Susie Wiles Unloads On Trump Team, White House On Defense

WASHINGTON—White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles issued a scathing statement Tuesday in response to a forthcoming Vanity Fair profile of President Donald Trump’s cabinet, a story replete with unflatteringly close-up photos of top Trump officials and surprisingly candid statements from Wiles herself.

“The article published early this morning is a disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the finest President, White House staff, and Cabinet in history,” Wiles wrote Tuesday in response to an excerpt of the piece published in the New York Times. “Significant context was disregarded and much of what I, and others, said about the team and the President was left out of the story.”

“I assume, after reading it, that this was done to paint an overwhelmingly chaotic and negative narrative about the President and our team,” Wiles added. “The truth is the Trump White House has already accomplished more in eleven months than any other President has accomplished in eight years and that is due to the unmatched leadership and vision of President Trump, for whom I have been honored to work for the better part of a decade. None of this will stop our relentless pursuit of Making America Great Again!”

Vanity Fair’s story is written by Chris Whipple, who claims to have interviewed Wiles “amid each moment of crisis” throughout Trump’s second administration. The publication describes the story as “an unflinching, up-close look at power — and peril.” Of all the insights that Whipple gained from his interviews with Wiles, the Vanity Fair writer focuses on the most sensational pieces of their conversations.

“Trump, she told me, ‘has an alcoholic’s personality.’ Vance’s conversion from Never Trumper to MAGA acolyte, she said, has been ‘sort of political.’ The vice president, she added, has been ‘a conspiracy theorist for a decade.’ Russell Vought, architect of the notorious Project 2025 and head of the Office of Management and Budget, is ‘a right-wing absolute zealot.’ When I asked her what she thought of Musk reposting a tweet about public sector workers killing millions under Hitler, Stalin, and Mao, she replied: ‘I think that’s when he’s microdosing.’ (She says she doesn’t have first-hand knowledge.)”

Whipple later elaborates that Wiles is comparing Trump’s aggression and strong personality to that of an alcoholic whose personality is “exaggerated when they drink,” explaining that Trump, who is sober, “operates [with] a view that there’s nothing he can’t do. Nothing, zero, nothing.”

(Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

The piece includes a number of other candid comments from Wiles that are making headlines.

“There is no client list, and it sure as hell wasn’t on her desk,” Wiles is quoted saying of Pam Bondi’s handling of the Epstein files, and regarding Ghislaine Maxwell’s transfer to a minimum-security prison: “The president was ticked. The president was mighty unhappy. I don’t know why they moved her. Neither does the president.”

She also reportedly said of the president’s attitude towards Venezuela: “He wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle. And people way smarter than me on that say that he will.” Vanity Fair suggests that the quote indicates that the Trump administration is lying about their reasoning for blowing up the narco-terrorist boats, as Whipple writes: “Wiles’s statement appears to contradict the administration’s official stance that blowing up boats is about drug interdiction, not regime change.”

On Elon Musk’s dismantling of USAID, Wiles reportedly told Whipple: “No rational person could think the USAID process was a good one. Nobody.” And as for Musk himself, Whipple writes that when he asked Wiles about one of Musk’s more controversial social media posts, she responded: “I think that’s when he’s microdosing,” allegedly saying “he’s an avowed ketamine” user.

When the New York Times asked her about this statement, she reportedly responded: “That’s ridiculous. I wouldn’t have said it and I wouldn’t know.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was quick to defend her colleague on Tuesday, tweeting in support of Wiles and the work she has done.

“Chief of Staff Susie Wiles has helped President Trump achieve the most successful first 11 months in office of any President in American history,” Leavitt wrote. “President Trump has no greater or more loyal advisor than Susie. The entire Administration is grateful for her steady leadership and united fully behind her.”

Her show of support was echoed by other current and former Trump administration officials, including Harrison Fields, who formerly served as a White House spokesman.

“I have worked under three chiefs across two Trump administrations, and without a doubt, Susie Wiles has led the most effective, efficient, and unified White House and administration — second to none,” he said in an “X” post. “Her service to the President is selfless, and her mandate to serve is rooted in allegiance to God, the President, and the millions of Americans who elected him. Any attempt to selectively or maliciously attack her leadership is shameful and entirely without merit.”

Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, whom Wiles mentioned in her interviews as “a right-wing absolute zealot,” similarly praised Wiles, saying that she is an “exceptional chief of staff.”

“I have had the privilege of working in President Trump’s White House for every single minute of his two terms,” he said in a Tuesday morning post. “Let me be very clear: It has never worked this well or been more oriented towards accomplishing what he wants to accomplish. In my portfolio, she is always an ally in helping me deliver for the president. And this hit piece will not slow us down.”