Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles — a longtime Republican strategist who began her career in Jacksonville, Florida — said in a Vanity Fair magazine interview published Tuesday, Dec. 16, that she had a loose agreement with the president to avoid settling scores after his first 90 days, but did not challenge him as investigations expanded.
Wiles also offered the magazine candid assessments of top administration officials in the series of interviews that stretched over months.
Trump “has an alcoholic’s personality,” she said. Vice President JD Vance has been “a conspiracy theorist for a decade,” she said. And Attorney General Pam Bondi “completely whiffed” in her initial release of documents about accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, she said.
Here’s what we know about Trump’s Chief of Staff’s declarations during the Vanity Fair interview and her political beginnings in Jacksonville.
Who is Susie Wiles, Donald Trump’s Chief of Staff?
Wiles is the first woman to hold the title of White House Chief of Staff in U.S. history. She is also a private person and rarely out in front on the campaign trail or in interviews. She prefers to quietly keep campaigns organized and on track while serving as the powerhouse behind several major Florida politicians and becoming essential to Trump’s triumphant comeback.
Why did Susie Wiles tell Vanity Fair that Trump has ‘alcoholic’s personality?
In a Vanity Fair interview, Wiles said her father was a functioning alcoholic and explained that the experience helped her learn how to handle big personalities. She noted, “Some clinical psychologist that knows one million times more than I do will dispute what I’m going to say. But high-functioning alcoholics or alcoholics in general, their personalities are exaggerated when they drink. And so I’m a little bit of an expert in big personalities.” Wiles also described Trump as having “an alcoholic’s personality,” adding that he “operates [with] a view that there’s nothing he can’t do. Nothing, zero, nothing.”
What is Susie Wiles’ response to the Vanity article?
Wiles called the article on social media “a disingenuously framed hit piece” on her, Trump and members of his cabinet.
According to Wiles, she is being quoted out of context. “Significant context was disregarded and much of what I, and others, said about the team and the President was left out of the story,” Wiles said. “I assume, after reading it, that this was done to paint an overwhelmingly chaotic and negative narrative about the President and our team.”
From career to family: Susie Wiles’ ties to Jacksonville
Born in New Jersey, Wiles was one of three children of legendary sportscaster and former NFL kicker Pat Summerall. Her early career in politics included working for New York Rep. Jack Kemp, a former teammate of her father’s on the New York Giants, and on former President Ronald Reagan’s campaigns.
Wiles moved to Jacksonville with her husband, Lanny Wiles, also a Republican political consultant, where she worked as a consultant and in government before taking more than a decade off to raise her two daughters. They divorced in 2017.
However, over the next few years, she worked with Secretary of Labor Raymond J. Donovan, served as deputy director of operations for Dan Quayle’s vice-presidential campaign, and worked as a district director for U.S. Rep. Tillie K. Fowler (R-FL) before helping John Delaney become Jacksonville’s first Republican mayor since shortly after the Civil War in 1995. She later served as Delaney’s chief of staff, and worked as chief of communications for Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton in 2004.
“She’s a Republican, but she’s not uber-, uber-conservative at all,” Delaney said in an interview with USA TODAY earlier this year. “Really you’d be struck more by moderate than anything else. … She’d be left on the environment, left on gay rights.”
Wiles has two daughters, Katie and Caroline. Caroline was briefly hired to be a deputy assistant to the president and director of scheduling in Trump’s White House in 2017, but resigned after failing an FBI background check.
Who has Susie Wiles worked for?
Wiles helped put Rick Scott, Ron DeSantis, and Donald Trump in office. Sen. Rick Scott was an unknown former hospital executive with the Florida GOP establishment against him when Wiles joined his 2010 campaign, helping him tap into the Tea Party wave to narrowly win the governor’s race.
“Most Republicans were told if they worked on my campaign in the primary they would never work in Republican politics, so I’ll forever be grateful somebody with Susie’s reputation came to work for me,” said Scott, adding Wiles is “really smart, she’s a hard worker, she’s a team player, I think she gives really good advice.”
