Rubio and Guilfoyle embraced on Athens tarmac day before story published

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance offered different reactions Thursday to a Wall Street Journal article about U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle.

The day before the WSJ article published, Rubio and Guilfoyle embraced on the tarmac in Greece, according to the WSJ Politics newsletter written by Damian Paletta, the Journal’s Washington coverage chief. Paletta described the underlying Journal article as “explosive.”

As ambassador, Guilfoyle is a key figure in Rubio’s diplomatic realm — and, in Paletta’s framing, potentially a liability.

Rubio, Paletta wrote, snapped at the press when asked about the article Thursday. “I don’t know if it’s true or not true,” he told reporters in Greece. “You guys somehow walk around thinking that because some source told you something and you reported it, it’s the gospel. It’s not the gospel. It’s not the gospel for me.”

Vance, asked in Washington, was more circumspect. A reporter posed a hypothetical: “Do you have any reaction to a U.S. official, in this case a U.S. ambassador, asking someone to pay off debt in exchange to access to other government officials?” Vance responded: “Well, with that hypothetical…obviously I don’t love that, but I don’t know exactly who you are talking about.”

He said he wanted to wait for more information before commenting further. The Journal noted that Vance’s answer “was circumspect, but it definitely wasn’t ‘No comment.’”

Paletta wrote that either Rubio or Vance could end up as the 2028 Republican presidential candidate. Guilfoyle had been engaged to Donald Trump Jr. until a messy breakup, so there is a bit of drama all over the place. If she is ousted or forced to resign, Paletta wrote, there will be plenty of finger-pointing. “Maybe the finger-pointing has already begun,” he added.

Other items from the WSJ Politics newsletter

Paletta’s same-day newsletter also flagged the following items:

  • Household finances: The Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances — described by Paletta as the gold-standard study of household wealth — was set to release its figures Friday.
  • President Trump’s Friday schedule: Trump was to host a Columbus Day celebration at the White House at 11 a.m. ET, then at 2 p.m. participate in a swearing-in ceremony for Keith Sonderling as labor secretary. He was scheduled to head to Syracuse, N.Y., Friday evening to deliver remarks at a midterm rally.
  • Pentagon execution livestream: The Pentagon said it planned to livestream the firing-squad execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, a former Army officer who admitted to killing 13 people in the 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a conservative news outlet that he wanted to ensure “people are able to watch it” because “people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things.” The execution is scheduled for Dec. 3.
  • Budget deficit: The U.S. budget deficit climbed to nearly $2 trillion in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 — a 12% rise from 2025 in nominal dollars and the highest level since 2021, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The deficit has emerged six-plus years into an economic expansion, a pattern normally seen only during recessions and wars.
  • Defense procurement: Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg, a Wall Street veteran, is establishing a new procurement bureaucracy and taking billions of dollars in government stakes in companies that supply critical materials, rocket engines and other key parts. Paletta reported that Feinberg has largely leaned on companies and executives familiar to him from his time in the investment world, and that skeptics inside the Defense Department worry his Wall Street playbook is not suited for the world’s biggest military.
  • 1991 confirmation context: In 1991, Anita Hill testified during the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Clarence Thomas, saying he had harassed her when she was an attorney and he was her boss at the Education Department and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Thomas, nominated by President George H.W. Bush, vehemently denied Hill’s allegations and was confirmed by the Senate 52 to 48.