Susie Wiles Reflects on Trump’s First Year Back in Office in Vanity Fair Interviews
Susie Wiles, the first woman to serve as White House chief of staff, gave 11 Vanity Fair interviews during Donald Trump’s first year back in office. She later criticized the piece as a disingenuously framed hit piece that omitted important context.
Wiles describes Trump as an intense thinker who uses broad strokes in his approach and compares his personality to that of an alcoholic type, despite Trump not drinking alcohol. Initially, Trump aimed to end score-settling within 90 days, but Wiles says this evolved; she no longer sees his actions as a pure revenge tour but believes they stem from a concern that what happened to him should not happen to others.
On certain claims, Wiles rejects Trump’s assertion that Bill Clinton visited Jeffrey Epstein’s island, stating there is no evidence to support such visits. She also criticizes Attorney General Pam Bondi’s handling of the Epstein case, suggesting there was an attempt to imply that a client list would be disclosed, which was later revealed not to exist.
Regarding Elon Musk, Wiles describes him as a lone, odd actor who overstepped with USAID. She disapproves of shutting down USAID and rebuilding it from scratch. She refers to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as quirky but endorses him for pushing hardline positions, noting this pressure helped force a political middle ground.
Wiles characterizes the April Liberation Day tariffs as a case of thinking-out-loud policy with internal disputes. She believes a middle-ground tariff approach would have been better and acknowledges that the tariffs have caused more pain than expected.
Lastly, she outlines Trump’s Venezuela policy as continuing maritime pressure against Nicolás Maduro to compel him to yield. This policy is framed as targeting drug-cartel activity rather than addressing generic aggression.
