On Tuesday, three weeks before the midterms, the White House went back to its news conferences after a 47-day hiatus following the departure of former press secretary Karoline Leavitt. Her successor, Katie Zacharia, made a very brief appearance in which she only took three questions and fell short of the cool aplomb with which Leavitt made a name for herself defending the policies of her boss, President Donald Trump, resorting to lies when necessary.
Perhaps to honor that tradition, Zacharia, who made up for her lack of poise with a great deal of loyalty for Trump (whom she apparently got confused with her husband at one point), began the briefing with a falsehood and ended it with a piece of news.
The news is that the White House has asked the United States ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle, to resign following corruption allegations revealed by The Wall Street Journal. The new press secretary did not provide any additional details about a scandal allegedly involving the ambassador asking a Republican donor to pay off her $100,000 credit card bill ahead of her Senate confirmation. In exchange, she promised political favors.
“Serving as the United States ambassador to Greece has been the honor of my life,” Guilfoyle said on her X account, calling the “recent allegations” against her “false.” “I intend to vigorously defend my name, my reputation and my integrity.”
After his return to power, Trump appointed Guilfoyle — who was engaged to the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., for four years — to the ambassadorship. The scandals unearthed by the Journal began last month, when the newspaper reported that the ambassador had boasted in a private conversation about plotting to force the fall of the four-party government led by liberal Ilie Bolojan in early May in Romania. According to that investigation, Guilfoyle also threatened Greek Energy Minister Stavros Papastavrou with doing the same to his country.
The influence of a ‘lobbyist’
The Journal also reported on the controversial influence of a Greek ‘lobbyist’ named Christos Marafatsos over the ambassador, saying he had flown her on his private plane on multiple occasions.
This administration has provoked more corruption complaints than any in decades. It is also notable that Trump, who became famous on a television reality show shouting “You’re fired,” forced Guilfoyle’s resignation publicly through Zacharia rather than dismissing her himself.
Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition