White House chief of staff Susie Wiles disputed parts of a Vanity Fair article in which she painted an unflattering picture of the Trump administration and many of its top officials.
In the interview, Wiles described Donald Trump as having an “alcoholic personality” and Vice President J.D. Vance as a “conspiracy theorist” for a decade.
But in a post on X, Wiles said Vanity Fair ignored “important context” to create an “extremely chaotic and negative narrative” about the administration.
Wiles, 68, played a key role in Trump's successful 2024 presidential campaign before becoming the first woman to serve as a White House chief of staff.
Over the course of nearly a dozen interviews with Vanity Fair, Wiles spoke about a wide range of issues, including handling the Epstein files, Trump's lawsuits against political rivals, and the personalities surrounding the president.
She acknowledged that there “may be an element” of retaliation in Trump's efforts to bring criminal charges against political opponents or perceived enemies.
“I don’t think he wakes up thinking about retribution,” she added. “But when the opportunity comes, he’ll take it.”
Wiles is widely considered one of the most powerful members of the Trump White House during his second term.
Before becoming chief of staff, Wiles worked with Trump for a long time, including as his 2016 campaign manager in Florida and as chief of staff for his Save America fundraising effort.
In the interview, she notes that her upbringing with an alcoholic father allowed her to work with the president.
“High-functioning alcoholics, or alcoholics in general, have an exaggerated personality when they drink,” she said. “So I’m a bit of an expert on big personalities.”
Although the president doesn't drink, she said Trump has the “personality of an alcoholic” and governs with the mindset that “there's nothing he can't do. Nothing, zero, nothing.”
Other figures Wiles commented on included J.D. Vance, a former Trump critic who has since become his close ally and vice president.
Wiles suggested that the shift in Vance's perception was “sort of political.”
Speaking to reporters at an event on Tuesday, Vance said he had not read the article but only believed in “true” conspiracy theories, citing reports of former President Joe Biden's poor health as an example.
Her harshest comments were aimed at tech billionaire Elon Musk, who led cost-cutting efforts at the Department of Government Effectiveness (Doge) before leaving government in May.
Shortly after, Musk and Trump had a public spat, with the two men trading barbs and insults on social media.
Wiles described Musk as a “confessed ketamine addict.” [user]“who is “sleeping in a sleeping bag in the EOB,” the Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House.
“He’s an oddball, an odd duck, which is what I think geniuses are,” she said. “You know, it's no use, but he's on his own.”
Recalling Musk's efforts to cut costs, Wiles said she was opposed to eliminating the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), saying she was “stunned at first” by the idea.
“I think anyone who pays attention to government and has ever paid attention to USAID believes, as I do, that they do a very good job,” she recalls.
“Elon's position is that you have to do it quickly. If you're an incrementalist, you simply won't be able to get your rocket to the moon,” Wiles said. “With that attitude you will break the china. But no reasonable person would think that USAID's process was good. Nobody”.
On Tuesday morning, hours after Vanity Fair's article was published, Wiles reached out to X, accusing the magazine of a “disingenuously framed article” targeting her, Trump and other Cabinet members.
“Important context was ignored and much of what I and others said about the team and the president was left out of the story. After reading this, I believe this was done to create an extremely chaotic and negative narrative about the President and our team,” she wrote.
When contacted for comment on this story, the White House also came to Wiles' defense.
In a statement sent to the BBC, spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt said Wiles “has helped President Trump navigate the most successful first 11 months in office of any president in American history.”
“President Trump has no better or more loyal adviser than Susie,” Leavitt added. “The entire administration is grateful for her steady leadership and has rallied completely around her.”
Speaking to reporters outside the West Wing later that day, Leavitt accused Vanity Fair of “bias and omission,” excluding other interviews conducted with White House staffers and taking Wiles' words “wildly out of context.”
Trump and Musk have not yet commented on the Vanity Fair article.
