US Ambassador to Greece Under Investigation: She Demoted Her Security Chief Because He Didn't Answer at 4 a.m. When She Wanted Ice

The State Department has launched an investigation into the US ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle. According to the British tabloid Daily Mail, embassy staff describe her tenure as "pure tyranny", and the Office of the Inspector General is reportedly looking into her "potential substance abuse", her flights on private jets and helicopters, close ties to an energy and construction firm, and the acceptance of gifts.

The most vivid episode comes from Mykonos. According to the tabloid's sources, the 57-year-old Guilfoyle was drinking at four in the morning and called Vasilis, her head of security, who is already a grandfather. He was, naturally, asleep and didn't answer. She wanted ice. The next day she demoted him. A similar fate allegedly befell her two drivers, Petros and Dimitris - removed because she didn't like "the way they turned left", even though they had been trained in the US.

The list of demands that came out earlier is a story of its own: free meals, top wines and a 58,000-dollar basketball court at the residence in Athens. On her first working day, according to the same sources, she arrived in Athens on a billionaire's private jet. In front of staff, who say they live in fear of being fired, she allegedly repeated several times: "Do it or you're out of a job" - in the original with a much more pointed word.

A 100,000-dollar bill

The tabloid isn't the only source of trouble. The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday published a story saying Guilfoyle asked a donor to the MAGA movement to pay a 100,000-dollar credit card bill for her, offering in return influence and access to people in Donald Trump's circle. Her friendship with energy lobbyist Christos Marafatsos is also mentioned.

Guilfoyle, a former Fox News host, got the post in Athens shortly after she ended her engagement to Donald Trump Jr., the president's eldest son, in 2024. She hasn't been in the job a year, and her staff, according to all these sources, are leaving the embassy, while in July she was spotted at the exclusive Nammos club on Mykonos, and the same month she also attended Paris Fashion Week. Staff have reportedly also reported her to the Greek police for "verbal abuse".

The ambassador as governor

None of this has been established yet, and much of it comes from a tabloid with a well-known reputation. But when the same direction is confirmed by The Wall Street Journal and an open State Department investigation, it's hard to write it all off as gossip. "The question is how much longer she'll last," a source close to Trump told the British paper.

In the Balkans we've long been used to seeing American ambassadors as something more than diplomats. Greece is an allied country, a member of NATO and the EU, and yet it got an ambassador whose best-known achievement so far is demoting drivers and guards. Is Washington sending its best people to the region - or the ones it owes a favour?