Guilfoyle’s lawyers disputed the authenticity of the messages and said she was asking for money owed to her for speeches and consulting work conducted on his behalf before she became ambassador.
Audio recordings obtained by the Wall Street Journal reportedly include Guilfoyle bragging about her connections to prominent Greek business tycoons who she said bankrolled luxury travel and flights on private jets.
According to the newspaper, she also boasted to an official in Athens that the US could topple the Greek government.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was pictured alongside Guilfoyle during a trip to Athens last week, also had reportedly become unhappy with the allegations.
Following the news that Guilfoyle was being asked to leave, Deters told the BBC that “it’s a great day for American diplomacy”.
Deters, who said he did not ultimately pay Guilfoyle, also said it was a “complete lie” that he owed her money for speaking and consulting fees and said he is planning to take legal action against her.
Guilfoyle was a longtime political ally of Trump’s and was for years in a relationship with his son Donald Jr, to whom she got engaged in 2018.
That relationship ended in 2024, around the time she was appointed to the position in Greece.
Trump noted on Tuesday that “she, I guess, dated my son a long time ago” but was not like a family member. The US president said he did not speak with Guilfoyle before she was asked to resign. “She went to Greece, she was doing a good job, but we didn’t like what we were reading,” Trump said.
The president also said he thought Zacharia was “very good” in her first White House press briefing.
Zacharia, a longtime conservative commentator and Trump supporter, only answered a handful of questions during the 14-minute briefing.
For the first eight minutes, she read a list of what the administration sees as policy achievements. Then Zacharia answered questions about Guilfoyle, Ukraine, her family and administration policies towards non-traditional media outlets.
She said she viewed her job as working to “amplify, multiply and expand upon President Trump’s incredible agenda”.