The White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles, delivered a series of unusually candid and at times unflattering assessments of Donald Trump, his second-term agenda and some of his closest allies in a series of wide-ranging interviews with Vanity Fair published Tuesday.
Across more than 10 interviews, Wiles spoke frankly about working for Trump, saying the president “has an alcoholic’s personality,” despite being known as a teetotaler.
She acknowledged the president’s appetite for revenge, conceding many of his second-term actions were driven by a desire for retribution.
Wiles suggested Trump was pursuing regime change in Venezuela through his boat-bombing campaign, contradicting official justifications for the strikes. And she described several controversial areas where the president ignored her advice, including on deportations and pardons.
If my boss made corruption, retribution and personal revenge the main driver of his policy decisions, I would not gleefully continue as his employee while making excuses for his abusive practices because I’m not a complete piece of shit.