'Wicked' Kimberly Guilfoyle: 'I know why Don Jr. had enough,' says informant

The once-enthusiastic MAGA donor who told the Wall Street Journal about Kimberly Guilfoyle’s alleged efforts to hit him up for $100,000 to pay off her American Express bill has shared the reasons he decided to cooperate with the Journal’s bombshell report about her, which could threaten her job as U.S. ambassador to Greece and her standing in the Trump administration.

In an interview with The Bulwark’s Sam Stein, a very plainspoken Eric Deters said, “I came forward because I’m angry.”

The retired attorney, legal strategist and conservative radio host from northern Kentucky called the Guilfoyle a “grifter” who promised him political access in “Trump world.” He mainly wanted authorities to focus attention on a legal cause he had been working on. He said he’d pay her $1 million but “she didn’t do squat.”

Then, right before her July 2025 Senate confirmation hearing to become ambassador, Deters said the former San Francisco prosecutor begged him to pay off her $100,000 credit card bill, and in a way that wouldn’t leave a paper trail, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing Signal messages between the two.

“Honey please I need you to get this done for me today,” wrote the ex-wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom. She also promised Deters she would be his “Trump ride or die, forever and ever” if he paid down her balance.

Deter confirmed to Stein that he shared those messages with the Journal. “I was kind of taken back about (her request for the $100,000),” he said, adding that he never paid the $100,000. He also said: “She’s so pushy. I mean, Kimberly Guilfoyle is wicked and she’s pushy. I can tell you right now, I know why Don Jr. had enough.”

Deters was referring to Trump Jr. ending his three-year engagement with Guilfoyle sometime before the 2024 presidential election. The two began dating during Trump’s first term, and the former Fox News pundit became one of the president’s most high-profile supporters.

But in December 2024, Trump’s oldest son went public with his relationship with his future wife, Palm Beach socialite Bettina Anderson. Around that time, Trump announced he was nominating Guilfoyle to be his ambassador to Greece. Following her breakup with Trump, Guilfoyle complained to friends she was broke, and she need to pay off her credit card debt, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Deters’ comments and the Wall Street Journal report come as Guilfoyle is under fire from Democrats on the Senate and House foreign affairs committees, who urged the State Department to review her conduct as ambassador, including reported complaints from embassy staff about her extravagant spending and allegations she is using her role as a government official to advance private commercial interests.

On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio refused to comment on the Wall Street Journal report after meeting with Guilfoyle in Athens, the Associated Press reported. Vice President JD Vance also said “I don’t love” the idea of a U.S. official asking another person to pay off debts in exchange for access to other government officials, but he declined to comment further until he knew all the details.

In his interview with Stein, Deters also railed against others in Trump’s inner circle, agreeing that some are allegedly profiting off their ability to provide “access and help” to those willing to pay them. He also appeared to join lawmakers and watchdog groups who have raised ethical and legal concerns about the business ventures involving the president’s sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, as well as his daughter, Ivanka Trump, and her husband, Jared Kushner.

“By the way, the two people that I detest more than anybody in Trump world is Jared Kushner and Ivanka,” Deters said. “They are yuck yucks. I mean, they they are just the epitome of yuck yuck.”

Deters explained to Stein how he spent years building connections within Trump’s inner circle. “I’m somebody who’s given over a million dollars to Trump world,” he said.

Those connections grew through Freedom Fest, a conservative gathering he launched in northern Kentucky in 2020 in opposition to COVID-19 mandates, according to The Hill. The event attracted prominent Trump world figures, including Guilfoyle, Trump Jr. and Eric Trump. Deters told the Journal he also paid Guilfoyle $300,000 over several years to speak at the event, along with $200,000 to Trump Jr. and $100,000 to Eric Trump.

Deters, who has launched several unsuccessful bids for political office, including for congress and Kentucky governor, told Stein he remained loyal to Trump after he lost the 2020 election and his political career appeared to be over as he faced multiple criminal indictments across several state and federal jurisdictions.

“From 2020 to 2024, Trump world was desperate,” Deters said. “They were under indictment. They all needed money. Legal fees were killing them. They needed money from anybody and everybody. People like Eric Deters.”

“Well, now that they win the presidential election and they got all the billionaires, they don’t need Eric Deters,” he said.

Deters said he thought Guilfoyle was still willing to help. After the election, he contacted her about several issues that could use the intervention of federal agencies. One involved an IRS inquiry into a tax deduction he took, which he insisted to Stein was not criminal. “The tax matter was not a big deal to me,” he said.

The more important issue, according to Deters, involved an Ohio spine surgeon named Abubakar Atiq Durrani, who fled to Pakistan after facing charges of performing unnecessary surgeries and defrauding insurance companies, as The Hill reported. Deters, who said he was advising attorneys representing hundreds of Durrani’s former patients, wanted the Justice Department to pursue his extradition.

“I have fought for these victims for 14 years,” Deters told Stein. “I have spent millions and millions of dollars fighting for them. I care about these people and I want them to get justice.”

Deters said Guilfoyle offered to get him an interview on Tucker Carlson’s podcast to talk about the Durrani case. He offered to pay her $1 million but the interview never materialized.

Deters tried to distinguish himself from others trying to curry favor with Trump and his inner circle. “I never asked the Trump people for anything,” he told Stein. “I never asked for a job, an appointment. I didn’t lobby him for anything besides the Durrani victims.”

During his association with Guilfoyle, Deters said she tried to placate him by inviting him to parties at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. But he told Stein he felt out of place among all the “filthy, freaking rich people” as the only man there is blue jeans, cowboys and a sports coat. He said, “I noticed these Mar-a-Lago ladies looking at me like, like ‘who is that guy?'”

Deters told Stein he had been to Mar-a-Lago four or five times and met Trump around five times. “I mean, I’ve hung out with those kind of people,” he said. “You know what? You couldn’t pay me to go back to Mar-a-Lago.”

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