12 October, they said Deters owed her about $150,000 for speeches and consulting work she performed long before her ambassadorship. They argued that the payments were for work already done, not a favor bought with political access, saying, "Asking a client to pay for work already done is not corruption. It is the opposite of corruption."
The separate reporting around Athens has widened the pressure. Audio recordings obtained by The reportedly include Guilfoyle boasting of connections to prominent Greek business tycoons, saying they bankrolled luxury travel and flights on private jets. The same reporting said she told an official in Athens that the U.S. could topple the Greek government. Democrats on the Senate and House foreign affairs committees have been calling on the State Department to investigate her conduct in Greece.
Trump has not said he has decided to remove her, only that he is reviewing the matter. But the public warning matters because it signals that the ambassador's position is now in question while the allegations keep spreading. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was pictured with Guilfoyle last week during his trip to Athens, and the said he was also reported to be unhappy with her in light of the allegations. For Guilfoyle, the next step is no longer just damage control: it is whether Trump turns "we're looking at it" into a firing, or leaves her in Athens under a cloud that he has now made impossible to ignore.
