Who is Susie Wiles? | Global News Podcast

Welcome to the Global News podcast, where we go behind the headlines to find. out more about a story and why it. matters. I'm Charlotte Gallagher, and. today we're going to Washington because. White House Chiefs of Staff are usually. rarely seen and never heard, at least. while they're doing the job. Not so. President Trump's most trusted aide, Susie Wiles, who's the subject of a huge. article in Vanity Fair magazine this. week, in which she speaks candidly, very. candidly, about her job, her boss, and. many of the senior administration.

officials that she's had to deal with. In the article, she describes Donald. Trump as having an alcoholic's. personality, and she said J.D. Vance was. a conspiracy theorist. Well, joining us. now to discuss this is our North America. correspondent, Anthony Zurcher. Anthony, thanks so much for speaking to us. What. else has Susie Wiles been saying? Well, in this Vanity Fair article, a. 10,000-word. profile, two-part profile of her, she. kind of walked the author, Chris. Whipple, through.

all of the past year with Donald Trump, and she pulled back the curtain on some. of the divisions that we haven't seen. inside the White House. This has seemed. like a very united White House, particularly compared to Donald Trump's. first term, but clearly there have been. some. very prominent uh. disputes, arguments behind the scenes on. things like the pardoning of the January. 6th rioters early in Donald Trump's.

term, the deconstruction of USAID and. the cutting of US foreign aid. She. talked about how there were internal. divisions over trade policy, that there. were some senior presidential advisers. who were very much against Donald. Trump's sweeping tariffs on US trading. partners, and others who thought it was. a great idea. And and even discussions on how the. administration handled the release of. the files relating to deceased sex. trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. And she had.

some pointed criticisms actually of some. of the other people in the. administration. She said Pam Bondi, the. Attorney General, really whiffed on the. handling of the Epstein files. She said. J.D. Vance was. a conspiracy theorist and had been for a. decade. She had critical words about. Elon Musk, saying that he leaned on he. used. ketamine a lot, and he was very. unpredictable and a strange bird. So,

again, we haven't had a lot of leaks. from this administration up until now. This is one of the first times we really. gotten to see the inner workings of it. and some of the power dynamics and. rivalries behind the scenes. It was a. fascinating look, even if Susan Wiles. says all of this was taken out of. context and that misrepresents her. views. And she also said that Donald Trump had. the personality of an alcoholic, but he. is standing by her, isn't he? And we. know this is a man who values loyalty,

but he is standing by his Chief so far. Yeah, all of the senior administration. officials have rallied around Wiles, and. Donald Trump, obviously, his opinion. matters. the most. You have to remember, Donald Trump. trusts Wiles. She helped him win Florida. in 2016. She was co-manager of his. campaign in 2024. and helped him win there. So, that has. earned his trust. Her father was Pat. Summerall, who was a a former NFL kicker.

who went on to become a very. well-respected NFL play-by-play. broadcaster that Donald Trump knew, and. so Donald Trump knows the family, and I. think that there's a certain level of. additional respect that he has for her. as the the daughter of someone. that he knew back in the '70s and and. '80s. So, that has given her a certain. amount of standing, but his trust has. been built up over time, and I think he. is willing, or at least seems so far, to. be willing to shrug this off.

because she has served him so well and. has run, by all by all accounts, a very. tight ship within the White House. this year after and if you remember in. that first Donald Trump presidential. term, he went through a series of Chiefs. of Staff, all of the relationships ending up. souring, Donald Trump ultimately firing. them or them leaving under a cloud. And Wiles has distanced herself from the. article, but she's not said, "Look, I. didn't say these quotes." Um it's quite.

a weird situation because she's offered. them openly to this journalist from. Vanity Fair. Yeah, yeah, I mean, it would be hard for. her to totally. totally denounce what she said, totally. deny what she said because clearly all. of this was recorded by Chris Whipple, the Vanity Fair. author. There were these glamour shot. photographs taken within the White House. of Wiles, not only just Wiles, but Wiles. and all of the senior staff of the White. House, including J.D. Vance and Stephen.

