On a recording, ambassador said businessmen paid for her luxury travel
By Rebecca Ballhaus, Joe Parkinson, Drew Hinshaw and Dana Mattioli
Kimberly Guilfoyle, as America's newly minted ambassador to Greece, boasted at Davos about her close ties to two Greek tycoons and said they were bankrolling her high-rolling trips around the world.
According to people who heard the conversation and an audio recording reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, Guilfoyle was flexing her connections to wealthy Greek businessmen in January as she made an urgent request. She was being blocked from attending an upcoming dinner being held for Eric Trump, and she wanted to enlist an American businessman who was on the guest list to help get her in the door.
"You know, I can deliver the world to you. Which you deserve," she said, according to the recording. "I'm going to make you a lot of f -- ing money," she said at another point in the exchange with the businessman.
She expressed fury at not being on the list for the dinner, which was being organized by Greek House Davos. "You don't have the f -- ing U.S., you know, ambassador to Greece not come. She should be kissing my f -- ing ass," Guilfoyle said of the event's organizer.
In the end, Guilfoyle was able to score a last-minute seat. The chairwoman of Greek House Davos, Irene Vantaraki, said that her team "had to manage a small crisis [that] affected a number of high-profile guests" and that "some were disappointed." Guilfoyle was "gracious and discreet" and left the dinner early, she said.
Guilfoyle had flown to the January 2026 World Economic Forum on a private jet with Alexandros Exarchou, chief executive of the Greek construction company Aktor Group, she acknowledged on the recording.
Governments from Bulgaria to Albania were encouraged by Guilfoyle to do business with Exarchou and buy billions of dollars of American natural gas from his company, the Journal has reported. The Greek businessman was, she said in the recording, "my people."
He wasn't the only businessman facilitating Guilfoyle's travels. She was also planning to fly later that month to Paris, on a jet with a Greek shipping tycoon, Nikolas Tsakos, to attend his wife's fashion show, she said in the recording. They had spent part of the holiday season together in the exclusive ultraluxury Swiss resort of Gstaad.
"I see Nikos every f -- ing day," she said in the recording. "I'm flying with him to Paris. I'm with him for a f -- ing week.. He loves me. Honey, I spent Christmas with him. New Years. OK? Gstaad. Like, everywhere."
When the ambassador checked into Paris's Four Seasons Hotel George V -- a favored hotel of Hollywood A-listers and African and Middle Eastern leaders -- the bill fell to Tsakos, CEO of Tsakos Energy Navigation, according to people familiar with the matter. Guilfoyle would post 20 photos of herself at the event to her two million Instagram followers, dressed in several designer gowns, including two with Tsakos.
Tsakos's financing of her travel hasn't been previously reported. Tsakos and his wife didn't respond to requests for comment. Aktor Group, through lawyers, declined to comment. The lawyers for Aktor have said Guilfoyle wasn't improperly promoting Aktor's commercial interests.
A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Athens said that the ambassador's "career in and out of public service is guided by deep and abiding values" and that she had "faithfully followed State Department ethics and gift reporting guidelines."
"The unsubstantiated claims are simply a distraction from the great work she is doing in Greece and the broader Eastern Mediterranean," the spokesman said.
The new revelations come as top Trump administration officials are deliberating what to do about an ambassador who was once set to marry into the first family, yet is now evolving into a political liability ahead of the 2026 midterms. Administration officials are discussing whether she should be removed, and a decision is expected by President Trump soon, aides said.
The State Department's inspector general is investigating whether Guilfoyle received gifts or favors from private businessmen, a person familiar with the matter said.
On Wednesday, the Journal published text messages showing Guilfoyle asked a Trump donor to send $100,000 to her American Express account, and in return offered help in getting the Trump administration to look into the donor's personal tax and legal issues. A lawyer for Guilfoyle disputed the authenticity of the messages but declined to provide specifics.
"I just heard about it. It's too bad," Trump told reporters of the reporting on Guilfoyle as he left the White House on Friday. "I mean, I don't know. She's an ambassador.. She was always very nice."
Last week, Guilfoyle came under fire from Democrats on the Senate and House foreign-affairs committees, who urged the State Department to review her conduct after the Journal investigation revealed the ambassador's efforts to promote Aktor, the Greek firm whose CEO had flown her to Davos.
The revelations have been a disruption for the White House and State Department. Guilfoyle spent several days reaching out to people in and around the administration, denying that she had sent the texts soliciting credit-card relief, and seeking their support.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio learned about her text messages from the Journal's request for comment as he was on a plane to Athens, where he would deliver a speech standing before the Acropolis, "on whether the West maintains its place at the head of the world." Aides were frustrated and feared the revelations would overshadow Rubio's marquee address, according to people familiar with the discussions. Guilfoyle joined Rubio for multiple events during his visit.
Yet as Rubio departed Athens on Thursday, he declined to discuss the text messages reported by the Journal. "We don't conduct these things in a press conference on a tarmac in a foreign country because you wrote a story," he told reporters. Guilfoyle was on the tarmac to see him off.
Vice President JD Vance, asked about the Journal's reporting on Friday, declined to take a stance. "These are accusations," he said. "Let's see what the truth is. And obviously, if there was something bad that happened, then people have to suffer consequences."
Some former Trump officials expressed skepticism that Guilfoyle would face consequences. Stephanie Grisham, first lady Melania Trump's former spokeswoman, wrote in a post on X: "She knows far too much about the Trump family/inner circle & I imagine they like her as far away as possible. An angry KG stateside would not be a good thing for Trumpworld."
In recent days, congressional Democrats have intensified their calls for Guilfoyle to face an investigation or be ousted from her role -- or both.
In a letter to Guilfoyle on Friday, Rep. Gregory Meeks (D., N.Y.), the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called for an "immediate investigation" into whether the ambassador had violated federal bribery and public corruption laws. Meeks also requested the State Department inspector general investigate whether Guilfoyle had violated federal law, department regulations or ethics requirements.
California Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House oversight committee, in a letter to Guilfoyle on Thursday said the reported conduct "raises serious public corruption and national security concerns" and requested she provide financial records and copies of her communications with certain government officials.