President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, delivered a collection of unusually candid and at occasions unflattering assessments of the president, his second-term agenda and some of his closest allies in a collection of wide-ranging interviews with Vanity Fair.
Across more than ten interviews, Wiles spoke about working for Trump, saying the president “has an alcoholic’s personality,” regardless of being often called a teetotaler. Wiles stated Trump governs with “a view that there’s nothing he can’t do. Nothing, zero, nothing.”
“High-functioning alcoholics or alcoholics in general, their personalities are exaggerated when they drink,” she stated. “And so I’m a little bit of an expert in big personalities.” The article notes she grew up with an alcoholic father – the legendary sportscaster Pat Summerall.
In the interviews, Wiles notably admitted there “may be an element of” political retribution in the prosecutions in opposition to his political opponents.
“I mean, people could think it does look vindictive,” she stated in response to a query in regards to the prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey. “I can’t tell you why you shouldn’t think that.”
“I don’t think he wakes up thinking about retribution. But when there’s an opportunity, he will go for it,” she added.
Wiles stated she tried to steer Trump to finish his “score settling” throughout the first 90 days of his second time period. That effort failed, she acknowledged, as his push for prosecutions continued, pushed in half by the president’s want for retribution.
When requested in regards to the mortgage fraud accusations in opposition to New York Attorney General Letitia James, she replied, “Well, that might be the one retribution.”
Wiles additionally acknowledged that the president didn’t have proof to help his accusation that former President Bill Clinton visited the non-public island of convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“There is no evidence,” Wiles stated of Clinton’s alleged visits. When Vanity Fair requested whether or not there was something incriminating about Clinton in the recordsdata, she reportedly added, “The president was wrong about that.”
Wiles providing unflattering assessments of a number of of the president’s closest allies in the interviews. Of Vice President JD Vance, she stated he has “been a conspiracy theorist for a decade,” and instructed his evolution from Trump critic to loyal ally was “sort of political.”
On tech billionaire and former Trump ally Elon Musk, Wiles stated he’s “an avowed ketamine” consumer and “an odd, odd duck, as I think geniuses are.” His motion to dismantle the US Agency of International Development (USAID), nonetheless, left her “aghast.”
Turning to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Wiles stated she “completely whiffed” in her dealing with of the Epstein recordsdata.
“I think she completely whiffed on appreciating that that was the very targeted group that cared about this,” Wiles stated of Bondi giving binders of supplies on the case to a bunch of conservative influencers. “First, she gave them binders full of nothingness. And then she said that 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.”
In one other hanging remark, Wiles described Russell Vought, a co-author of Project 2025 and head of the Office of Management and Budget, as “a right-wing absolute zealot.”
Wiles additionally expressed coverage reservations all through the interviews. On deportations, she stated the administration wanted to “look harder” to keep away from errors. On Venezuela, she stated the president “wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle,” including, “and people way smarter than me on that say that he will.” She acknowledged that Trump would wish congressional authorization to hold out strikes in Venezuela that he has lately been saying will come “soon.”
Wiles stated she urged Trump to not pardon probably the most violent rioters from January 6, 2021, recommendation he finally ignored, and stated she unsuccessfully pushed him to delay asserting main tariffs amid what she described as a “huge disagreement” amongst his advisers.
She additionally acknowledged she desires the president to focus more on the economic system and much less on Saudi Arabia, and weighed in on potential successors, distinguishing how figures similar to Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio got here to help Trump after initially opposing him.
NCS has reached out to the White House for touch upon the discharge of these interviews.