Guilfoyle scandal adds to scrutiny surrounding Trump advisers

President Trump faces a scandal involving a top official, with Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle under scrutiny for allegedly soliciting debt relief in exchange for political access. That revelation follows other reported questionable conduct, including favoring a Greek energy firm.

It was the second time this week a White House adviser drew headlines.

The Trump administration appeared caught off guard by the reports involving Guilfoyle.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, on a diplomatic trip to Greece, bristled at reporters’ questions over whether he maintained confidence in Guilfoyle and whether her conduct raised any concerns.

“Like, our job is not to respond every time someone decides to give the media something without any advance warning, without having any chance to look at it and see what’s in there,” he said.

While the administration is batting away questions about Guilfoyle, Democrats have put the ambassador in the crosshairs.

“Reports coming out regarding Amb. Guilfoyle’s conduct are deeply concerning and suggest potentially corrupt influences on U.S. foreign policy,” Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) said in a statement to The Hill. “I have already demanded answers from Secretary [Marco] Rubio regarding her conduct and will continue to press for transparency and accountability. As I have said before, if these allegations are accurate, Amb. Guilfoyle is unfit to represent the United States abroad and should be removed from her position.”

The Wall Street Journal first reported Wednesday that Guilfoyle asked one of Trump’s donors to wire her $100,000 to cover her credit card debt in a way that would not show up in paperwork ahead of her confirmation hearing for ambassador to Greece.

In text messages obtained by NewsNation, the partner site for The Hill, Guilfoyle pleads for the donor, Eric Deters, to wire the funds to American Express.

“It won’t show up anywhere if you wire money to American Express,” she wrote on Signal on July 3, 2025, according to messages reviewed by The Hill. Her confirmation hearing took place July 9, 2025.

Deters said Guilfoyle offered to be his “ride or die in Trump world” if he made the credit card payment, according to a dossier he compiled and shared with NewsNation.

NewsNation reached out to Guilfoyle’s lawyer for comment.

Jesse Binnall, a lawyer for Guilfoyle, told the Journal that the ambassador disputed the authenticity of the messages but declined to provide specifics. Binnall said Guilfoyle was owed a balance related to speaking events, which Deters disputed.

The chaos around Guilfoyle was a “clown show,” which “tainted” a successful visit by Rubio to Greece, said one person deeply involved in U.S. and Greek relations speaking with The Hill on condition of anonymity.

The person said Guilfoyle’s conduct is unlikely to impact what are long-standing and deep ties between Washington and Athens, but that it reinforced the idea of that U.S. foreign policy is for sale and that ties to Trump’s family and close allies equals access.

“It says, ‘we’re the merchants,’” the person said.

Lawmakers and former ambassadors have called on her to be investigated and fired.

“Ambassador Guilfoyle must be fired and if she broke the law, which seems highly likely, prosecuted,” Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), who served as ambassador to Switzerland and Lichtenstein in the Obama administration, posted on social platform X.

Beyer pointed out that “accepting large sums of cash in exchange for access or favors using her official position would obviously run afoul” of federal laws and regulations.

The Daily Mail reported Thursday that sources said the State Department Office of Inspector General is investigating complaints into Guilfoyle and conduct at the U.S. Embassy in Athens.

The State Department office told The Hill it doesn’t comment on investigations.

Donald K. Sherman, president of ethics watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), said Rubio must demand an investigation.

“Guilfoyle’s alleged conduct is emblematic of the dangers posed when government officials cozying up to wealthy political interests as President Trump and his appointees have done time and time again. Influence seekers gaining financial leverage over American officials and diplomats is an unacceptable national security risk that threatens our interests abroad and safety at home,” Sherman said in a statement.

The controversy and scrutiny surrounding Guilfoyle add to a growing list of allegations of graft and conflicts of interest for Trump family members and administration advisers.

This includes questions swirling about two Trump advisers, James Blair and Chris LaCivita, who The New York Times reported this week were paid to advise a pro-Russia political party in Republika Srpska, a small self-governing territory in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Trump issued a rare public rebuke against the two men, close aides to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles. Trump called them “outside consultants” and added that if there’s conflict of interest, he “will terminate them, immediately!”

But he has not publicly remarked on reports about Guilfoyle. The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.

Another top Trump official under scrutiny for mixing government work and personal business is Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law. He serves as a top envoy for peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine and with Iran.

Kushner was the subject of a September profile in The New Yorker that laid out the myriad and overlapping potential conflicts of interest between his diplomacy portfolio and investments from Middle East monarchies and influential regional billionaires.

Kushner pushed back in a lengthy “fact check” post, disputing that his diplomatic work has benefited his business dealings, in particular his private investment firm Affinity Partners, which has received significant investment from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and an Emirati-based investment firm, among others.

“Over the past decade, no one has identified a single American position I changed, government favor I sought, or diplomatic decision I made in order to benefit myself, Affinity, or one of its investors,” he wrote.

“Allegations of conflicts should ultimately be tested against specifics: What action did I take, whose financial interest did it benefit, and what evidence shows that the two were connected? Generalized suspicion is not a substitute for answering those questions.”

And last month, Trump defended his son Donald Trump Jr., who permitted a Russian oligarch, Umar Kremlev, to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars related to his wedding, including for help renting a private island and putting on a fireworks display. The president said his son would pay back the oligarch. Kremlev told a press conference Tuesday that Trump Jr. did pay him back but maintained his lavish spending was a wedding gift.

The wedding gift controversy came amid a scrutiny of Trump Jr.’s other international business dealings, including promotion of family-backed cryptocurrency ventures, international real estate deals involving direct meetings with foreign heads of state and reported investments in defense contracting. Trump Jr. also has significant ties to prediction market platforms that depend on favorable regulatory decisions by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, The New York Times reported in January.

These allegations featured prominently in a letter sent by Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) to Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), requesting an investigation into Trump Jr. as seriously as Republicans looked into Hunter Biden, President Biden’s son who was criticized for business ventures in Ukraine while his father was vice president.

“The country should not have to accept one standard for the family of a Republican president and another for the family of a Democratic president. Nor should congressional oversight begin and end when control of the White House changes hands,” Curtis wrote in the letter.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said Thursday that Guilfoyle, LaCivita and Blair “need to answer a lot of questions” following the recent reports.

“On its face, it’s at best horrible optics, and at worst, something that’s worthy of a termination,” Tillis told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on “The Situation Room.”

He said he was willing to give them the “benefit of the doubt but those are very clearly legitimate questions that should be asked [by] members of Congress.”

While Curtis and Tillis — who is retiring in January — are rare GOP critics, Democrats are readying investigations into Trump and his advisers’ business dealings if they win the majority after the midterm elections. Majority control comes with subpoena power.

“Trump’s ambassador to Greece is the latest Mar-a-Lago Mafia member caught selling access. She won’t be the last. We must expose all the Trump cartel’s corruption,” Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-Va.), a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, posted on X.