Former Fox News personality Kimberly Guilfoyle reached out to Donald Trump and to conservative influencers for support in what the Daily Mail described as a desperate bid to salvage her job as ambassador to Greece.
Trump refused her calls, and her allies instead began deleting anything that might link them to her, reported the Mail.
Once Guilfoyle saw the “walls closing in” on her tenure in Athens, the Mail reported, she “breathlessly” sought a lifeline. Two sources told the Mail that three powerful men sat atop her list of “frenzied” calls: U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Rupert Murdoch, chairman emeritus of Fox Corp. and News Corp. She reportedly asked Hegseth and Barrack for moral support and a personal pitch to Trump on her behalf. Two sources close to the president said Trump did not answer her calls.
Barrack said he would give her the support she needed, according to a source, “but it is unclear what, if anything, he did on her behalf,” the Mail reported.
Guilfoyle, 57, “desperately” needed backup, the Mail said, after it reported that the State Department’s inspector general had opened a formal investigation into her conduct, including allegations of a toxic workplace. The Mail has reported the probe also covers use of private planes and helicopters and the funding of renovations to the ambassador’s residence. The Wall Street Journal reported that Guilfoyle asked a donor to pay a $100,000 credit card bill before her confirmation hearing. Her lawyer, Jesse Binnall, told the Mail that “any implication of wrongdoing by the Ambassador is unsupported.”
In the days before her resignation, the Mail reported, Guilfoyle also “desperately” attempted to scrub its coverage of an unpaid dinner tab and her champagne requests. Sources told the Mail the bill had been sent to the U.S. Embassy. The Journal reported that she asked whether State Department officials could get the story deleted, but “she did not produce a receipt” when they asked for proof she had paid out of pocket.
Sources told the Mail that Guilfoyle also asked people close to her with large social media followings to post public messages of support on platforms such as X and Instagram. Instead, “many deleted photos of her,” the Mail reported.
Guilfoyle resigned Oct. 13 after the White House asked her to step down.