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. Prior to becoming Chief of Staff, Wiles had 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.
In the interview, 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.
Among the other figures that Wiles commented on was JD Vance, a one-time critic of Trump who has since become a close ally and vice-president. Wiles suggested that Vance's shift in perceptions was sort of political.
Wiles also reserved strong comments for tech billionaire Elon Musk, who led cost-cutting efforts at the Department of Government Efficiency. She described Musk as an avowed Ketamine user and noted his oddities as a genius.
Looking back on Musk's cost-cutting efforts, Wiles expressed concerns about the gutting of the US Agency for International Development, saying she was initially aghast at the idea.
On Tuesday morning - hours after the Vanity Fair article was published - Wiles took to X, accusing the magazine of disingenuously framed hit piece aimed at her, Trump and other cabinet members. She asserted that the article lacked significant context and painted an overwhelmingly negative narrative about the administration.
When contacted for comment, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended Wiles, stating that she has helped President Trump achieve the most successful first 11 months in office.
Trump and Musk have yet to comment on the Vanity Fair piece.
