President Donald Trump came to power promising to overthrow a decadent political establishment: a self-serving ruling class that had grown rich and arrogant, apparently insulated from the ordinary Americans it purported to represent but didn't actually understand. Now, the controversy surrounding Kimberly Guilfoyle, his ambassador to Greece, shines a negative light on that promise, raising a question: has MAGA simply replaced the old establishment with a new one that has acquired many of the same habits? In simpler words: are Republicans just like Democrats when it comes to their relationship with power?
Guilfoyle, the former Fox News personality and onetime fiancee of Donald Trump Jr., has been asked to resign following allegations of financial impropriety and questionable diplomatic conduct. Although she denies wrongdoing, the details emerging from her tenure in Athens paint a portrait of an elite enjoying the privileges of power, the same type of character that Trump has been warning against. There are reports of private jets and luxury hospitality provided by wealthy Greek businessmen, plus allegations that she promoted the interests of a particular energy company and allowed its lobbyist into private diplomatic meetings.
Perhaps most striking is the claim that she asked a Trump donor to pay a $100,000 American Express bill while offering access to senior administration officials. Guilfoyle's lawyers dispute the allegations, but the larger significance of the affair does not depend on every allegation being substantiated. It lies in the contradiction between the political culture MAGA promised to destroy and the one that has emerged around its own leadership.
Trump's original appeal was built partly on contempt for a Washington establishment that appeared to operate by different rules from everyone else. In his tellings, politicians cultivated wealthy donors and traded on their connections, moving effortlessly between public office and private opportunity, seemingly always more detached from the people whose interests they claimed to defend. But political power has a way of transforming insurgents into insiders—a lesson that has been repeating itself since 1776.
The movement that once presented itself as the voice of forgotten Americans now possesses its own celebrity aristocracy and elaborate rituals of status. Guilfoyle is a pretty vivid embodiment of that transformation. Her ascent from television personality and political fundraiser to ambassador reflects a political world in which celebrity and proximity to the Trump family can carry enormous weight.
Her reported conduct in Greece, if substantiated, would illustrate how easily those connections can blur the boundaries between public responsibility and private privilege. Only days ago, Marco Rubio stood beneath the Acropolis calling for the salvation of Western civilization. Now Athens is hosting a rather less heroic struggle for MAGA's soul, complete with hubris!
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