Chris Whipple describes interviewing Susie Wiles for ‘Vanity Fair’ : NPR
White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles attends a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President Donald Trump and members of the Trump Cabinet at the White House October 17 in Washington.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
hide caption
toggle caption
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
A new Vanity Fair author profile Chris Whipple opens the door to the private world of a White House chief of staff who rarely speaks and, when she does, doesn’t protect herself.
Talk with All things considered, Whipple said the article was based on 11 in-depth formal interviews over the past year, with an extraordinary level of access to Susie Wiles. “Every once in a while during your journalism career, lightning strikes,” Whipple told NPR.
In Whipple’s reporting, Wiles criticized several of his colleagues in and around the White House — including saying Attorney General Pam Bondi “made a complete mockery” of his handling of the Epstein cases and calling Vice President JD Vance a “conspiracy theorist,” among other characterizations. Whipple’s profile shows that Wiles was equally blunt about her boss, describing President Donald Trump as having “an alcoholic personality,” a characterization that Trump, who doesn’t drink, later echoed in another outlet, saying, “She’s right. I have an obsessive, addictive personality.”
On Tuesday, Wiles pushed back against X, calling the profile a “dishonestly framed hit piece” and arguing that it depicts “an extremely chaotic and negative narrative about the president and our team.”
Whipple said. All things considered that Wiles’ response stood out precisely because it avoided challenging the substance of the report. “Not a single fact in this article has been disputed,” Whipple said.
Listen to the full interview by clicking the blue button above.
The web copy of this interview was written by Majd Al-Waheidi and edited by Ashley Brown.