Miller, the Deputy Chief of Staff, and. other top officials. So, clearly, you. know, she gave access to this reporter. She spoke on the record to the reporter. She's not denying that either. It's just. now the way the they are their view is. that the way the piece was put together. does not accurately reflect her views. and her solid backing and of Donald. Trump,

there's ever been. That's kind of a line. that we hear echoed time and time again. from top administration officials. Even. if some of the things she said kind of. undercuts. fellow members of her staff. It's not. going to be an easy thing to kind of. shrug off, but at least for the time. being, the administration seems to be. putting up a united front on this story. And how unusual is it for someone in her. position, a White House Chief of Staff, to do one of these interviews and say. what she said, be so open? Yeah, you know, tell-all.

tell-all biographies. and and memoirs are uh are not an. unusual thing in Washington, but they. usually happen after the person leaves. the position of power, not in the middle. of it. If you're talking on the record. in the middle of an administration, the. first year of an administration, that is. very rare, particularly for a a senior. official. You've got to remember, the. Chief of Staff, that's like the. gatekeeper to the White House, one of. the most influential positions in the.

White House that manages all the staff, manages who has access to the President, what the President sees, what he sees on. a daily basis. I mean, it's an. incredibly powerful position. So, to. give a reporter from the outside, someone who is not. totally sympathetic, who is who is. impartial, has a great reputation as an. impartial journalist, but still someone. who you know is not necessarily going to. paint a rosy picture, to give them. access, that is really really unusual.

If if someone's going to talk while. they're in power, usually they talk off. the record. They. they talk on background, and they they. leak things out. Here Susan Wiles is is. talking on the record, and she's she's. putting it all out there. I want to ask. you quickly about another story from. this week, which was the death of Rob. Reiner and his wife, Michelle, and the. comments that President Trump made on. social media about that, which a lot of. people were really shocked by. A lot of. people were really upset by. He's. doubled down on that. He's standing by.

those comments, but what's been the. reaction in Washington? I I think it has been shock. I mean, a. lot of us who have been around Donald. Trump for the past 10 years are are used. to him saying controversial, sometimes. outrageous, incendiary type things, but. for him to talk about a beloved. Hollywood mogul, someone who is not just. a director, but an actor and a producer. with all of these really well-loved. films, to talk about their death, that.

they somehow brought it on themselves by. their anti-Trump views, just a day after. they were murdered. I mean, it was it. was jarring. And what what you hear from. even from some Republicans on the record. was that Trump shouldn't have done that, that it wasn't appropriate, that he. should have kept his mouth shut, that he. is not helping helping himself or. conservatives by. being so so brazen in his criticism of. someone who quite honestly did have very.

outspoken views about Donald Trump and. had condemned Donald Trump over the past. decade, but. that is not reason in their view for for. Trump to effectively dance on his grave, to to talk about what a horrible person. he was while the body is still is still. warm. So, this has been a surprising. moment where Republicans who usually. just say, "I didn't see the the tweet. I. didn't see the post." They don't want to. comment on it. Some have come right out. and said Trump shouldn't shouldn't have. done that. I think And then I think that.

shows. exactly how out of kind of the norm, out. of the. out of the the the traditional. boundaries of propriety, this comment. was. A tough question, but why do you. think he did it? I think in in some ways Donald Trump uh. if he doesn't like someone in life or in. death, he he makes it very clear. He he doesn't pull his punches. If. someone he considers someone a critic or.

an enemy, he is going to say so right. out front. One of the things he likes he. he likes to boast of, and his supporters. like to boast about him, is that he he. doesn't he he doesn't mince his words. He tells it like it is. And. I don't think it's helping him. politically, but that is part of the. Donald Trump brand. Anthony, thank you so much for speaking. to us. My pleasure. That was Anthony Zurcher in Washington. And you can hear more on this story on. the Global News Podcast. You can listen. wherever you get your podcast from. If.

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