Kimberly Guilfoyle caught red-handed, must resign

Kimberly Guilfoyle is the current U.S. ambassador to Greece and a longtime cheerleader for President Trump. She is also a former Fox News personality, long-ago ex-wife of Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.), and, more recently, ex-girlfriend of Donald Trump Jr.

The Wall Street Journal has the receipts : Guilfoyle promised Eric Deters, a quixotic political operative and fundraiser for Republicans, special access to a number of administration officials who might help him with his pet causes, which included a dispute over his taxes with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). In exchange, she wanted $100,000 to help pay off her credit card debt.

“You could just send it here,” she wrote, texting Deters a link to the American Express website. “It won’t show up anywhere if you wire money to American Express that’s all that will show.”

Guilfoyle was keenly aware of the impropriety and repeatedly texted Deters to stop providing written evidence of their dealings and instead just call her up if need be — and to pay the money. “What a nightmare,” she wrote at one point. “You’ll literally cost me my ambassadorship stop writing.”

Deters did not pay off Guilfoyle’s credit card debt, though she did contact IRS Commissioner Billy Long about his case. She also bragged about her access to a host of other top Trump officials: FBI Director Kash Patel, then-Attorney General Pam Bondi, and others. “Every secretary of you know defense, transportation, treasury commerce IRS commissioner everyone gets right back to me,” she told Deters in 2024.

So, first, this is nakedly corrupt, and Guilfoyle should resign as ambassador or be impeached and removed. She cannot be trusted to represent U.S. interests abroad when she has proven that she is willing to peddle influence with the Trump administration in exchange for personal enrichment.

Second, it’s fair to ask some questions about Trump Jr., whose relationship with Guilfoyle ended before she was nominated to be ambassador to Greece. Nevertheless, in her message to the IRS commissioner, she mentions that “Don Jr. and I are very close with Eric Deters.” Trump Jr. subsequently married a model, Bettina Anderson. Their wedding was secretly paid for by Umar Kremlev, a Russian oligarch. (Kremlev has since claimed that Trump Jr. paid him back.)

While the oligarch maintains he had simply struck up a friendship with the couple and wanted to buy them a nice wedding gift, you would have to be very, very gullible not to suspect that his real aim was to influence the administration’s policy toward Russia. It’s possible Trump anticipated this and skipped the wedding for this very reason.

My point is this: Evidence is accumulating that suggests Guilfoyle and Trump Jr. are the kinds of people who will take money in exchange for doing favors. Perhaps unwittingly in Trump Jr.’s case, but obviously quite willfully in Guilfoyle’s. And while they aren’t together anymore, they were a power couple at the center of Trump’s orbit throughout his first term.

This irks me, as someone who cares about hypocrisy. Remember Hunter Biden ? The man who was at the center of countless congressional inquiries over allegations that he was paid by foreign interests in order to lobby his dad, President Biden? Republicans turned this into a huge issue and doggedly pursued it — to be clear, with plenty of justification. I criticized Biden pardoning his son as a clear example of the president abusing his power to thwart a legitimate investigation into his doings.

But look, there’s no way around this: Trump Jr. letting a Russian oligarch pay for his wedding is at least as suspicious as anything Hunter Biden did. And now his ex-girlfriend is caught red-handed engaging in precisely the kind of kickback scheme that birthed the “Biden crime family” moniker? By any reasonable standard, this is just as bad — or significantly worse.

Unfortunately, I suspect many Republicans and conservative commentators will greet these revelations with the exact same stony silence that Democrats opted for when Hunter Biden was under the microscope. I hope I’m wrong, though.

And look, viewers know that I’m not someone who suffers from Trump Derangement Syndrome. I have praised the president for many of his initiatives. I agree with him on the paramount issue of AI and tech. I support his efforts to reduce cumbersome regulation and shrink the federal bureaucracy. I love his Supreme Court picks. I agree that Europe should shoulder more of the burden of their own defense. I think the Democratic Party is about to fall under the influence of outright socialists, who will destroy the country on a foundation level and empower radicals who hate the Constitution, borders, capitalism, prisons, and our very way of life.

But you just can’t govern like this. You can’t let foreign oligarchs or domestic millionaires purchase your vote, and you can’t surround yourself by people who are eager to lobby for quixotic causes in exchange for cold heart cash. This is naked corruption.

It was naked when Hunter Biden did it too. But we can’t be so blinded by our partisan blinkers that we just say, well, it’s my team, it’s better than the alternative. I agree, personally, that it’s better than the alternative. But I also know if I left my “side” get away with murder, there will be a lot of blood on my hands. So I’m calling it out.

If the GOP wants to remain a viable governing coalition — if they want us to get excited for people like, um, Ken Paxton, in Texas — they need to remind us that they are actually better than the other side.

Kimberly Guiloyle, I’m sorry to say, sounds like a real cheap date. I would hope better for Don Jr., but I’m worried! President Trump may actually be more disciplined than these people, but he better get them in line, and fast. Or else we can kiss the midterms good bye, and then we’ll really have to deal with socialism.

Robby Soave is co-host of The Hill’s commentary show “Rising” and a senior editor for Reason Magazine. This column is an edited transcription of his daily commentary.