Kimberly Guilfoyle resigned her post as ambassador to Greece on Tuesday, after being asked to do so by President Trump amid a wave of misconduct allegations she has denied.

Guilfoyle, a former Trump campaign surrogate and onetime fiancee of Donald Trump Jr., faced allegations including an offer to use her influence in Trump’s orbit in exchange for payments, according to the Wall Street Journal— adding her to a growing number of Trump administration officials, family members and employees who have been accused of improperly monetizing their ties to the president or his government.

That list includes Trump and his sons, who have been criticized for making billions through investments in industries that are regulated by the administration — including in cryptocurrency and drone interceptors— and for trying to sell early access to Trump’s posts on his social media platform. Trump Jr. has also faced criticism for having his lavish Bahamas wedding paid for in part by a Russian oligarch close to President Vladimir Putin.

The business ventures of Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and one of the administration’s top negotiators in the Middle East, have also raised questions, as Kushner has been tied to Russian oil negotiations amid talks on how to end the war with Ukraine and reportedly tried to raise money for his private firm from governments in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and his son Brandon Lutnick, now chair of the financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, have been questioned over the firm buying up rights to refunds from Trump’s dismantled tariff scheme. Howard Lutnick, who previously served as Cantor Fitzgerald’s chairman, championed Trump’s tariffs.

In a statement posted to social media, Guilfoyle said she will “forever be grateful” to Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for trusting her to represent the U.S. abroad, remains “unwavering” in her support for them and “worked tirelessly to advance President Trump’s America First agenda, strengthen our strategic alliance with Greece, and deliver meaningful victories for the American people.”

The allegations against her are false, she said, and she won’t allow them to define her “decades of public service” and intends to “vigorously defend my name, my reputation, and my integrity.”

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Guilfoyle messaged a Trump donor asking for $100,000 to pay off a credit card bill in exchange for access to administration officials, and for it to be sent in a way that wouldn’t leave a paper trail. “It won’t show up anywhere if you wire money to American Express,” she allegedly wrote to the donor via the encrypted Signal messaging app.

The Journal has also reported that Guilfoyle promoted a Greek construction and energy company and gave its lobbyists access to a private diplomatic meeting; told guests at a reception that the U.S. could undermine the Greek government if it wanted to do so; and boasted about luxury travel with energy company executives. The British tabloid the Daily Mail reported that Guilfoyle had alienated staff with questionable behavior.

The State Department’s inspector general is looking into the allegations, according to an unnamed U.S. official who spoke with the Associated Press. And top Democrats — including Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach), the ranking member on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform — have called for investigations.

Guilfoyle’s resignation comes a day after Trump said that officials were looking into the claims and were “not happy.”

Guilfoyle’s unusual rise

Guilfoyle’s resignation caps an unusual, decades-long run in the public spotlight that has captivated many, particularly in California, where she was formerly married to Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Born to a Puerto Rican mother and Irish father, Guilfoyle was brought up working-class in San Francisco. She attended UC Davis and the University of San Francisco Law School, and then served as a prosecutor in San Francisco and Los Angeles. She was introduced to Newsom — a likely Democratic contender for president in 2028 — by Newsom’s father, and moved back to the Bay Area, where she resumed working as a prosecutor.

Guilfoyle and Newsom wed in 2001. He became San Francisco mayor in 2004, and the couple began attracting attention in Democratic circles, with Harper’s Bazaar dubbing them “the new Kennedys.” Guilfoyle at the time espoused many mainstream Democratic political beliefs.

She later moved to New York for a broadcast job with Court TV. When she and Newsom divorced in 2006, they cited the strain of the bicoastal relationship. She went on to become a Fox News commentator, before being forced out amid accusations of sexual impropriety, according to the New Yorker and other outlets.

She started dating Trump Jr. in 2018. And by the time the 2020 presidential campaign rolled around, she was serving as Trump’s campaign finance chair and gave a Republican National Convention speech in which she bashed California as a liberal wasteland.

Guilfoyle was again a prominent surrogate for Trump during the 2024 campaign, and the president nominated her to serve as ambassador to Greece just a month after his election, amid rumors of a split between her and his son. At the time he called her “a close friend and ally” for many years with “extensive experience and leadership in law, media, and politics” and a “sharp intellect.”

Other profits questioned

Democrats, who are seeking to retake control of the House in the Nov. 3 election, have started laying the groundwork to make the Trump family’s business dealings a centerpiece of their investigations into alleged corruption next year. They say examples abound.

In May, Trump Jr. married Bettina Anderson in a Bahamas ceremony that ProPublica reported was heavily funded — to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars — by a Russian oligarch with close ties to Putin named Umar Kremlev, who also attended the wedding despite Trump Jr. describing the guest list as “really small.” After the scandal broke, Kremlev said that Trump Jr. had repaid him for the wedding expenses. Democrats launched an investigation.

Democrats have also demanded documents from Cantor Fitzgerald to assess its buying up tariff refunds and the Lutnicks’ role in that venture. “The American people deserve to know whether Administration insiders and their closest family members deliberately positioned themselves to profit from these blatantly illegal tariffs while everyone else paid the price,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, wrote in a February letter to the Lutnicks.

They and the firm have denied any impropriety.

Democrats have also criticized Trump’s new deals to license his name overseas, campaign ads paid for by taxpayers, acceptance of a plane from Qatar to serve as Air Force One, and efforts to create a fund for payouts to Jan. 6 insurrectionists and other political supporters.

In a July speech calling out those and other deals, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) noted that Trump’s most recent financial disclosure forms showed he had made at least $2.2 billion in income the preceding year — which Schiff noted was 3½ what Trump reported earning the year prior. “So, either he’s just become a much better businessman since he became president, or he is corruptly using his office to enrich himself. The same can be said for much of the rest of his family,” Schiff said.

Trump’s income included about $1.4 billion from his family’s cryptocurrency businesses, records show, much of which was earned through World Liberty Financial, a crypto firm whose backers have clear interests in Washington. Trump has defended his business decisions while in office as perfectly legitimate.

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