Kimberly Guilfoyle helps ex-spouse Gavin Newsom score interview with conservative star

The political world was surprised to learn last year that the engagement between Donald Trump Jr. and former Fox News personality Kimberly Guilfoyle had come to an anti-climactic end, and it now appears that the jilted finance decided to lend a hand to her liberal Democrat ex-spouse.

As the Daily Mail reports, instead of planning what was to be her wedding to Trump Jr., Guilfoyle is making her own way in life, going so far as helping former husband Gavin Newsom snag an interview with conservative influencer Charlie Kirk for an episode of his new podcast.

Guilfoyle lends a hand

Just last week, the liberal California governor launched This is Gavin Newsom, a podcast series many believe is part of a buildup to an eventual presidential run.

To the surprise of listeners, Newsom's debut episode featured a conversation with Kirk, co-founder of Turning Point USA and an outspoken supporter of the MAGA movement.

As Kirk revealed, it was the governor's ex-wife who played a pivotal role in arranging his appearance on Newsom's podcast, saying, “I got a phone call from Governor Newsom two weeks ago, we connected through Kimberly Guilfoyle -- obviously, they have a shared past...,” referencing the former couple's marriage that spanned 2001-2006.

The Newsom-Guilfoyle split has long been described as amicable, and in 2023, the governor offered some personal insight into his former spouse, declaring her “whip-smart,” while noting that she had changed during their relationship.

“She was a different person. She was working for a progressive district attorney,” the governor noted, adding, “She fell prey, I think, to the culture at Fox in a deep way. She would disagree with that assessment, she would perhaps suggest that she found the light,” though that was a characterization with which Guilfoyle vehemently disagrees, stating that it is Newsom who had “fallen prey to the left, the radical left, that is pushing him so far to the left that it's unrecognizable.”

Attempt at moderation courts controversy

Perhaps owing to the aforementioned presidential aspirations and suspicions that he is too far to the left for much of the American electorate, Newsom's premiere podcast saw him weighing in on the contentious issue of transgender athletes in female sporting competitions.

Taking many by surprise, Newsom suggested that he was not in favor of allowing biological males to compete against girls, a move that drew swift backlash from many on his side of the aisle, as Newsweek reports.

During their podcast chat, Kirk advised Newsom to “get better ideas,” adding, “You, right now, should come out and be like, 'You know what? The young many who's about to win the state championship in the long jump in female sports -- that shouldn't happen,” prompting Newsom to reply, “I think it's an issue of fairness. I completely agree with you on that. It's an issue of fairness, it's deeply unfair. We've got to own that. We've got to acknowledge that.”

In response, former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot blasted Newsom's statement as “disgusting,” adding that transgender kids in California would feel that their own governor hated them, and Equality California declared it membership “profoundly disappointed and angered” by the statement.

In attempting to strike a balance between appeasing the far-left liberal political environment to which he owes his current position and the conservative national electorate that disdains him, Newsom may end up alienating both sides of the aisle and scuttling any hope of reaching the Oval Office, with or without Guilfoyle's help.