Wiles also briefly served as campaign manager for Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman’s presidential campaign but resigned. Politico reported it was due to a bitter feud with John Weaver, the candidate’s chief strategist.
Susie Wiles’ Jacksonville political ties and impact on Trump and DeSantis campaigns
Between positions, Wiles worked in various powerful lobbying firms, including APCO Worldwide, her own firm, Wiles Consulting, Inc, and Ballard Partners, Florida’s largest government affairs agency, where she ran the Jacksonville office with former Jacksonville Jaguars player Tony Boselli.
While most of the Jacksonville Republicans threw their weight behind presidential candidate Jeb Bush in 2015, Wiles became co-chair of Donald Trump’s Florida campaign. She helped Trump win the state by 1.2 percentage points over Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Trump reportedly sent her to help Ron DeSantis’ floundering gubernatorial campaign.
Why did Ron DeSantis fire Susie Wiles after leading his campaign?
Andrew Gillum was leading in the polls when Ron DeSantis brought Wiles in as campaign chairwoman. On election night, DeSantis called her “really the best in the business.”
She joined his transition team, but in 2019, according to Politico and the New York Times, some DeSantis loyalists worried the state GOP was filled with “Susie people,” and rumors suggested she was there as a lobbyist seeking influence. After the Tampa Bay Times published an internal memo with her name detailing an “aggressive” fundraising scheme, DeSantis blamed her for the leak and fired her. Wiles has denied leaking any documents.
According to insiders, DeSantis tried to “ruin her life” and prevent her from working in politics again, even pressuring Trump to fire her from managing his 2020 Florida campaign.
“He most definitely tried to make me some sort of a pariah, and I was never able to get an appointment with him or anything after it happened to address it head on,” said Wiles.
Driving Trump’s campaigns and political strategy timeline: 2020–2024
While she was initially let go, Trump’s campaign brought Wiles back into the 2020 race despite DeSantis’ objections and ended up carrying Florida by more than 3 percentage points, tripling his margin of victory from 2016 and building Wiles’ reputation despite Trump’s national loss.
In 2021, Trump made her CEO of his political action committee, Save America PAC, which led to increased involvement in other areas of his political operations. In the investigation of Trump’s handling of classified documents, Wiles is believed to be the unnamed individual in special counsel Jack Smith’s original indictment to whom Trump allegedly showed a classified map to, according to ABC News.
Wiles ultimately led Trump’s 2024 campaign along with LaCivita, helping outmaneuver DeSantis’ primary challenge by getting most of the Florida GOP congressional delegation to back Trump before DeSantis had officially announced.
Is Susie Wiles the first female White House Chief of Staff?
Yes. All of the 31 previous chiefs of staff have been men.
Susie Wiles became Donald Trump’s White House Chief of Staff on January 20, 2025, upon his inauguration, making her the first woman to hold the role. As of late 2025, she has served for about a year. She earned the powerful position after managing Trump’s successful 2024 presidential campaign, having worked closely with him since 2016.
What is the role of a White House Chief of Staff?
The chief of staff wields enormous influence in the administration, serving as gatekeeper to the Oval Office with daily access to the president and control of the Executive Office.
The chief of staff manages White House staff, organizes the president’s time and schedule, directs and manages policy development, negotiates legislation, and keeps in contact with other departments and legislators. The position is a political one that does not require confirmation by the Senate.
The position was established under President Dwight Eisenhower in 1946, expanding the role of a private secretary after President Franklin D. Roosevelt restructured the White House staff and created the Executive Office of the President.
C. A. Bridges of Daytona Beach and Bart Jansen of USA TODAY, contributed to this story.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Susie Wiles’ Vanity Fair interview, and political ties to Jacksonville
Reporting by Doris Alvarez Cea and C. A. Bridges, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
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