‘Not an enabler’? A glimpse behind the curtain at Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles | Trump administration

She was now part of the family. When Donald Trump addressed supporters in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, in early December, he asked: “Susie Trump – do you know Susie Trump? Sometimes called Susie Wiles.”

The US president was referring to his chief of staff, who he said had persuaded him to return to the campaign trail ahead of the 2026 congressional midterm elections. But a week later, Wiles appeared to be in danger of becoming the family pariah.

In a 9,500-word article in Vanity Fair magazine based on 11 interviews conducted during Trump’s first year back in office, Wiles described the president as having “the personality of an alcoholic” and a sense of vengeance against perceived enemies.

The first woman to serve as White House chief of staff also called Vice President JD Vance a “conspiracy theorist,” called tech mogul Elon Musk an “odd, odd duck” while criticizing his dismantling of USAID, and gave juicy opinions on other figures in the Trump administration.

Wiles claimed she was selectively cited for a “hit piece” while Trump, Vance and others rallied to her defense. But the explosive article raised questions about Wiles’ motivations, his ideological alignment with Trump and his future as a pillar of his administration.

Chris Whipple, who conducted the interviews, doesn’t think they signaled Wiles’ intention to quit. He said: “I don’t think it was part of an exit strategy and I don’t think it was some sort of three- or four-dimensional chess game.

“It was Susie Wiles saying out loud what she thought and what she was saying privately to her colleagues. I don’t think she was going after JD Vance to elevate Marco Rubio or plot the next step in his career. I just don’t think it’s that complicated.”

But some political commentators view Wiles’ seemingly indiscreet remarks as the rumblings of a conscience and an attempt to salvage his legacy ahead of a departure from the White House that might seem inevitable.

Rick Wilson, a political strategist and co-founder of the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump group, said: “I’ve known Susie my entire political life. There’s a 0.000 chance that this incredibly sophisticated and experienced political operative did 11 interviews on tape and didn’t know exactly what she was doing.”

“It’s beyond ridiculous to say, ‘Oh, well, she was fooled by a cunning journalist.’ She’s done several thousand interviews, as have all of us at this level, and she knows exactly what’s going on. There is a gray area here. She did it deliberately. Nobody wants to admit it, but she did it.

For what? Wilson responded: “She’s trying to make a plea deal with the story. She’s trying to start laying down a predicate that says, ‘Well, I was there and I turned it on, but I got it. I got the joke. I knew what was going on and I’m not one of the bad guys.’ His direct attacks on everyone in Trump’s orbit went unnoticed. Here, everyone has the joke. I don’t think she aspires to that White House.

The Vanity Fair story was unusual because Wiles, 68, was careful to cultivate a career as a supporting player away from the spotlight. Daughter of American footballer and sportscaster Pat Summerall, she worked in the Washington office of New York congressman Jack Kemp in the 1970s, then for the Ronald Reagan campaign and at the White House as a programmer.

She married Republican operative Lanny Wiles and moved to Ponte Vedra, Florida, where they had two children (they divorced in 2017). After a few years away from politics, Wiles worked for Dan Quayle, George HW Bush’s running mate, and advised two Jacksonville mayors, John Delaney and John Peyton.

Peyton, now president of Gate Petroleum Company in Jacksonville, recalls: “She has a great sense of humor, extraordinarily witty, but she is very reserved. She will never seek attention. She won’t want to be the spokesperson for the local Rotary club. She doesn’t want to be interviewed. She does her best in small groups and she’s quite shy, actually.”

Indeed, after successfully co-chairing Trump’s 2024 election campaign with Chris LaCivita, Wiles refused to take the microphone during his victory speech. Trump observed: “Susie likes to stay in the background… Look at that, she’s shy; I’ve never seen her shy before. Susie!”

Peyton added, “She’s very effective behind the scenes. She’s been in politics a long time. She knows her job is to let her principal be the star of the show and she’s very disciplined about that.”

Wiles later worked for Florida Congresswoman Tillie Fowler. She later earned her stripes in statewide campaigns in tough Florida politics and was credited with helping businessman Rick Scott win the governorship.

After briefly managing Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman’s 2012 presidential campaign, she managed Trump’s Florida campaign in 2016, when his victory in the state helped him clinch the White House. Two years later, at Trump’s urging, she helped elect underdog Ron DeSantis as governor of Florida.

But DeSantis quickly turned on her, berating Wiles in public and defaming her in private; she told Vanity Fair that she still doesn’t know what caused the breakup. Wiles then organized Florida for Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign.

She then helped run Trump’s 2024 primary campaign against DeSantis. Shortly before DeSantis dropped out of the race in January, Wiles made a rare appearance on social media. She responded to a post that DeSantis had cleared his campaign website of upcoming events with a direct message: “Goodbye. »

Wiles was part of the team that put together a much more professional operation for Trump’s third White House bid, even though the former president regularly broke those guardrails.

She sought to curb Trump’s worst instincts — not by berating or lecturing him, but by earning his respect and persuading him that he fared better when he heeded her advice rather than ignoring it. Late in the campaign, after Trump gave a controversial speech in Pennsylvania in which he went off-script and reflected darkly about the press being shot, Wiles appeared and stared at him with a mute stare.

When Trump subsequently won the election, Wiles was a natural choice as chief of staff, although she was widely seen as a moderate Republican rather than a “Make America great again” ideologue in the mold of his deputy Stephen Miller. She is one of the most powerful women in America today.

Tara Setmayer, a former Republican communications director on Capitol Hill who now runs the Seneca Project, a women-led super political action committee, commented: “Susie Wiles understands the history she is making, as does Kellyanne Conway, as women who have broken political glass ceilings and who are not hardcore Maga either.

“They were using their Maga positions and advocacy for political gain and it worked for them. They reached the pinnacle of their careers. They may have sold their souls to do it, but politics is a very bad business; people do a lot of things to gain power, relevance and financial gain. Political power is a hell of a drug.”

A White House chief of staff is effectively the president’s chief fixer and confidante, responsible for implementing the agenda, juggling competing policy and political demands, and acting as a gatekeeper to the Oval Office. It was the latter role that displeased Trump during his first term, when he led four chiefs of staff, including one who served in an acting capacity for a year.

Whipple, who wrote the profile and is the author of The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency, commented: “On the one hand, she has been more successful than any of her predecessors since Trump’s first term.

“She definitely has a kind of magic with Donald Trump and there’s a bond that none of her predecessors had that makes her run a much stricter ship in the West Wing. The White House runs a lot smoother.”

“But the big question for Susie Wiles is: Was she able to accomplish the most important job of a White House chief, which is telling the president hard truths? Readers can judge for themselves from this article, but I think she was much less successful at it.”

Wiles mounted his own defense in Vanity Fair, insisting: “I’m not an enabler. I’m not a bitch either. I try to think about what I’m getting into. I guess time will tell if I’ve been effective.”

Her critics, however, say she has been unable to say no to Trump and is therefore complicit in his authoritarian expansion of presidential power, which has included indiscriminate firings of federal employees, a draconian crackdown on immigration and deadly strikes on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean.

Michael Steele, co-host of MS Now’s The Weeknight and former chairman of the Republican National Committee, said: “Will she be here this time next year? I’m very skeptical. Part of the job of being a White House chief of staff is being sensitive and smart about politics. She was able to handle that environment to a degree that didn’t result in her being fired.

“But the fallout from this management has been a disaster for the federal government, a disaster for our foreign relations, and now a disaster for the ideal that America’s purpose was to uphold the rule of law to defend the liberties of every person. Ultimately, the mischievous nature of this administration is a feature, not a bug.”