The Memo: Guilfoyle furor rises as Trump stops short of expressing support

The uproar isn’t dying down over U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle and her reported request to have a MAGA donor pay down her personal credit card debt.

President Trump, when asked about the matter as he prepared to leave for New York Friday, was conspicuously noncommittal.

“I just heard about it: Too bad,” Trump said, adding, “I don’t know too much. But she was always very nice.”

Earlier Friday, a similar question was posed to Vice President Vance. He said only “allegations” had emerged so far, and added, “We don’t try people in the court of public opinion. We try people in a court of law.”

Vance said he had known Guilfoyle — an erstwhile Fox News personality who was previously engaged to the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. — “for a long time.” But he acknowledged that “obviously if there was something bad that happened, then people have to suffer consequences for it.”

Neither Trump‘s nor Vance’s comments equated to a forceful vote of confidence in Guilfoyle, who is also the ex-wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D). Guilfoyle and Newsom divorced 20 years ago.

The bigger political question is whether the story will become part of a larger narrative of alleged unethical behavior on the part of the Trump administration as the midterms near.

Rahm Emanuel, the former Chicago mayor who is exploring a 2028 presidential bid, wrote on social media that the reports about Guilfoyle’s behavior were part of a larger picture that showed how “the cost of doing business with the Trump Admin 2.0 really adds up.”

Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), seeking reelection in a competitive state, told MS NOW’s “The Briefing With Jen Psaki” Thursday that Guilfoyle was “partying across Europe after begging donors to bail her out financially and conducting herself in a way that appears to be deeply unethical.”

Ossoff also raised the possibility of congressional investigations into Guilfoyle if Democrats take back control of the House.

On that score, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee sent Guilfoyle a letter Thursday requesting the ambassador preserve her records and provide any communications with key figures in the matter.

The ranking Democrat on the committee, Rep. Robert Garcia (Calif.), wrote that “the alleged misconduct raises serious public corruption and national security concerns.” The letter was first reported by PBS News.

The Guilfoyle controversy first erupted Wednesday with a remarkable Wall Street Journal story.

The Journal reviewed text messages between Guilfoyle and Eric Deters, a pro-Trump businessman and former lawyer who has in the past run unsuccessfully for a House seat and for the governorship of Kentucky.

One exchange showed Guilfoyle apparently seeking $100,000 from Deters to alleviate debt with American Express. “It won’t show up anywhere if you wire money to American Express,” she wrote on Signal, the Journal reported. “Please.”

The messages also appeared to show an awareness on Guilfoyle’s part that the communications between her and Deters could prove damaging.

“Eric, I really wish you would stop papering all these things,” she wrote in one message, saying it would be better if he were to “simply just call me on signal.”

Deters says he was seeking Guilfoyle’s assistance on at least two matters: a probe into his tax deductions, about which he wanted to speak with then-incoming IRS Commissioner Billy Long, and his desire to have an Ohio doctor extradited back to the U.S. from Pakistan.

Deters did not ultimately pay the $100,000 credit card debt. But he did separately tell Guilfoyle he had “paid you $300,000 over the years,” had “not received one favor” and needed to see “results.”

The Journal also noted: “Jesse Binnall, a lawyer for Guilfoyle, said the ambassador disputed the authenticity of the messages but declined to provide specifics.” The lawyer also told the Journal Deters had legitimately owed money to Guilfoyle relating to speaking engagements.

This is the second time a major report from the Wall Street Journal has raised questions about Guilfoyle’s conduct. An extensive story late last month investigated her apparent closeness with a lobbyist for a Greek company.

The latest story created a major headache for Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was in Greece when it broke. The centerpiece of Rubio’s trip was intended to be a speech about the importance of upholding Western values.

Instead, he found himself on one occasion declining to comment on the Guilfoyle furor while a Greek minister looked on and on another getting into a testy exchange with reporters in which he told them, “I know the game.”

It’s possible the Trump administration will simply hope the matter fades away, supplanted in the news agenda by other stories. But even some Republican voices aren’t sure that will happen.

“One thing that swing voters, in particular, are unwilling to do is vote for people who seem to be the more crooked of their options on any given ballot,” said Republican strategist Liz Mair.

“Do I think the midterms are going to turn on Kim Guilfoyle? No, I don’t,” Mair added. “But do I think this is an easier-to-understand scandal than some of the crypto scandals. Kim Guilfoyle asking a donor to pay off a hundred grand of credit card debt is a lot easier for your average voter to understand.”

Grant Reeher, a professor of political science at Syracuse University, suggested the impact might be limited because questions around Trump family’s conduct, and people in their orbit, may already be factored into voters’ considerations.

“We already know this family have made themselves spectacularly wealthy just from being in office. There is no argument about it and Trump in fact has been very open about it,” he said.

The Guilfoyle controversy may not on its own lose any GOP candidate an election, she said, “but I do think it’s a big problem.”

The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage.