President Donald Trump on Tuesday defended White House chief of staff Susie Wiles after a series of unusually blunt interviews in which she described him as having “an alcoholic’s personality” and questioned decisions by some of his top lieutenants.
Trump Says Comment Was Not Insulting
Speaking to the New York Post, Trump said he wasn’t offended by Wiles’ phrasing. “No, she meant that I’m — you see, I don’t drink alcohol… I’ve often said that if I did, I’d have a very good chance of being an alcoholic… It’s a very possessive personality,” he said, reiterating his long-stated claim that he avoids alcohol after watching his brother struggle with alcoholism.
Wiles, the daughter of late NFL player and broadcaster Pat Summerall, is Trump’s first female chief of staff and one of his longest-serving political strategists. She previously managed Trump’s Florida operations and helped steer his 2024 comeback campaign.
In 11 on-the-record conversations with Vanity Fair, Wiles compared Trump’s temperament to “high-functioning alcoholics” whose personalities are amplified, and said he operates as if there is “nothing he can’t do.” She also said global tariffs had been “more painful than I expected,” criticized immigration lapses and questioned Attorney General Pam Bondi’s handling of Jeffrey Epstein files.
“I didn’t read it, but I don’t read Vanity Fair — but she’s done a fantastic job,” Trump said, adding that “from what I hear, the facts were wrong, and it was a very misguided interviewer, purposely misguided.”
Allies Close Ranks Around Chief Of Staff
Wiles, meanwhile, has labeled the story “a disingenuously framed hit piece” and said it omits context about “the finest President, White House staff, and Cabinet in history.”
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted Wiles’ words were taken out of context, while Trump allies on X, including financier Howard Lutnick, called her “an historic Chief of Staff” who “deeply understands President Trump and the MAGA movement.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi, whom Wiles said “whiffed” on the Epstein rollout, responded by calling Wiles a “dear friend” and warning that “any attempt to divide this administration will fail.” As per a separate report by Politico, Vice President JD Vance, whom Wiles described as “a conspiracy theorist for a decade,” told reporters he only believes “in the conspiracy theories that are true.”
Scaramucci Says Interviews Signal ‘Something’s Up’
Elsewhere, former Trump communications director Anthony Scaramucci wrote that “the Trump era is ending,” arguing that when top advisers “feel emboldened to speak so candidly, something’s up.”
The uproar highlights the central position of a chief of staff who both defends Trump publicly and, by her own account, sometimes fails to steer him away from retribution or risky policy moves. For now, Trump is standing by Wiles, even as her words give allies and opponents new insight into how power is exercised inside his second-term White House.
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