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White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles Felt 'Blindsided' by Vanity Fair Article

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  December 17, 2025 6:55 AM

I know some were asking the same question: why would White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles sit down with Vanity Fair for this candid interview? She offered brutal assessments of some of the Trump administration’s top figures, from JD Vance to Pam Bondi; Wiles was no-holds-barred. For starters, you need to talk to the media, even if you hate them. President Trump does this daily. 

Second, it once again highlighted that even when you cooperate, and they all did, the mainstream press will still cook you. It’s why many have flocked to other sources of information. You can’t trust these guys covering this administration—ever. You already know this, but ‘Susiegate’, as some are calling it, while not pleasant for the top Trump aide, isn’t going to undercut or weaken her. To the contrary, the reaction to this piece showed how much power she wields. 

Rachael Bade, formerly of Politico, wrote that the president and Wiles met privately about the article, where Trump was reportedly ‘unfazed’ by the piece. Even those Wiles criticized heavily came to her defense. Like clockwork, once the piece dropped, Wiles, who reportedly feels “blindsided” by the article, claimed a great many things were taken out of context: 

Wiles, I’m told, was “pretty upset” and felt blindsided. While the author said the quotes were from 11 on-the-record interviews she gave him throughout Trump’s first year back in the White House, Wiles and her team felt the ground rules hadn’t been clear — and that the remarks were taken out of context. 

It also didn’t quite add up to people who know her well: While known for her candor — part of the reason the president trusts her — Wiles has always been a savvy, behind-the-scenes operator who loathes the spotlight and would fall on a sward before allowing herself to trigger a negative newscycle for her boss. 

But what happened after is what’s most revealing. Within hours, the long tail of Wiles’ power and deep relationships across Trump World whipped into a rescue mission. Without so much as a summons, longtime allies from the campaign trail and others inside her orbit cleared their schedules and showed up at the White House to ask how they could help, I’m told from multiple sources. During a huddle in the West Wing, a fire crackling in Wiles’ office, they set to work on a damage-control plan to push back on the story as unfair — and activated the entire Cabinet. 

All day, MAGA figures and Cabinet secretaries alike took to social media to defend Wiles and deride the story as a “hit piece” with “cherry-picked” quotes taken out of context. DONALD TRUMP JR. reminded the world about how Wiles stood with his dad when most in the party considered him a pariah after Jan. 6. Her co-captain on the 2024 campaign, CHRIS LaCIVITA, humorously tried to redirect reporters’ attention to RYAN LIZZA’s latest essay about his rift with OLIVIA NUZZI and RFK. Even COREY LEWANDOWSKI, who was notoriously sidelined during the campaign for undercutting Wile’s leadership, called her “incredibly gifted” and the story “trash.” 

More telling: Those who Wiles appeared to criticize in the story stood with her. While Wiles told the reporter that fellow Floridian PAM BONDI had “completely whiffed” in her handling of the JEFFREY EPSTEIN situation, the Attorney General took to X to say her “dear friend” Wiles “fights every day to advance President Trump’s agenda – and she does so with grace, loyalty, and historic effectiveness.” 

Office of Management and Budget chief RUSSELL VOUGHT — whom Wiles in the interview called “a right-wing absolute zealot” (though, let’s be honest, he prob took that as a compliment!) — tweeted that she was an “exceptional chief of staff.” 

Trump told aides he didn’t care about the story. 

Then he took a call from a New York Post reporter and gave a full-fledged endorsement of his chief, even backing Wiles’ perhaps unfortunate description of him as having an “alcoholic’s personality.”

“I didn’t read it... but she’s done a fantastic job,” Trump said. “I think from what I hear, the facts were wrong, and it was a very misguided interviewer, purposely misguided.” 

After that, as far as anyone in the administration who matters was concerned, the controversy was over. 

While this administration has had some public relations missteps, Wiles has kept a tight ship. She’s the right captain, and the operation is light-years smoother than the first Trump presidency, which is why she’s staying. I don’t know why folks would think otherwise. Trump loves her, and it’s clear from the Vanity Fair photo that everyone agreed on the piece's contents. It wasn’t some covert sit-down, though I’m sure they all knew a hatchet job could be coming, or at the very least the loss of context.  

The entire Trump and GOP apparatus circled the wagons around Ms. Wiles. Here are some of the reactions: 

There were rumors of a shake-up, which wouldn’t be unusual at this point in an administration, but Wiles will leave when she wants to.