In candid interviews with Vanity Fair, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles spoke openly about President Donald Trump and his Cabinet during the first year of Trump’s second term.
Wiles participated in 11 interviews that occurred in real time. Two parts of those interviews were published Tuesday.
In them, Wiles offered unqualified descriptions of senior administration figures, including Trump, whom she said has an “alcoholic personality.”
Wiles said Trump, who has repeatedly said he does not drink alcohol, said he “operates [with] a vision that there is nothing I cannot do. Nothing, zero, nothing.”
He called Vice President JD Vance a “conspiracy theorist for a decade” and White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought “an absolute right-wing fanatic.” Billionaire Elon Musk, he said, was an “odd duck” and “confessed that ketamine [user]”.
Wiles also weighed in on Attorney General Pam Bondi’s handling of Jeffrey Epstein’s files, Musk’s cuts to federal government agencies and programs, the chaotic rollout of Trump’s tariff plans, the administration’s goals for Venezuela and more.
Wiles, responding to the Vanity Fair articles, said it is a “poorly phrased article about me and the greatest president, White House staff and cabinet in history.”
White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles listens as President Donald Trump meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office of the White House, February 4, 2025, in Washington.
Evan Vucci/AP
“The truth is that the Trump White House has already accomplished more in eleven months than any other president has in eight years, and that is due to the unmatched leadership and vision of President Trump, for whom I have had the honor of working for the better part of a decade,” Wiles wrote in X.
“Significant context was ignored 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.
ABC News has contacted Condé Nast, parent company of Vanity Fair, for commenting on Wiles’ criticism.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended Wiles in X.
“Chief of Staff Susie Wiles has helped President Trump achieve the most successful first 11 months in office of any president in American history. President Trump has no greater or more loyal advisor than Susie. The entire administration is grateful for her strong leadership and fully united behind her,” Leavitt wrote in a post responding to Wiles. criticism of the articles.
Trump, Bondi and Musk have not responded publicly to the Vanity Fair articles.
Vance, at an event Tuesday in Pennsylvania, said he had not read the Vanity Fair article, but responded to Wiles’ comment that he had been a “conspiracy theorist for the last decade.” Wiles made the comment about Vance while discussing the Epstein files.
“I haven’t read the article. Of course, I’ve heard of it. But, conspiracy theorist, sometimes I’m a conspiracy theorist, but I only believe in conspiracy theories that are true,” Vance told reporters.
“And by the way, Susie and I have joked about this privately and publicly for a long time,” he added.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
