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.
Just the other day I was thinking about how rare it is to hear from her. Which is really bizarre she’s the chief of staff. That’s a position some people refer to as the co-president. That’s how powerful it is. Yet we so rarely hear from her. I’m not sure if it’s just because she’s good at keeping her head down and nose clean or if Trump is so easy to manipulate that others have so much more power than a normal Administration. Or some combination of the two.