Kimberly Guilfoyle Confirms She’s In The Running For White House Press Secretary

Kimberly Guilfoyle, the popular and charismatic Fox News Channel commentator, has confirmed that she is in talks with the Trump administration about possibly taking over as White House press secretary.

Speculation emerged last week that President Trump was giving this hire due deliberation along with his stated idea of canceling or reducing press briefings altogether.

Guilfoyle, the co-host of FNC’s The Five, was under consideration for the job during the post-election transition before it went to Spicer, the communications director of the Republican National Committee in Washington for the previous five years.

With the news media ready to pounce on any news, real or “fake,” and/or the controversy du jour, President Trump, like him or hate him, needs a spokesperson with strong communication skills who can stay on offense. As a member of the GOP establishment, Spicer may or may not be a complete fit with Trump’s freewheeling and sometimes contradictory style, particularly in avoiding being put on the defensive by the press corps so often.

Guilfoyle told the San Jose Mercury News that she’s been acquainted with the Trump family for about 13 years since she moved to New York from California and that she has a good, trusting relationship with the president. In confirming that she has discussed taking a position in the White House with a number of people there, the former attorney made this observation.

“I’m a patriot, and it would be an honor to serve the country. I think it’d be a fascinating job, it’s a challenging job, and you need someone really determined and focused, a great communicator in there with deep knowledge to be able to handle that position.”

Guilfoyle declined to throw any shade on incumbent Sean Spicer, the Saturday Night Live target, however.

“Sean Spicer is a very nice man and a patriot; he’s dedicated himself to this public service. Very tough position he’s in — I wish him the best, and I know he puts a lot of effort into it.”

She also noted that important components of the press secretary job in general are to stay on message and being well prepared along with “making sure that everybody’s on the same page.”

As White House press secretary, if that ever comes to fruition, Guilfoyle would have to take a significant pay cut and move with her young son from New York City to D.C. On the other hand, anyone who worked on a president’s communications team can generally write his or her own ticket in media or public relations (see Dana Perino, below) after leaving government service. Fox (or a competitor) would probably rehire Guilfoyle in a New York minute if it ever came to that.

Guilfoyle, 48, indicated that the salary issue might not be a major disincentive, however, although she admitted that she would miss her colleagues in Fox News family.

“I’ve never been someone who’s motivated by financial interests. I really don’t think of that in terms of any obstacle, if you’re passionate about it and you feel like you have a calling for anything in life.”

A vocal and loyal Trump supporter, “KG” is a regular panelist on The Five that airs on Fox News Monday through Friday at 9 p.m. Eastern which features five co-hosts in a roundtable discussion format. She also regularly appears on other Fox News and Fox Business shows as a political and legal analyst. The Five moved from its original 5 p.m. time slot after the reconfiguration of the FNC prime-time lineup following Bill O’Reilly’s departure.

Dana Perino, one of Kimberly Guilfoyle’s colleagues on The Five, was the White House press secretary under President George W. Bush. A Bush family loyalist and generally part of the #NeverTrump GOP cohort, Perino has more or less admitted that the Bush administration failed to push back effectively on negative coverage.

The former high-profile California prosecutor and later first lady of San Francisco when she was married to then-Mayor Gavin Newsom (a Democrat who is now his state’s lieutenant governor), Kimberly Guilfoyle worked for Court TV and CNN before signing on with Fox News in January of 2006.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Kimberly Guilfoyle is the daughter of an Irish cop and a Puerto Rican schoolteacher and was born in San Francisco. She is a graduate of UC Davis and the University of San Francisco School of Law, and modeling for the Victoria’s Secret catalog is part of her resume.

Do you think that Kimberly Guilfoyle would be an upgrade over Sean Spicer as President Trump’s White House press secretary if she does take the job, assuming that it is offered to her?

Editor’s note: a FOX News spokesperson reached out to the Inquisitr with a statement.

“Kimberly is a valued member of the FOX News primetime lineup, and is under a long-term contract with the network.”

Through a spokesperson, Kimberly Guilfoyle said the following.

“As I stated in the interview, I really love what I do and my job co-hosting ‘The Five’ is tough to beat.”

[Featured Image by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP Images]