WASHINGTON — President Trump's chief of staff is defending herself after giving an extremely candid series of interviews to Vanity Fair magazine in which she offered harsh judgments of the president and scathing assessments of his administration's shortcomings.
The profile of Susie Wiles, Trump's low-key and influential top aide since his return to office, has caused a scandal in Washington and prompted a crisis response from the White House in which nearly every figure in Trump's orbit has issued a public defense.
IN 11 interviews Spent over dinners and meetings in the West Wing, Wiles described billionaire Elon Musk's early failures and drug use during his time in government, as well as the mistakes of Atty. General Pam Bondi during a public address of Jeffrey Epstein's files. Wiles also admitted that Trump had launched a campaign of retaliation against him. perceived political enemies.
“I don’t think he wakes up thinking about retribution,” Wiles told Chris Whipple, a Vanity Fair writer who has written extensively about past chiefs of staff, “but when the opportunity arises, he’ll go for it.”
Wiles also cited the administration's missteps in cracking down on immigration, rebutted Trump's claims about financier and convicted sex offender Epstein and former President Clinton and called Vice President J.D. Vance a “conspiracy theorist.”
Hours after Vanity Fair's tell-all report was published Tuesday, Wiles and key members of Trump's inner circle issued a forceful defense of her tenure, calling the story a “criticism” that lacked exculpatory context.
“The article published early this morning is a disingenuously framed article about me and the best President, White House staff and Cabinet in history,” Wiles said in her X post, her first in more than a year. “Important context was ignored, and much of what I and others said about the team and the president was left out of the story.”
The profile was published with the knowledge and participation of other senior staffers and is illustrated with a photograph of Wiles and some of Trump's closest aides, including Vance, Bondi and adviser Stephen Miller.
The profile revealed a lot about the chief of staff, who has kept a low profile in the West Wing while continuing her management philosophy implemented in the 2024 election when she was Trump's last campaign chief: She let Trump be Trump. “Sir, remember that I am the chief of staff, not your boss,” she recalls the president saying.
Trump has publicly emphasized how much he values Wiles as a trusted aide. He did so at a rally last week, where he called her “Susie Trump.” In an interview with Whipple, she said she has difficult conversations with Trump every day, but she chooses her battles.
“So no, I'm not a helper. I'm also not a bitch. I try to take whatever I do seriously,” Wiles said. “I think time will tell how effective I am.”
Despite her passive style, Wiles shared concerns about Trump's initial approach to tariff policy, calling the tariffs “more painful than I expected.” She unsuccessfully urged him to end the retaliation campaign during his first 90 days in office to allow the administration to move on to more important issues. And she opposed Trump's Jan. 6 blanket pardons for defendants, including those convicted of violent crimes.
Wiles also acknowledged that the administration needs to “take a closer look at our deportation process,” adding that in at least one case mistakes were made when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents made arrests and deportations. two mothers and their American children to Honduras. One of the children was being treated for stage four cancer.
“I can’t understand how you made this mistake, but someone did,” she said.
On foreign policy, Wiles defended the administration's attack on suspected drug ships in the Caribbean and said the president “wants to continue blow up boats to [Venezuelan President Nicolás] Maduro is crying, uncle,” suggesting the goal is to bring about a change in government.
As Trump talked about possible ground strikes in Venezuela, Wiles acknowledged that such a move would require congressional approval.
“If he allowed some activity on land, then this is war, then [we’d need] Congress,” she said.
In one conversation with Whipple, she described Trump, who abstains from alcoholic beverages, as having an “alcoholic personality,” explaining that “the personality of high-functioning alcoholics, or alcoholics in general, is exaggerated when they drink.”
He “operates” [with] the belief that there is nothing he cannot do. Nothing, zero, nothing,” she said.
But Trump, in an interview with the New York Post, defended Wiles and her comments, saying he would actually become an alcoholic if he drank alcohol.
“She did a fantastic job,” Trump said. “I think from what I'm hearing the facts were wrong and it was a very misled interviewer – deliberately misled.”
Wiles also blamed members of Trump's cabinet for continuing the Epstein saga, noting that the president's pick, FBI Director Cash Patel, had advocated for years for the release of all Justice Department files related to the investigation. Despite Trump's claims that Clinton visited Epstein's private island, Wiles acknowledged that Trump “is wrong about that.”
Wiles added that Bondi had “completely forgotten” how she handled Epstein's files, an issue that caused a rift within MAGA.
“First she gave them folders full of nothing. And then she said the witness list or the client list was on her desk. There is no client list and it sure as hell wasn't on her desk,” Wiles said.
Wiles added that she had read the Epstein investigation and acknowledged that Trump was mentioned in it, but said “he was not included in the materials doing anything terrible.”
Vance, who she said has been a “conspiracy theorist for ten years,” said he joked with Wiles about conspiracies in private before praising her.
“I've never seen Susie Wiles say something to a president and then go and antagonize him or undermine his will behind the scenes. And that's what you want in a staffer,” Vance told reporters. “I have never seen her be disloyal to a President of the United States, and that makes her the best White House chief of staff a President could ask for.”
Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, whom Wiles described to Whipple as an “absolute right-wing zealot” says a post on social media that she is an “exceptional chief of staff.” Caroline Leavitt, White House press secretary, said “The entire administration is grateful for her steady leadership and has rallied completely around her.”
Wiles told Vanity Fair that she would be happy to remain in the position as long as the president wants her to, noting that she has time to devote to her work because she is divorced and her children are away from home.
During his first term, Trump had difficult relationships with his chiefs of staff, having four in four years. His longest-serving chief of staff, former General John F. Kelly, served for a year and a half.
