After including some true professionals in his administration during his first term, Donald Trump now surrounds himself almost exclusively with sycophants and family members.
The President has made it clear that he values loyalty over competence, but the staggering incompetence and corruption displayed by many of those appointed to positions raise an obvious question: what does it take to be fired from Trump’s White House?
Kimberly Guilfoyle's resignation from the position of ambassador to Greece offers some clues, writes The Atlantic in an extensive piece.
Guilfoyle has been accused of blatant corruption both before and during her diplomatic tenure. She denies the accusations, but her departure, requested by the White House, is not actually related to corruption.
The idea that Guilfoyle and only she crossed a red line in terms of corruption that had not been identified until now is ridiculous. If ethical and legal issues, including the nearly abandoned standard of "appearance of impropriety," would be grounds for dismissal in this administration, Trump would have already removed several members of his team.
In reality, Guilfoyle was removed because she embarrassed Trump. She overstepped her bounds, tried to profit from the President's name, and when caught, cast the administration in a bad light. Additionally, being a woman, in this administration, the game of personal interests is mainly played by men.
A Minor Figure
In comparison to the accusations leveled against others, including the President himself, who seems completely indifferent to notions such as "benefits and advantages gained from public office," Guilfoyle is a minor figure in this field.
Earlier this year, for example, the Financial Times reported that a broker working for Pete Hegseth attempted a significant investment in the defense industry just before the war with Iran, sparking suspicions of insider trading.
FBI Director Kash Patel was accused of using public funds as a discretionary fund to award unwarranted bonuses to his favored employees within the Bureau.
In 2024, the "border czar" Tom Homan was recorded accepting $50,000 in cash from undercover FBI agents posing as businessmen. However, Homan remained in his position.
Hegseth and Homan deny any wrongdoing, while Patel and the FBI have not provided comments or explanations.
The Real Sin
Perhaps Kimberly Guilfoyle was a minor player compared to the big names involved in such affairs, but her true sin was her disgraceful and humiliating behavior. (Even Homan managed, according to reports, not to appear as petty when allegedly accepting a bag of money.) The messages she sent to a Trump donor, asking for money to pay off her huge credit card bills, are downright embarrassing.
"Sweetheart, please, I need you to fix this for me today," she wrote to Trump supporter Eric Deters in July 2025, asking him to transfer no less than $100,000 directly into her American Express account, shortly before her confirmation hearings.
Even more serious is that Guilfoyle repeatedly asked Deters not to write to her and to contact her only through Signal. "What a nightmare! You'll make me lose my ambassadorship. Don't write anymore," she told him.
It seems this was Guilfoyle's version of the famous "Stringer Bell rule," named after a character from The Wire who scolded one of his drug trafficking accomplices for being foolish enough to keep written notes about a criminal conspiracy. The problem is that Guilfoyle also violated this rule: she asked Deters, in writing, not to record anything in writing.
Predictably, Deters kept all the messages. He claims that Kimberly Guilfoyle promised him access to the Trump administration. "I'll be by your side, no matter what, in Trump's camp, forever," he says the ambassador told him. When the promises did not materialize, Deters warned Kimberly Guilfoyle and White House officials earlier this month that he would make the entire correspondence public. Subsequently, he followed through on his threat.
Praise and Insults
Meanwhile, the ambassador made her presence felt in Southeastern Europe, in the company of Greek magnates. However, instead of discreetly enjoying the privileges of her position, Guilfoyle boasted about her relationships with these wealthy individuals and tried to present herself as an influential figure within the tight circle of the Trump family, capable of achieving results through her connections.
According to the Wall Street Journal, in January 2026, Guilfoyle went to Davos, where she was not invited to a dinner held in honor of Eric Trump. She decided to pressure an American businessman to help her gain entry to the event.
"You know, I can bring the world to your feet. What you deserve," she reportedly told him. This time, the conversation was recorded in audio, not captured in written messages.
"I'll make you earn a lot of money," Kimberly Guilfoyle promised the American. At the same time, she became angry at the audacity of the Greek host organizing the dinner. "You can't not invite the US Ambassador to Greece, understand? You should kiss my ass," she said.
President Trump, once again, has no issue with insults - he regularly uses them. Nor does he seem to have a problem with attempts to make money while in public office: he enriched himself during his presidency and explicitly or implicitly approved similar efforts by his subordinates to profit from their positions.
But it appears he draws a line when his son's former fiancée shows insufficient gratitude for the privilege of being sent to Athens and then ends up in the newspapers, appearing as an over-the-hill waitress trying to get tips from naive customers in a casino.
From "My Kimberly" to "She Wasn't a Member of My Family"
Once, Kimberly Guilfoyle was so close to the Trump family that she was given prime time to praise the President during the 2020 Republican National Convention. Her speech was a disaster, exaggerated and immoderate, but Trump liked it. According to reports, he called her "My Kimberly" and compared her to Eva Perón, the former First Lady of Argentina.
Earlier this year, Trump said of his representative in Greece: "Kimberly Guilfoyle has been a longtime friend of mine. I like to call her Kimber-lay. That's my nickname for her, right? But you're incredible, and I hear the people there love you."
However, in recent days, the President has seen the press publish compromising information about this middle-aged woman, demanding, abandoned by her son in favor of a younger wife - much like Trump himself did with some former spouses. Kimberly Guilfoyle was trying to take advantage, while also making a fool of herself and fueling new corruption stories, just before the midterm elections (November 3).
So, Kimberly Guilfoyle had to go, and Trump swiftly and unceremoniously removed her.
"She wasn't a member of my family," the President stated. "She, um, I think she met my son a long time ago."
"Met"? "I think"? Kimberly Guilfoyle was on the verge of becoming the President's daughter-in-law for years, being engaged to his eldest son. Now she's just a woman one of his children once knew.
Kimberly Guilfoyle didn't understand the rules of the game. All she had to do was stay out of trouble. But that proved too difficult for her, and now she has learned that, if you want to make money by taking advantage of this presidency, you have to respect certain rules: Don't be too obvious. Don't embarrass your boss. If possible, avoid getting caught. And, above all, don't be an over-the-hill woman.