"Susie Wiles styles herself as a White House chief of staff who avoids being in the headlines. When cameras come into the Oval Office, she tends to sit just out of frame. She rarely gives interviews. Unlike her predecessors, she seldom tries to curb President Donald Trump's impulses. She has been lauded in Trump world for instilling a sense of discipline in a chaotic realm, and for providing steady leadership during both Trump's historic political comeback and the steamrolling start to his second term."
"Wiles committed the cardinal sin for a White House staffer-particularly a staffer for this White House-by becoming the news herself with the publication today of a two-part Vanity Fair story in which she offered stunningly forthright assessments of the president and much of his senior staff. Her blunt candor (she said that Trump has an "alcoholic's personality" and that Elon Musk is "an avowed ketamine" user) was especially surprising because Wiles has presided over a (relatively) on-message White House and is usually so careful herself."
"Steve Bannon got excommunicated from Trump world-at least for a while-during the president's first term after his own frank on-the-record exchange with a journalist. But this time, there was no firing, no public meltdown. Instead, Trump shrugged it off. Cabinet members mobilized to defend Wiles. Her job seems safe, at least for now. To many in Trump's orbit, the White House's response is a telling reflection of how indispensable she is to the president."
Susie Wiles cultivated a low-profile chief of staff role, avoiding cameras and interviews while enforcing discipline in a chaotic White House. She gave unusually candid on-the-record assessments in a two-part Vanity Fair piece, describing Trump as having an "alcoholic's personality" and calling Elon Musk "an avowed ketamine" user. The disclosures arrive amid GOP electoral setbacks and other White House controversies, compounding pressure on the West Wing. Unlike previous on-the-record breaches that led to exile, Wiles was not fired; Trump shrugged it off, cabinet members defended her, and many within his circle view her as indispensable for steady leadership.
Read at The Atlantic
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]