Guilfoyle Resigns as US Ambassador to Greece After White House Pressure

The departure follows a Wall Street Journal report on text messages in which Guilfoyle asked a donor for $100,000 to cover a personal credit card bill before her Senate confirmation, raising...

Kimberly Guilfoyle resigned as United States Ambassador to Greece on October 13, 2026, after the White House asked her to leave the post, according to reporting by the New York Post. Guilfoyle issued a statement described as defiant upon her exit.

The resignation followed a Wall Street Journal report that revealed text messages in which Guilfoyle solicited $100,000 from a donor to pay off an American Express bill. The solicitation reportedly occurred before she was confirmed as ambassador. The Wall Street Journal report, which is the primary evidentiary basis for the White House's request, has not been independently verified by The Congressional Times. The underlying text messages have not been entered into a public court record or congressional record as of publication.

Guilfoyle was confirmed as Ambassador to Greece after being nominated by President Donald Trump. She is the former fiancee of Donald Trump Jr. And the former wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat. Her prior government service included a role as a deputy district attorney in San Francisco, according to public biographical records.

The specific timeline between the alleged donor solicitation and her Senate confirmation vote is not fully established in available public records. The date of the text messages cited by the Wall Street Journal has not been confirmed in a public filing. What document would resolve this: the full Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation record, including any financial disclosure filings submitted by Guilfoyle prior to her confirmation vote, which are available through the Office of Government Ethics.

Federal law, specifically 18 U.S.C. Section 209, prohibits government employees from receiving salary or financial contributions from private sources as compensation for government service. Whether the alleged solicitation falls within the scope of that statute is a legal question that has not been adjudicated in any public court proceeding as of this writing. No criminal referral or Department of Justice action has been publicly announced.

The State Department has procedures for ambassador conduct governed by the Foreign Affairs Manual. Volume 3, Section 1215 of the Foreign Affairs Manual addresses personal conduct standards for Foreign Service personnel. Whether those provisions were formally invoked in Guilfoyle's case is unknown. A State Department spokesperson's position on the matter was not available in the source material reviewed.

The TCT previously reported that the White House had asked Guilfoyle to resign before her public announcement: White House Asks Ambassador Guilfoyle to Resign Over Misconduct Reports. That report noted the administration's request but did not include a response from Guilfoyle. Her October 13 statement fills that gap, though the full text of her statement was not reproduced in the source material reviewed by TCT.

Presidential nominees who are confirmed ambassadors serve at the pleasure of the president and may be recalled at any time, per Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution. No Senate vote is required to remove a confirmed ambassador. The White House's legal authority to request the resignation is not in dispute. The factual record underlying the request, specifically the text messages, remains in the domain of journalistic reporting rather than public legal record.

It is unknown whether the Senate Foreign Relations Committee or any congressional oversight body has opened a review of the conduct described in the Wall Street Journal report. It is also unknown whether Guilfoyle made any financial disclosures related to the $100,000 described in the report. Her Office of Government Ethics disclosure forms, filed prior to confirmation, would be the relevant public record. Those forms are subject to public release under 5 U.S.C. Appendix 4, Section 105, and a request to OGE would be the appropriate mechanism to obtain them.

No replacement ambassador to Greece has been announced as of October 13, 2026. The US Embassy in Athens is expected to operate under a charge d'affaires until a new nominee is confirmed. The State Department has not publicly named an interim head of mission.