Kimberly Guilfoyle was summarily fired by press conference on Tuesday, as everyone knows. Some know a few of the details, but irony that is this delicious begs for a rundown highlighting some rather normal, all but adorable, attempts at self-enrichment by somebody so completely out of her league.
Ultimately, though, Guilfoyle proved again that once a Trump (close enough), always a Trump, and that if one is going to go for pure enrichment in office, it's best to be all-in with enough money involved to possibly look respectable rather than pitiful, perhaps a portion cut to the pres... of course, we can't "know."
From the beginning, Guilfoyle's appointment rolled eyes and garnered sighs, "Trump being Trump." Ambassadorships have long represented lifetime achievement awards for big donors and friends. But most "big donors" come with some career experience and a large enough account to have given a ton of money — most, not all, had proven competence enough at an international level.
Kimberly? Not so much.
Her claim to fame was a stint as Don Jr.'s "fiancée" that never got around to a marriage, and a thin background. A former somewhat minor player on Fox News, a line prosecutor in California — that's it.
We can't know, but the appointment reeked of an agenda: "Get her halfway around the world where she can't make a peep about life with Junior," the opposite of a reward other than being pampered into silence. It doesn't help that she went to an EU member and NATO partner, often a bit too prestigious for something like this.
There is, of course, the nearly adorable begging for the $100,000 to pay off her credit card. One might immediately say "bad look," except in this crowd, it might've otherwise been a trophy; "She didn't get in on it like the others."
Alas, she couldn't even do that right. That's a phone call, Kim, not a text; denial all-around. (She tried to plead AI victim, giggle. Had she said "SI," maybe she'd have gotten more consideration.)
But that's nothing compared to the self-dealing in setting up relationships among private companies, and that — compared to the others around her in the administration — was woefully under-inspired to actually get away with it.
Like all administrative positions, her first job is technically to advocate for American links with the Grecian government. Pause for laughter, as no one in this administration works by this mantra, especially top dog Donald. There are situations in which an ambassador might be involved in deals between private companies but not as the broker with the idea, nor as the lavished guest of another.
Deep observation: Companies don't fly a person around in a private jet, nor plant one at the best of accommodations for free, ever, no matter how high or low the person might be. When one sees such things, a deal is afoot, even when gifted a loaded 747.
*So ironic: Trump can get away with such in part because there is no law preventing deals with ethical conflicts for presidents and vice-presidents, only the useless impeachment tool. But ambassadors? Wow, that's fairly low on the ladder, low enough to even lose a job over it! He is furious.
Sooo. What'd she do, specifically? Beyond begging for $100,000 to pay off her credit card, that's almost disrespectful of Trump in this environment. No, it went much deeper, and the deeper stuff bothered Donald — that's his level — to the point she had to go.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Alexandros Exarchou, CEO of Aktor Group, babied our baby in a private jet to Davos and Bulgaria, giving her center stage to sell a potentially multibillion-dollar natural gas deal involving (this is stunning) his company's attempt to "purchase American liquefied natural gas and resell it throughout southeastern Europe, including through a proposed $6 billion agreement with Albania. Aktor estimated that its signed and anticipated arrangements could generate €1.8 billion in pretax earnings over 20 years."
They wanted to buy gas and resell it to our friends for profit!!! No wonder she got five-star treatment to bring that baby home. That's not even an adventurous arrangement — that's like 6th-grade level!!
The Journal also reported that Greek shipping magnate Nikolas Tsakos provided Guilfoyle with private flights and luxury hospitality, including travel to Paris and accommodations at the Four Seasons George V. (That was probably a nice place). Unlike Exarchou, Tsakos actually hasn't been publicly linked to a specific government deal secured through Guilfoyle. Yet.
Either way, the first and latter deal do arise in violation of rule number one: money is never free. These things don't just happen due to wonderful friendships — not this stuff.
It takes a SCOTUS justice to get away with that, just the friendship, wink wink.
All of which boils down to this. She was with Don Jr. and involved herself in plenty of situations that the entire Trump family might well not want exposed. Answer? Put her halfway around the world in a comfy position that doesn't require Trump money to keep her comfy! Brilliant.
Given that might've been the goal, it is LOLOL that now , as only the woman scorned twice, she was still a piper in this gang. After all, now when it comes to conflicts of interest, she might be more dangerous than ever. She still needs money, and perhaps the last thing she has to sell are secrets, and that means a book deal.
It would seem prudent and proper to keep a close eye on Guilfoyle's pending pad. If she's given a nebulous position in some Trump PAC and a decent salary, well, we know exactly why. If she's left out in the wilderness, well, they're rolling the dice, one supposes. Of course, they're taking the ultimate risk if she's loaded with lurid stories and still needs that $100,000 — and likely a whole lot more.
She is a Trump, after all, through and through, dumped or not, and scorned much more than the others. Her failure to recognize that she was disposable all along is less interesting than whether she's immediately brought back into the fold.
Money is never free. They would be purchasing something she has to offer, probably "Shhhhh." The difference is that this time the Trumps themselves, in some roundabout way, have to be the ones paying.
No free money. My god, especially for failed ex-fiancés.
Jason Miciak is a Rawstory Columnist, former editor of Occupy Democrats, author, attorney, consultant, and single parent girldad. Please follow on Bluesky, and he can be reached at jasonmiciak@gmail.com
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