President-elect Donald Trump will nominate Kimberly Guilfoyle as ambassador to Greece, the latest of his nominees to have a close relationship to a member of his family.
“For many years, Kimberly has been a close friend and ally,” Trump stated 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 part of Trump’s world. She was the Trump campaign’s finance chair during his 2020 run and has continued to act as a surrogate, delivering fiery speeches at the most recent two Republican National Conventions.
Her testimony before the House Jan. 6 panel in 2022 was important because she saw a lot of what happened before the Capitol uprising and helped raise money for the people who planned it.
Guilfoyle has also been married to Trump Jr.’s oldest son for a long time. They began dating in 2018 and got engaged in 2020.
At this point, it is not clear what the status of their relationship is. Tabloid pictures of Don Jr. holding hands with a Palm Beach socialite (seen in the family box at the RNC this summer) on Tuesday morning, hours before Trump announced that he would be the ambassador, led to rumors that the two were no longer together.
For Guilfoyle, Trump Jr. wrote in a tweet, “she loves America and she has always wanted to serve the country as an Ambassador.” He was proud of her.
According to Guilfoyle, she is willing to take on the role, which needs to be approved by the Senate. Her social media post said, “I can not wait to carry out President Trump’s plans, stand with our Greek allies, and start a new era of peace and prosperity.”
“It was the democratic values born in Greece that helped shape the founding of America,” she said. “And now, we have an opportunity to honor that history by bringing better days here at home and abroad.”
It is common for presidents to give ambassadorships to people who are friendly with them. According to the American Foreign Service Association, it has been “common practice for decades” for presidents to fill about 30% of chief-of-mission positions with political allies, such as wealthy donors, instead of career foreign service members.
Trump is not the first president to choose a family member, even an in-law, for the job and then get criticized for it.
Some of Trump’s picks come from his family tree
Guilfoyle’s nomination is the most recent one from Trump’s family.
Massad Boulos is a billionaire Lebanese American businessman and Trump’s daughter Tiffany’s father-in-law. Earlier this month, Trump made him a senior adviser on Arab and Middle Eastern issues.
Boulos has been close to powerful people in Lebanon for a long time. He has run for parliament twice but lost both times. His most recent job was to help lead the Trump campaign’s efforts to reach out to Arab American communities in Michigan.
In 2022, his son Michael married Tiffany Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
Last month, Trump picked another in-law of one of his children for an ambassadorship. He said he would name real estate mogul Charles Kushner, whom he released from several federal charges during his first term, as the ambassador to France.
Jared Kushner, Trump’s ex-top adviser in the White House, is married to Trump’s oldest daughter Ivanka. Kushner is their father.
It is not clear what, if any, official part Trump’s kids will play in his government. “Not plan to be involved in politics,” Ivanka said after her father’s reelection campaign was announced in 2022. She wanted to focus on her family’s private life.
It’s not unusual for presidents to nominate relatives
Presidents have used family members to work in their administrations for a long time. John Quincy Adams, the president’s son, was appointed as the minister to Prussia by John Adams.
The National Constitution Center says that during the 19th and 20th centuries, many presidents hired relatives to work in the White House as secretaries, aides, or unofficial advisors.
Some of them were Andrew Jackson, John Tyler, James Buchanan, Zachary Taylor, Ulysses Grant, Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, and James Madison.
John F. Kennedy put his brother-in-law R. Sargent Shriver in charge of the Peace Corps in 1961. He also chose his brother Robert Kennedy to be U.S. attorney general. Kennedy was confirmed and did a great job for three years.
The Federal Anti-Nepotism Statute, also known as the “Bobby Kennedy law,” was made into law in 1967 because of the controversy over RFK’s nomination. It says that public officials can not put a family member in a “civilian position in the agency in which he is serving or over which he exercises jurisdiction or control.”
The test has been done more than once, like when Bill Clinton put Hillary Clinton in charge of a health reform task force in the 1990s and when Trump made Kushner a senior advisor during his first term.
Over the years, experts have had different ideas about how to interpret the law. For example, a federal judge in the Clinton case in 1993 said that the law does not apply to the presidency because the White House is not a “agency.”