Another coincidence marked the path of the new US ambassador to Athens and her ex-husband – the two once graced West Coast newspapers as San Francisco’s Jennedy Youth. Just hours before newly elected President Donald Trump officially announced Kimberly Guilfoyle’s assumption of her new duties, her former husband and California governor Gavin Newsome played a starring role at the winter Democratic gathering in Beverly Hills. The former San Francisco mayor and successful restaurateur is at the helm of the fifth economy on the planet and appears to be an absolute favorite for the losing Democrats to make a run for the U.S. presidency in 2028 against Donald Trump’s future offspring.
The dream of the presidency
Not with his ex-wife at his side, however, even if Kimberly Guilfoyle has not been tempted to publicly recall memories and incidents from their life together, watching the evolution of the feisty California governor from a distance. Newsome’s involvement in active politics has been a daily occurrence since their married years, since, still a young man, the well-known businessman had expressed his desire to become president of the United States to journalists as early as 1998, a scenario he has been working on with great methodicalness, according to his unstinting inner-party friends.
The son of a lawyer with a judge father, but also a scholarly friend of billionaire Gordon Getty, through whom he even met Guilfoyle in 1994, Newsom was harshly critical at the first intraparty stocktaking meeting of governors elected under the Democratic banner, whom he accused of running the campaign by being “in a bubble”, as he put it. Officially, the focus of the meeting of the Democratic Governors Association members was on setting policy going forward, seeking a middle ground between sharp criticism of the Republican new president, on the one hand, and the need to work with the incoming administration, on the other. There were, however, more than a few donors, lobbyists, and Democratic party supporters in attendance who took the meeting as a “rehearsal for the 2028 primary,” with Gavin Newsome taking on the role of… host in California.
In the second scenario, it’s not out of the question for Harris to run for governor of California in 2026, further opening the path to the White House for her former husband Kimberly Guilfoyle. Sources close to her conveyed to Politico that “she should probably start charting a path forward relatively soon, perhaps sometime in 2025, when the California governor’s race is in full swing,” adding that “many Democrats believe she would open up the field if she were seeking the governor’s seat.”
The Race Against Trump
In such a prospect, the current California governor has early on chosen an aggressive stance against Donald Trump on immigration, with the Washington Post noting that he is “eyeing a future run for the White House.” This is not the first time, after all, that Newsom has attempted to clash with the incoming US president. He has 122 lawsuits under his belt during the years of Trump’s first presidency. He has already convened a legal conference to prepare his legal arsenal against the “planetary leader” along with a fund with a $25 million reserve for legal battles that will arise.
Furthermore, in fear of severe economic consequences to California from any mass deportations and also trade tariffs, “the State will not interfere with the federal right to enforce federal laws with federal funds.” Still, it will comply with state laws intended to shield certain immigrants. “It’s not black and white,” warned the new White House occupants of Newsom, who has maintained comfortable access to the inner circle of Joe Biden and Barack Obama since his days as San Francisco’s mayor.
The possibility, however, that a head-to-head clash with the new U.S. president could take away crucial points with the liberal audience with the 2028 presidential election on the horizon is currently “putting the brakes” on the governor of California’s oppositional momentum. All the more so when the new US president has several times referred to him disparagingly while threatening to cut off funding for natural disaster recovery in the “blue” states, those controlled by Democrats. The sharpening in their relationship, however, came after the pandemic, during which they had managed to build a “working relationship”, but which was subsequently lost in the pages of lawsuits and other litigation.
The 5 “wounds” of Kamala
Donald Trump’s return to the White House is, according to Newsom’s analysis, largely due to Democratic mistakes and omissions during the election season, which he attempted to codify into five axes: inflation, immigration, interest rates, power, and Israel’s war on Gaza. Troubled, “We lost all seven contested states. We lost the popular vote for the first time in 20 years, second time in 36 years, which shows what an anomaly this is,” the California governor commented (in a podcast), according to Newsweek, accusing both Democratic leaders and senior staffers of failing to see the “warning signs” of impending collapse during the presidential race.
And if the California governor and his fellow Democrats failed to see the election results, the same was not true for his ex-wife and new US ambassador to the US, Kimberly Guilfoyle, who was quick to see the political spin of Donald Trump and his agenda. Though a few years resident of New York, where she initially moved to work as a legal expert on Court TV, the up-and-coming lawyer quickly integrated herself into the “Fox News culture”, which her ex-husband has pointed to as the culprit for her changing political profile in one of his rare public references to her.
Besides, Guilfoyle did not externalize her political beliefs while she was still married, from 2001 to 2006, to the former San Francisco mayor, and her exuberant presence by his side had Business Insider describing them as the “young Kennedys” of the West Coast, charting a bright, shared political future.
“It won’t reach the White House”
Gracing magazine covers and in joint, social appearances, the then-mayor of San Francisco and the city’s “first lady” had gained sweeping popularity ratings, while Gavin Newsome rocketed up the party ladder with his support for marriage equality, to the point of courting this year’s presidential nomination. Despite his strong stock in the Democratic camp, he stood by outgoing President Joe Biden and then his running mate Kamala Harris from the start, staying out of the presidential race this year, a development Kimberly Guilfoyle discounted two years ago.
In a “fiery” speech in 2022, referring to her hometown, she had commented that “in California, they have vowed to get rid of gas-powered cars without any explanation of how they will fund and fuel alternatives.” She added with a nod “A bunch of winners there, folks. Ask me how I know,” concluding that “it doesn’t reach the White House,” a quote that was interpreted as a direct shot at her ex-husband.
It was not, however, Kimberly Guilfoyle who first piqued her ex-husband, as a year after their divorce in 2007, the governor admitted to having an extramarital affair with the director’s wife at the time the divorce was being finalized. “I want to make it clear that everything you have heard and read is true and I am deeply sorry for that,” Newsome publicly confessed, only to marry actress and documentary producer Jennifer Siebel a year later.
It’s been ten years since then before Kimberly Guilfoyle first mentioned her ex-husband publicly, reminiscing about the early days of his professional and political career. Speaking of “an amazing man with ideas,” the new U.S. ambassador went back in time for good when Newsome ran his restaurant business where, according to Guilfoyle, he did “everything from food selection and menus” to making “all the staffing decisions.” The payback was not long in coming, with the California governor declaring a year later that “I wish her well” in the wake of his ex-wife’s affair with Donald Trump Jr, even though “politically we see the world through different eyes.” Kimberly, however, hadn’t had the last word.
The “nails”
“If you want to see the Biden-Harris Socialist future for our country, take a look at California,” she said from the podium at the Republicans in 2020 by Kimberly Guilfoyle, referring to a place of immense wealth, countless innovation, and a pristine environment that “the Democrats” – more or less her former husband as governor – have turned into a place of lawlessness. Gavin Newsome nonetheless declined to comment on her “fiery” report, having since lost all contact with her as a result of the influence on her of “Fox News culture in a catalytic way,” he said. “I didn’t change, he changed,” Guilfoyle retorted a year later, attributing his political behavior to the “radical left,” though she firmly believed in his candidacy for the White House this year, saying it was “something he very much wants.”
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