Trump aide Wiles reveals White House tensions
White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles revealed internal tensions in the Trump administration, from immigration sanctions to government downsizing.
An article published in Vanity Fair, based on a series of 11 interviews with Wiles during Trump’s first year back in office, paints an unflattering picture of President Donald Trump’s closest aides.
Wiles stated that the president, who does not drink, “has an alcoholic personality” and has an eye for revenge against perceived enemies.
Saying about Trump, “He has an alcoholic personality,” Wiles explained that growing up with an alcoholic father prepared him to manage “big personalities.”
He noted that Trump does not drink but operates with the view that “there’s nothing he can’t do, nothing, zero, nothing.”
He also said that Vice President J.D. Vance “has been a conspiracy theorist for a decade.”
He took aim at the way billionaire Elon Musk dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development and how Attorney General Pam Bondi initially reacted to the planned release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
The story, which offered a rare window into the Trump White House, led to a swift pushback from Wiles, Trump and members of the senior administration who praised his loyalty and leadership.
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Trump, who regularly describes Wiles as “the most powerful woman in the world,” told the New York Post that he has complete confidence in her.
He stated that Wiles was right to describe him as having an “alcoholic personality” and explained that he had a “possessive and addictive” personality.
Vance also defended Wiles.
“I have never known him to be disloyal to the president of the United States, and that makes him the best White House chief of staff the president could ask for,” he said, noting that he and Wiles often joked that he was a conspiracy theorist.
“But I only believe in conspiracy theories that are true,” he said.
Wiles said he warned Trump not to pardon the most violent participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and pressured him to delay his decision on sweeping trade tariffs.
He added that Trump’s announcement of tariffs on US trading partners revealed deep divisions within his team and that the tariff decision was “more painful than I expected.”
Wiles said he sees his role as facilitating the president’s decisions, not constraining him.
“There were a few times when votes were rejected,” he said.
“And if there’s a tie, he wins.”
Wiles also said he “totally sniffed out” Bondi’s initial handling of the Epstein files, a collection of Justice Department documents detailing the investigation into the late convicted sex offender.
The Epstein scandal has been a political headache for Trump for months, in part because he has been pushing conspiracy theories about the disgraced financier to his own supporters.
Wiles said in interviews that he read the Epstein documents and acknowledged that Trump’s name was mentioned in them, but “he did not do anything bad in the file.”
Wiles said Trump’s push to prosecute New York Attorney General Letitia James over mortgage fraud allegations was perhaps motivated by revenge.
Wiles said the lawsuit against Trump critic James was “perhaps the only form of revenge.”
Trump may not wake up thinking about revenge, but “when there’s an opportunity, he’ll go for it,” he said.
Wiles was shocked by Musk’s dismantling of USAID, including its global aid programs, calling the approach “not the way I would do it.”
He said he confronted Musk about removing staff from his offices and that no reasonable person could view his handling of the charity as effective.
