Much of the political media was chattering about a newly Vanity Fair piece on Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, who not only gave a rare interview to writer Chris Whipple but some very candid assessments of the personalities in Trump 2.0.
The profile accompanied a Vanity Fair photo shoot, from Christopher Anderson, of members of the Trump team, marking full cooperation with a mainstream media outlet of the type that the president often attacks.
In a series of interviews, Wiles talked of growing up with her father, sportscaster Pat Summerall, who was an alcoholic who later got sober.
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“Some clinical psychologist that knows one million times more than I do will dispute what I’m going to say,” Wiles told Vanity Fair. “But high-functioning alcoholics or alcoholics in general, their personalities are exaggerated when they drink. And so I’m a little bit of an expert in big personalities.”
Trump does not drink, but Wiles said that he has an “alcoholic’s personality,” an operates with a view that “there’s nothing he can’t do. Nothing, zero, nothing.”
In other parts of her interviews with Whipple, Wiles said that Vance has been “a conspiracy theorist for a decade.” She also said that Elon Musk is an “odd, odd duck,” and referred to his admitted ketamine use. Musk has denied that he has been a recent user.
She also said that she was “aghast” when Musk shut down USAID, the foreign aid organization.
“Elon’s attitude is you have to get it done fast. If you’re an incrementalist, you just won’t get your rocket to the moon,” Wiles said. “And so with that attitude, you’re going to break some china. But no rational person could think the USAID process was a good one. Nobody.”
Musk left the White House in May and had a very public falling out with Trump.
Wiles also criticized Attorney General Pam Bondi over her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
“I think she completely whiffed on appreciating that that was the very targeted group that cared about this,” Wiles said, per Whipple’s interview. “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.”
But Wiles said that she read through what she referred to as the “Epstein file,” and while Trump is named, “he’s not in the file doing anything awful.”
Wiles posted on X on Tuesday, “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. 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.”
In an interview with The New York Times, she specifically denied making a reference to Musk’s ketamine use. But Whipple played a tape to the Times in which Wiles can be heard saying it.
I don’t think Vanity Fair needs to paint Donald Trump as chaotic when we can all see it for ourselves every day through his own words and actions. The man is a chaos agent.
Somebody is going to have a lot of free time in 2026.
When your own chief of staff says this… you know you’re a fascist dictator
Do you eve know what a fascist dictator is??! Ha,ha, it doesn’t sound like it!…. Hey.. maybe that’s the problem… None of you people do!
To be fair, you’re correct. What anonymous should have written was “wannabe fascist dictator”.
But, they are essentially correct. All of the following are the actions of a fascist dictator:
Firing anyone not loyal to him. Taking over previously bipartisan institutions. Sending military into cities. Placing his name and image on currency and other government-issued document. And, calling for arrest/death of anyone who criticizes him.
And somehow all of the people against him are still free to do whatever they want. Pretty bad dictator if you ask me tbh
Yup. He’s pretty bad at most things he does. For example, he’s doing a stellar job with the economy. What did he say? “A++++”
Yeah but it’s not for a lack of trying.
He’s not doing anything awful yea just by the way he acts now you can tell that’s a lie he’s a narcissist and anybody that voted for him I bet y’all are regretting it and he was behind the capital incident everything about him is awful taking away people food stamps to get what he wants that is awful all while remodeling the ballroom something that was not necessary
Yeah… she’s getting let go after this. Why did she give this interview!?
She either wants out, or she has photos and knows he is not in a position to do anything to her. Also, if Vanity took things out of context, publish a transcript of the entire interview.