US President Donald Trump has sacked his ambassador to Greece, Kimberley Guilfoyle, after she solicited pay-to-play donations from a Republican donor and allegedly threatened to topple the Greek government.
Guilfoyle’s departure was announced on Tuesday by White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia, who told reporters that “we have asked Ambassador Guilfoyle to resign.”
“She was doing a good job, but we didn’t like what we were reading,” Trump told reporters shortly afterwards.
Guilfoyle, who was previously engaged to Trump’s eldest son, Donald Jr., was sworn in as ambassador to Greece last September. Less than a year later, the Wall Street Journal claimed that she was using her position to lobby for Greek energy tycoon Alexandros Exarchou. Guilfoyle allegedly pressured several Balkan governments to purchase American liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Exarchou’s firm, Aktor Group, and traveled to Davos aboard his private jet.
At a meeting with Greek officials in March, Guilfoyle allegedly threatened to topple Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ government if the Greek leader refused to purchase US LNG. Guilfoyle reportedly took credit for ousting Romanian Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan, who supported the US-backed Vertical Gas Corridor project, but refused to purchase more American LNG when Romania already possessed adequate domestic reserves.
“We can do that to any country we want. We can do that here,” she reportedly warned Greek Energy Minister Stavros Papastavrou. Papastavrou later denied that Guilfoyle had made any “pressure or threat against our country,” but did not address the Wall Street Journal’s claim that the ambassador played a part in ousting Bolojan.
The newspaper then released a leaked recording in which Guilfoyle told an American businessman that she could make him “a lot of f**king money” if he gifted her an invitation to a dinner in Davos in January. The final straw came last week when Trump donor Eric Deters told MS Now that Guilfoyle asked him for $100,000 to pay off her credit card bill in 2024, promising him access to the Trump administration if he did. “It absolutely was a quid pro quo,” Deters said, calling Guilfoyle “a grifter.”
In a social media post addressing her dismissal, Guilfoyle described “the recent allegations” against her as “false.”
“I intend to vigorously defend my name, my reputation, and my integrity,” she added, concluding “I will not allow false accusations to define my decades of public service.”
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