Former The View co-host Debbie Matenopoulos has launched a public Instagram campaign for U.S. ambassador to Greece days after Kimberly Guilfoyle left the post amid donor allegations.
In a three-minute Instagram video posted just days after Kimberly Guilfoyle resigned as U.S. ambassador to Greece, 51-year-old Greek-American Debbie Matenopoulos made a direct pitch to President Donald Trump and the Senate. Wearing a white T-shirt with “Greece” and the country’s flag, she framed the appeal as an informal campaign for the open post.
Yahoo Entertainment reported that Matenopoulos, a former co-host of The View and intermittent guest host, cast herself as ready to represent the United States in Athens on the strength of family ties, language, business projects, and television credentials rather than a diplomatic résumé.
“This is my plea to the president and to the Senate,” Matenopoulos said in the video.
"This is my plea to the president and to the Senate and to the people of America and the people of Greece. Please let me represent you as your new U.S. ambassador to Greece."
She said she understands “the politics, the government, the people,” has “many connections,” and loves the country. She owns homes in Greece, holds extended family there, and argued the United States and Greece can build “even better relations.”
Matenopoulos, described as the youngest co-host when she joined The View, leaned hard on heritage and brand work. She cited two best-selling Greek cookbooks and a Greek skincare line, plus a Greek passport and fluency with the country itself.
She also pointed to her start in daytime television. Barbara Walters, she said, hand-picked her “straight out of college” for The View, calling Walters “arguably the most important influential female journalist of all time.”
Her political affiliation was left unclear in the coverage. The pitch stayed personal and promotional: lifestyle curator, Greek roots, and a public ask for the ambassadorship.
She paired the résumé dump with a blunt take on how ambassador jobs often get filled. “No disrespect to Ms. Kim Guilfoyle,” she said, before arguing the bar is not a career foreign-service track.
"She wasn't a career diplomat. You don't need any qualification, really, to be a U.S. ambassador to any country. You don't even need a college degree; you don't need a diplomatic background... you just need to be an entrepreneur, a successful business woman or businessman, or a political donor..."
That line lands as both self-promotion and an admission. Matenopoulos is not pretending the post is reserved for career diplomats. She is arguing she fits the same entrepreneur-and-connections model she described.
Guilfoyle, 57, a MAGA stalwart and former fiancée of Donald Trump Jr., resigned the Greece post on a Tuesday. Coverage tied the exit to scandal allegations, including claims she sought a donor’s help with a $100,000 credit card bill in exchange for favors. She denied the allegations.
Earlier reporting detailed how the White House asked Kimberly Guilfoyle to step down after ethics reports, setting the stage for the vacancy Matenopoulos is now chasing in public.
Guilfoyle called the ambassadorship “the honor of a lifetime” and stressed that her loyalty to Trump and the America First movement remains intact.
In a lengthy statement on X, she rejected the claims against her and framed them as false attacks on a long record of public work.
"While my time as Ambassador may be coming to an end, my commitment to President Trump, the America First movement, and the country I love will never end."
She added that she has “dedicated my professional life to fighting for justice, standing up for what is right, and defending the values that make America exceptional,” and said she “will not allow false accusations to define my decades of public service.”
Separate scrutiny of her tenure covered spending questions, including pricey champagne requests and Athens dinner bills that drew fresh attention while she held the post.
The ambassadorship is a serious bilateral post. Greece is a NATO ally and a country where American interests, citizens, and crises intersect in real time, including tragedies on the ground in Athens, such as when a gas blast near the Acropolis killed several people, among them Americans.
Matenopoulos is treating the opening like a public audition: camera on, flag on the shirt, plea aimed at the president, the Senate, Americans, and Greeks at once. She says she loves the country and can deepen ties. She also says the job often goes to successful business people and donors, and that a college degree is not required.
That is the contrast the video puts on the table. One side is a resigned ambassador denying donor-related allegations and promising continued loyalty to Trump’s agenda. The other is a View alum and lifestyle figure turning an Instagram monologue into a bid for Senate confirmation and a seat in Athens.
No White House response, formal nomination, or Senate process involving Matenopoulos appears in the available reporting. Her video is a public ask, not an appointment. Guilfoyle’s exit is complete enough that outsiders are already campaigning for the chair she left.
Ambassadors speak for the United States when it counts. Greece is not a brand extension, and a three-minute video is not a substitute for the judgment the post demands.