WASHINGTON — Kimberly Guilfoyle, the former Trump campaign surrogate serving as U.S. Ambassador to Greece, resigned Tuesday just hours after the White House publicly called for her to step down following weeks of reporting on alleged misconduct in Athens.

New White House press secretary Katie Zacharia confirmed the push at her first formal briefing, telling reporters, "We have asked Ambassador Guilfoyle to resign," while adding that Guilfoyle "has been a wonderful asset to the team, and we wish her well." About an hour later, Guilfoyle posted her resignation on X, calling the ambassadorship "the honor of a lifetime" and insisting the allegations against her are "false." She wrote she intends to "vigorously defend my name, my reputation, and my integrity."

The reporting behind the ouster, led by the Wall Street Journal, alleges Guilfoyle asked a donor to cover a roughly $100,000 American Express bill while dangling access to administration officials — a claim the donor, Eric Deters, denies paying out on. The reports also allege she promoted the interests of a Greek construction firm, Aktor Group, including letting its registered lobbyist sit in on private diplomatic meetings, and that she suggested at a dinner the U.S. could work against the Greek government if it didn't act in American interests. Separate allegations describe a hostile workplace for embassy staff. None of the claims has been independently adjudicated, and Guilfoyle's attorney, Jesse Binnall, said "any implication of wrongdoing by the Ambassador is unsupported."

A rocky 24 hours

The resignation capped a fast-moving sequence that started a day earlier, when a reporter asked President Trump whether his administration was weighing firing Guilfoyle. "We're looking at it," Trump said. "We're not happy." By Tuesday morning, he told reporters "I didn't like what I read" and said flatly, "I didn't speak to her."

"WE HAVE ASKED AMBASSADOR GUILFOYLE TO RESIGN."

Vice President JD Vance said that if "something bad" happened, "people have to suffer consequences for it." Secretary of State Marco Rubio initially defended Guilfoyle but later cautioned that unnamed-source reporting "is not the gospel."

The State Department's inspector general has been investigating Guilfoyle and the Athens embassy; it remains unclear whether that probe continues now that she has left the post. Guilfoyle, 56, was nominated to the ambassadorship in December 2024 — the same month her engagement to Donald Trump Jr. ended — and was confirmed in 2025.

The State Department has not named a successor or an acting chief of mission in Athens. With a federal watchdog probe still apparently active and Guilfoyle vowing to fight the allegations publicly, the fallout is likely to continue even without her holding the post.