Susie Wiles Defends Trump Amid Vanity Fair Controversy

Wed Dec 17 2025 02:03:55 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles responds to claims made in a Vanity Fair piece, criticizing its portrayal of Donald Trump and administration officials.

In a recent Vanity Fair article, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles was quoted making provocative comments about President Trump and Vice President JD Vance. Following the article's release, Wiles contested it on social media, claiming it lacked significant context and aimed to project a negative narrative about the Trump administration. She further discussed her unique perspective on dealing with prominent figures and the challenges faced in governance.

White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles has disputed portions of a Vanity Fair article in which she paints an unflattering picture of the Trump administration and many of its top officials.

In the interview, Wiles described Donald Trump as having an 'alcoholic's personality' and Vice President JD Vance as having been a 'conspiracy theorist' for a decade.

But in a post on X, Wiles said that Vanity Fair disregarded 'significant context' to create 'an overwhelmingly chaotic and negative narrative' about the administration.

Wiles, 68, played a key part in Trump's successful 2024 presidential campaign before becoming the first woman to be White House Chief of Staff.

Over the course of nearly a dozen interviews with Vanity Fair, Wiles talked about a wide range of issues, including handling of Epstein files, Trump's legal actions against political rivals, and also about personalities around the president.

She admitted that 'there may be an element of' retribution in Trump's efforts to pursue criminal cases against political adversaries or perceived foes. 'I don't think he wakes up thinking about retribution,' she added. 'But when there's an opportunity, he will go for it.'

Wiles is widely considered among the most powerful members of the Trump White House in his second term, with a long history working with Trump, including as his campaign manager in Florida in 2016 and as the head of his fundraising apparatus, Save America.

She credits her upbringing with an alcoholic father as what enabled her to work with the president. 'High-functioning alcoholics or alcoholics in general, their personalities are exaggerated when they drink,' she said. 'So I'm a little bit of an expert in big personalities.'

While the president does not drink, she said Trump has 'an alcoholic's personality' and governs with the mindset that 'there's nothing he can't do. Nothing, zero, nothing.'

Wiles suggested that Vance's shift in perceptions was 'sort of political.' Speaking to reporters at an event on Tuesday, Vance said he had not read the article, but that he only believes in conspiracy theories that are 'true.'

Among the other figures that Wiles commented on was tech billionaire Elon Musk. Wiles described Musk as an 'avowed Ketamine user' who 'sleeps in a sleeping bag in the EOB,' the Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House.

She wrapped up her critique of the Vanity Fair piece by accusing it of being a 'disingenuously framed hit piece' aimed at her, Trump, and other cabinet members, with the White House Press Secretary coming to her defense, asserting her crucial role in the Trump's administration's success.