President-elect Donald Trump will nominate Kimberly Guilfoyle to serve as ambassador to Greece, the latest of his picks to have a close connection to a member of his family.
"For many years, Kimberly has been a close friend and ally," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Tuesday. "Her extensive experience and leadership in law, media, and politics along with her sharp intellect make her supremely qualified to represent the United States, and safeguard its interests abroad."
Guilfoyle, a former Fox News personality, has long been a fixture of Trump's world: She served as the Trump campaign's finance chair during his 2020 run and has continued to act as a surrogate, including delivering fiery speeches at the most recent two Republican National Conventions.
As a key witness of the events leading up to the Capitol insurrection — and a fundraiser for that rally's organizers — she testified before the House Jan. 6 panel in 2022.
Guilfoyle is also the longtime partner of his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. The two started dating in 2018 and got engaged in 2020.
The status of their relationship is currently unclear, however. On Tuesday morning, hours before Trump's ambassador announcement, tabloid photos of Don Jr. holding hands with a Palm Beach socialite (also spotted in the family box at the RNC this summer) fueled rumors about a breakup.
Trump Jr. said in a tweet that he was proud of Guilfoyle, writing that "she loves America and she always has wanted to serve the country as an Ambassador."
Guilfoyle said she accepts the nomination, a role that requires Senate confirmation. She wrote on social media that she looks forward to "delivering on the Trump agenda, supporting our Greek allies, and ushering in a new era of peace and prosperity."
"It was the democratic values born in Greece that helped shape the founding of America," she wrote. "And now, we have an opportunity to honor that history by bringing better days here at home and abroad."
It's not uncommon for presidents to reward allies with ambassadorships. In fact, the American Foreign Service Association says it has been "common practice for decades" for presidents to fill roughly 30 percent of chief-of-mission positions with political allies, including wealthy donors, as opposed to choosing career foreign service members.
Trump isn't the first president to pick relatives, in-laws included, for the job — or to face criticism for doing so.
Some of Trump's picks come from his family tree
Guilfoyle's nomination is the latest drawn from Trump's extended family.
Earlier this month, Trump named Massad Boulos — a billionaire, Lebanese American businessman and the father-in-law of his daughter Tiffany — as a senior adviser on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs.
Boulos, who twice ran unsuccessfully for parliament in Lebanon, has longstanding ties to powerbrokers in that country. He most recently helped lead the Trump campaign's outreach efforts to Arab American communities in Michigan.
His son Michael married Tiffany Trump at Mar-a-Lago in 2022.
Trump chose another of his children's in-laws for an ambassadorship last month, saying he intends to nominate real estate mogul Charles Kushner — whom he pardoned from various federal charges during his first term — as the ambassador to France.
Kushner is the father of Jared Kushner, the former White House senior adviser to Trump who is married to Trump's oldest daughter, Ivanka.
It is not clear what if any official role Trump's children will play in his administration. Ivanka said after her father's reelection campaign announcement in 2022 that she did "not plan to be involved in politics," choosing to focus on her family's private life.
It's not unusual for presidents to nominate relatives
There is a long history of presidents tapping family members to serve in their administrations, starting with John Adams appointing his son, John Quincy Adams, as the minister to Prussia.
A number of presidents kept relatives on the White House payroll throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, many as secretaries, aides or unofficial advisers, according to the National Constitution Center.
They include James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, John Tyler, James Buchanan, Zachary Taylor, Ulysses Grant, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower.
In 1961, John F. Kennedy appointed his brother-in-law, R. Sargent Shriver, as the director of the Peace Corps. He also appointed his brother Robert Kennedy as U.S. attorney general, a position to which he was confirmed and served for three years.
RFK's nomination was so controversial that it prompted the enactment of the Federal Anti-Nepotism Statute in 1967, nicknamed the "Bobby Kennedy law." It forbids public officials from appointing relatives to a "civilian position in the agency in which he is serving or over which he exercises jurisdiction or control."
The measure has been tested several times, including when Bill Clinton tasked Hillary Clinton with leading a health reform task force in the '90s and when Trump named Kushner a senior advisor during his first term.
Experts have disagreed over the years about how to interpret the statute, with many — including a federal judge ruling in the Clinton case in 1993 — maintaining that it doesn't apply to the presidency because the White House doesn't count as an "agency."
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