President Trump’s chief of staff and one of his top aides made candid statements about the president and his Cabinet in an interview with Vanity Fair magazine, which they now call a “dishonestly constructed hit piece.”
Who is President Trump’s new chief of staff, Susie Wiles?
She is said to be the main reason for Donald Trump’s political comeback. Here’s what you need to know about Susie Wiles.
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, told Vanity Fair in an ominous interview published Tuesday, Dec. 16, that she had a general agreement with the president not to come to terms with his critics and political opponents during his first 90 days in office, but that she chose not to challenge him as he pursued an investigation.
Mr. Wiles also provided candid assessments of government officials to the magazine in a series of interviews over several months.
Trump “has the personality of an alcoholic,” she said. Vice President J.D. Vance has been a “conspiracy theorist for 10 years,” she said. And Attorney General Pam Bondi “completely blanked” on the first release of documents about alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, she said.
Wiles criticized the social media article as a “dishonestly constructed hit piece” about her, Trump and his Cabinet.
“Important context was ignored and much of what I and others said about the team and the president was left out of the story,” Wiles said. “After reading it, I believe this was done to paint an overwhelmingly chaotic negative narrative about the president and our team.”
White House press secretary Caroline Levitt said Weill helped Trump succeed in the first 11 months of his second term, and the administration has her back.
“President Trump has never had a greater and more loyal advisor than Susie,” Levitt said. “The entire government is grateful for her steady leadership and is fully united behind her.”
President Trump believes ‘nothing is impossible’: Wiles
Wiles is one of Trump’s closest aides and has been working on his campaign since 2015. She also brings a wealth of Washington experience to the White House. She worked as President Ronald Reagan’s scheduler and watched how the president’s chief of staff, James Baker, operated. Mr. Baker had her work with Vice President Dan Quayle during the George H.W. Bush administration. And she worked on other campaigns as well.
According to the article, she was also well acquainted with the difficult man. She was the eldest daughter of the late Pat Summerall, a former New York Giants kicker who later became a popular NFL announcer.
She and Trump share memories of 1970s New York. When Trump mentioned the name of Frank Sinatra’s bodyguard, Wiles recognized it after hearing it from his father. But Summerall had an absentee father and was also an alcoholic, so Wiles told the magazine that his mother helped get him into treatment. He remained sober for 21 years until his death in 2013.
“Alcoholism is bad for relationships, and it was the same for my dad and me,” Wiles said.
President Trump, whose younger brother Fred was an alcoholic, does not drink alcohol. But Wiles said the president was acting with what she called an “alcoholic personality,” meaning he was acting as if there was “nothing he couldn’t do.”
“Nothing, zero, nothing,” Wiles said.
President Trump is not on a ‘revenge trip’: Wiles
Wiles told Vanity Fair reporter Chris Whipple in March that President Trump agreed that the Trump administration was not seeking retaliation.
“There is broad agreement that the finalization of scores will be completed before the end of the first 90 days,” Wiles said at the time.
But Trump continues to propose charges against figures such as Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who led his first impeachment in the House. Former FBI Director James Comey led the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who won a $454 million civil fraud judgment against Trump.
Trump was acquitted on impeachment. The Court of Appeals reversed the New York decision. But the court dismissed the original indictment against Comey and James, and a grand jury declined to reindict them.
“I don’t think he’s on a revenge tour,” Wiles told Whipple in August. “The principle for him is, ‘I don’t want what happened to me to happen to others.’ So people who do bad things need to be out of government. In some cases, it may look like retaliation. And sometimes there may be an element of that. Who would blame him? Not me.”
In evaluating Trump’s staff, Wiles said overreach may be necessary to return the country to a moderate path. She spoke of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s leadership at the Department of Health and Human Services and said his approach, which included laying off tens of thousands of workers and adding warnings about vaccines, was justified.
“He’s over the top. Some would say he’s over the top,” Wiles said. “But I say to get back to the middle you have to do it too much.”
Bondi ‘completely missed’ on initial release of Epstein files: Wiles
When Bondi released the first batch of Epstein documents in February, conservative social media influencers discovered the binder contained outdated information.
But Bondi said in July that the Justice Department would not release any more documents about Epstein because the remaining records were pornographic or named victims. The denial came after she was asked on Fox News about publishing a list of Epstein’s alleged clients, which she said she was considering. The ministry later said no such list existed.
Wiles said of Bondi: “I think she completely ignored the fact that the very group she was targeting cared about this issue.” “First, she gave them a blank binder, and she said there was either a witness list or a client list on her desk. There was no client list, and it definitely wasn’t on her desk.”
The Epstein files have been controversial for Trump, who was friends with him in the 1990s before falling out with him. Despite the president’s interest, many Trump supporters are demanding the full release of the files. The Justice Department has a Friday, Dec. 19 deadline to release more records under legislation approved by Congress and signed by President Trump.
Wiles said she has read what she calls the “Epstein Files” and that Trump’s name appears because he flew on Epstein’s planes and attended his parties.
“And we know he’s on file,” Wiles said. “And he’s not on the record doing anything terrible.”
If Vance runs, he will be the Republican candidate in 2028: Wiles
Asked about aides who had been critical of Trump, Wiles said he had turned into an supporter of Vance while he was running for U.S. Senate from Ohio. Wiles said if he ran for president in 2028, he would be the Republican candidate and she “would be one of the first to support him.”
Vance said Wiles is different from the first-term staffers who tried to guide Trump rather than help him achieve his goals.
“And her job is to really facilitate his vision and make his vision come true,” Vance said.
