Washington, D.C. — Trump’s ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle was finally forced to resign after she sold access to the administration, nonprofits are training legions of volunteers to protect voters as Trump guts federal election security, and Trump’s bank regulators are pushing a plan that would cut off funding to the community groups that serve working families.
Kimberly Guilfoyle Finally Forced Out Over Pay-to-Play
Kimberly Guilfoyle, Trump’s ambassador to Greece and Donald Trump Jr.’s former fiancée, resigned under pressure Tuesday after a string of Wall Street Journal reports exposed her pay-to-play operation. Just before her confirmation hearing, she asked Trump donor Eric Deters to wire $100,000 to quietly pay down her American Express bill, and Deters says he wanted her help reaching Trump’s Justice Department and IRS. Once in Athens, she let a lobbyist for a Greek construction and energy company sit in on meetings with foreign officials and bragged about luxury trips paid for by Greek tycoons. The State Department’s inspector general is now examining whether she took gifts or favors. Marco Rubio stood by her in Athens days before Trump cut her loose, and Trump only acted once the headlines became too embarrassing to carry into the midterms. Selling access has been this administration’s business model from day one, and Guilfoyle got caught doing it in the open.
Civil Society Steps Up to Protect the Vote
The nonprofits Trump keeps targeting are mobilizing to protect voters this November. With leaders bracing for the possibility of ICE agents at polling places, Common Cause has expanded its voter protection program from 14 states to 23. The League of Women Voters will put 20,000 volunteers at polling sites, and the Election Protection coalition of more than 300 nonprofits will staff its 866-OUR-VOTE hotline with over 1,000 trained attorneys. These groups are filling a hole Trump dug on purpose: the federal agency built to secure elections has lost about a third of its workforce under Trump, so the Brennan Center and its partners are now training sheriffs and police departments on Election Day security. Volunteers giving up their time to protect Americans’ votes is patriotism in action – and it’s exactly what Trump and his allies are afraid of.
Trump’s Bank Regulators Squeeze Community Nonprofits
Trump’s FDIC and Comptroller of the Currency want to rewrite the Community Reinvestment Act, the 1977 anti-redlining law requiring banks to invest in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. Their plan, designed to target groups the administration brands as “activists,” would cap overhead at 15% for nonprofits receiving grants from big banks and restrict funding that flows through intermediaries like the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. Even the banks are balking. The American Bankers Association warned that salaries, rent, and technology are what make community development possible, and community bankers pointed out that the paperwork alone could push groups over the cap. Hundreds of housing and investment groups have protested that it would gut affordable housing projects. Trump is turning an anti-redlining law against the community groups that serve working families, and even Wall Street lobbyists know it’s a terrible idea.
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