The Tribune

By CHARLIE HARPER

READERS will well recall the tumult and upheaval that were the key features of White House personnel policy during Donald Trump’s first term in office. Now, renewed turmoil may focus more unwanted attention on an emerging issue that could be pivotal in bringing down the Trump era of absolute control in Washington.

Trump 45’s own Chief of Staff and National Security Adviser turned over several times each, and there were generally bitter, resentful feelings on both sides after the president’s initial choices were shown the door or simply resigned. Trump’s initial Secretaries of State and Defense and Attorney General all quit or were fired less than two years into his term.

Do you remember Rex Tillerson, Jim Mattis, and Jeff Sessions? By December 2018, they were all gone.

And before January 6, 2021, his second Defense Secretary and Attorney General were also both gone. Finally, while he remained until the end, Trump’s second Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, has largely disappeared from public life after offering critical comments about the president.

Pompeo was reportedly blackballed by former Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson, among others, after Trump’s first term. Just this week, though, Pompeo announced he would lead a new DC-based firm that “would help companies anticipate international developments and make consequential decisions amid uncertainty.” Pretty standard stuff for former top national security officials, and often very lucrative too.

This time around for his second term, after Trump and his supporters had a four-year timeout during which to develop Project 2025 and establish personal loyalty to the president as the essential prerequisite for service under Trump 47, there has been more stability. Marco Rubio has remained in place serving as Secretary of State and National Security Adviser; Pete Hegseth has survived several attempts to force or embarrass him out of office as Secretary of Defense; Kash Patel has confounded critics by staving off various schemes to remove him as FBI Director, and quiet, ruthless Susie Wiles has remained as Chief of Staff.

Many of the other women filling prominent positions in this Trump administration have not fared so well, however. Most notably, Attorney General Pam Bondi was fired by Trump earlier this year, as were Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Department of Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem.

That brings us to Kimberley Guilfoyle, who was just last week eased out as Trump’s Ambassador to Greece. This amazing person has, among other distinctions, probably established a standard for bipartisan dating and serious relationships not seen since the early days of the American republic, when the pool of eligible contenders for the hand of prominent political women was relatively much less wide or deep.

Guilfoyle has the perhaps unprecedented distinction of having been married to the likely front-runner for the Democratic nomination for president in 2028, Gavin Newsom, for five years and, more recently, having been romantically involved for six years and formally engaged to eldest presidential son Donald Trump Jr. for three years, until 2024.

Guilfoyle, 57, just resigned after being at the center of a scandal accusing her of asking MAGA donor Eric Deters to pay off a $100,000 American Express credit card bill just before her 2025 Senate confirmation hearing, followed by other salacious allegations surrounding her inappropriate conduct at the helm of the US embassy in Athens.

“She wasn’t a member of my family,” Trump told reporters after Guilfoyle resigned. I guess she dated my son a long time ago. She was doing a good job, but we didn’t like what we were reading” about the exchange with Deters. Deters has now sued Guilfoyle for defamation of character after allegations in another financial matter, but the timing of the lawsuit suggests strongly that it’s linked to revelations about the $100,000 credit card payoff request.

Guilfoyle has been a prominent figure in Californian and American political life for 25 years after an early career as an Assistant District Attorney in San Francisco and Los Angeles. She might under different circumstances have been a good candidate for chief White House spokesperson. After her divorce from Newsom, Guilfoyle showed herself to be a passionate and skilled public speaker and advocate. And the White House spokesperson job is now available.

That job just became vacant this week after a former Fox News figure and Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman was let go by Trump just five days into her tenure. Katie Zachariah didn’t look steady or confident at her first White House briefing, and compounded things by seemingly implying that she was a licensed attorney, although she had failed to pass the California bar exam.

Anyhow, Guilfoyle is presently out of work and has said, “I intend to vigorously defend my name, my reputation, and my integrity.” Her statement, together with her risqué personal lifestyle and apparent need for public attention, has suggested to pundits that she may be contemplating profiting from her unique political connections.

Guilfoyle supposedly has Trump insiders worried that she could reveal Trump family secrets for profit and notoriety because she allegedly keeps a journal filled with spicy details, according to some news reports. Guilfoyle has denied these intentions and said she would “always be a loyal supporter” of the president.

Still, the tabloids are having fun with this issue. “Having her back in America would be a nightmare, because Kimberly knows where all the bodies are buried,” one anonymous source said. “She knows the people, the secrets, the fights, the relationships.” Another insider breathlessly told reporters that “Kimberly knows everything” and was “way inside that family and political operation for years.”

The troubles that ultimately torpedoed Guilfoyle’s Athens tenure began when the Wall Street Journal reported last month that she had been promoting a Greek construction firm, where one of her advisers served as a lobbyist. After the story was published, Guilfoyle reportedly started asking influential Trump supporters and officials to support her different version of events.

When the Deters payoff request story broke, Trump had apparently grown irritated at the corruption allegations against Guilfoyle, and was bothered that she might be profiting off his presidency.

Pundits are already in full voice pointing out that it seems like only the president, his immediate family and a few privileged friends and advisers can enrich themselves during his presidency, which they are all seemingly doing to such an extent that polling presently lists the current administration’s numerous corruptions as perhaps the most important factor influencing voters to abandon support of the Republican Party in the upcoming midterm elections.

Supposedly, Trump’s quick decision to jettison Guilfoyle represented a recognition by the White House that corruption is indeed becoming a very worrisome and unwelcome drag on GOP prospects next month.

A Fox News poll released just a week ago indicated that corruption has indeed become voters’ top concern, edging out inflation and gas prices. Six in 10 respondents said they’re “extremely concerned” about corruption. When Fox News or its polling associates report discouraging or embarrassing news about Trump and his administration, the liberal media is as quick to quote Fox reporting, as is Fox itself when the New York Times reveals damaging information about the Democrats.

For many observers, the role of corruption in this campaign season is reminiscent of the 2006 midterm elections under president George W. Bush, when it also emerged as a top concern. The poster boys of that scandal-ridden period were a controversial, but once extraordinarily powerful GOP lobbyist, Jack Abramoff, and two now-forgotten Republican congressmen who eventually served prison time.

As they did 20 years ago, Democrats are again getting support from independents and those voters who have not yet decided how to vote in two weeks, by promising to resist and mitigate this corrupt Republican administration if they can regain control of the House of Representatives.

(By the way, another unpopular war in the Middle East – the Iraq War -- also hurt Republicans in 2006.)

The now more centrist Washington Post, owned by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, editorialized that “corruption is antithetical to free markets, which require uniform rules, reliably enforced. Healthy markets depend on a level playing field where the interplay of supply and demand efficiently allocates capital. Even when outright corruption isn’t involved, cronyism that favors elites and insiders undermines that admirable dynamic.”