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“White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles revealed internal tensions in the Trump administration over issues from immigration enforcement to government downsizing in comments published by Vanity Fair on Tuesday that paint an unflattering picture of the role played by some of President Donald Trump's close aides…
“In a series of 11 interviews with author Chris Whipple conducted over Trump's first year back in office, Wiles, the first woman to serve as White House chief of staff, described the teetotaling president as having ‘an alcoholic's personality’ and an eye for vengeance against perceived enemies…
“The story -- which offered a rare window into Trump's White House from a top aide known for avoiding the spotlight -- prompted swift pushback from Wiles, Trump and senior members of the administration, who praised Wiles’ loyalty and leadership. In a post on X, Wiles called the Vanity Fair story ‘a disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the finest President, White House staff, and Cabinet in history,’ saying it omitted important context and selectively quoted her to create a negative narrative.” Reuters
The left argues that Wiles’s statements paint a damning picture of the Trump presidency.
“The Trump administration has been bombing boats in the Caribbean and Pacific Oceans on the pretext of combating drug trafficking. This was always a flimsy justification, but we can now confidently say that it was a flat lie… On November 2, Whipple writes, Wiles said, ‘[Trump] wants to keep on blowing boats up until [Venezuelan President Nicolás] Maduro cries uncle. And people way smarter than me on that say that he will.’ In other words, all the talk of narco-terrorism was a sham…
“She acknowledges that Trump’s prosecution of political foes such as former FBI head James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James is motivated in part by score settling and retribution… She is scathing about Attorney General Pam Bondi’s handling of the Epstein files… She also distances herself from Trump’s pardon of violent January 6 rioters as well as the actions of ‘overzealous’ Border Patrol agents.”
Jeet Heer, The Nation
“Wiles attempted damage control, calling the article a hit piece and claiming she was taken out of context. That defense collapsed almost immediately. When The New York Times asked the Vanity Fair author about her denials, the response was simple: there are recordings. The statements were on tape. Oops. This episode is revealing not because it exposes Trump’s critics, but because it exposes Trump’s collaborators. Wiles is not a whistleblower. She is a central figure who continues to execute the agenda she privately criticizes.”
Ben Meiselas, Meidas Plus
“Ideally, the chief of staff can see around corners, telling presidents what they don’t want to hear, even if they can’t always prevent missteps… They are the president’s closest confidante, chief strategist, and read-in on every aspect of the agenda, domestic and global. They can count votes, keep the riff-raff at bay and help the president avoid political pitfalls. They can channel — but also challenge — the boss…
“Yet Wiles is more enabler than enforcer. She consistently paints herself as unable to help steer the president in a better direction… In his first term, he had five different chiefs of staff who each took a more traditional approach to the job, course correcting Trump as much as they could. Trump’s current low standing in the eyes of the public has everything to do with Wiles, who thinks it’s her job to let Trump be Trump… If the president ends up firing her, which seems unlikely, she would hardly be missed.”
Nia-Malika Henderson, Bloomberg
The right is divided.
The right is divided.
“The statements the press seized on were salacious, but the overall piece was informative and insightful and actually not a bad profile of the Administration… I actually interpret this article, here at the end of the first year of the Trump Administration, as part of a reset effort. Wiles is saying things the President cannot publicly say…
“She is saying Homeland Security has not been good at its job and needs to handle deportations better. She is saying Pam Bondi is not good at her job and probably needs to consider calling it quits. She is saying lots of things the President would like to say to reset the Administration and deflate the egos of some of its members who have been riding high on their own supply…
“This whole thing, and the swift reaction to it, was by design. Again, you don’t do eleven recorded interviews with Vanity Fair and not know what you’re going to get. They knew exactly what they were going to get and are probably pleased with the results. Internally, now a lot of members of the Trump team know better what the President actually thinks about them and how they are doing their jobs, and they can reset for the midterms.”
Erick-Woods Erickson, Substack
Others argue, “The average tenure of a White House chief of staff is 18 months. It is one of the most powerful jobs in government, and one of the most difficult and exhausting. Wiles may well want to leave the job sometime in the coming year, before or after the midterm elections…
“The portrait of Wiles that emerges in the profile — separate from the unflattering photo — is that Wiles is the comparably levelheaded voice of reason in the administration, doing the best she can, serving an impulsive, easily swayed president and surrounded by cabinet officials who often fumbled their duties. This is likely how Wiles wants to be remembered.”
Jim Geraghty, National Review
“When you give a journalist juicy quotes like that, the [foul]-up is ALL on you. With her mouth, she handed Vanity Fair a loaded gun… What’s most disconcerting is that we’ve learned something new about Wiles’ judgment: She has an astonishingly large blind spot…
“Instead of being the unflappable, hard-nosed, iron-willed realist who’s a super-genius at political warfare, she stumbled into an ambush that an amateur could see coming from miles away. It calls into question her instincts, wisdom, and decision-making.”
Scott Pinsker, PJ Media
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