White House Chief of Staff Susan Wiles has spent years operating as one of Donald Trump’s most trusted and influential behind-the-scenes power players — but in her latest Vanity Fair profile, she’s done playing quiet. In the piece, Wiles pulls the curtain back on President Donald Trump and his inner circle, spilling head-turning, unflattering details that may have just thrown the president under the bus.
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And while Wiles later took to X to insist the article was a “disingenuously framed” hit piece that ignored “significant context,” the damage was already done, because the quiet parts were very much said out loud. And the details had everyone in a chokehold.
A plethora of unsettling assessments were made relating to Trump, as Wiles casually alleged that Trump has an “alcoholic’s personality,” that Vice President J.D. Vance is a longtime “conspiracy theorist,” and that Russell Vought — key architect and co-author of Project 2025 — was an absolute “right-wing zealot.”
That may seem like a mouthful to start, but it’s precisely the kind of unfiltered insight that stopped readers cold, and she was just getting started.
January 6th Pardons
Wiles alleged that she urged Trump to take more precaution when it came to January 6th pardons, questioning whether he really wanted to pardon all January 6 convicts or be more selective. While she admitted she was on board after reviewing details, she stated: “There have been a couple of times where I’ve been outvoted. And if there’s a tie, he wins.”
It seems Wiles has had training with “big personalities,” as her father Pat Summerall — legendary sportscaster and reported alcohol abuser — possessed similar traits to the president, who she claims takes on “a view that there’s nothing he can’t do. Nothing, zero, nothing.”
And while Trump admits he doesn’t partake in any sipping, his decision-making — according to Wiles — has a similar temperament.
Turbulent Rollout of Tariffs
Wiles even came for Trump’s turbulent rollout of steep tariffs, revealing that the team never reached a real consensus on how the policy should move forward. However, in very Trump fashion, the Head of State bulldozed ahead, despite the lack of agreement among his advisors. “So much thinking out loud is what I would call it,” Wiles said, per VF. “There was a huge disagreement over whether [tariffs were] a good idea.
“I said, ‘This is where we’re going to end up. So figure out how you can work into what he’s already thinking.’ Well, they couldn’t get there,” she detailed. And according to her, she even had to pull Vance into the discussion, hoping he’d help pump the brakes.
“We told Donald Trump, ‘Hey, let’s not talk about tariffs today. Let’s wait until we have the team in complete unity and then we’ll do it,’” she alleged, before Trump went full-steam ahead.
Known to Trump as the “Ice Maiden” and sometimes “Susie Trump,” per CNN, Wiles remains locked in with loyalty spanning the president’s orbit. That said, her loyalty didn’t mean silence. These candid accounts of Trump’s decision-making — including January 6 pardons, his chaotic tariff rollout, and “alcoholic personality” — reveal just how unpredictable he can be.
In painting a picture of what it’s like behind the scenes with the MAGA leader, folks are saying she may have thrown him under the bus, showing a leader whose impulses often outpace even his closest advisors.
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