White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles has disputed portions of a Vanity Fair article in which she paints an unflattering picture of the Trump administration and many of its top officials.
In the interview, Wiles described Donald Trump as having an alcoholic's personality and Vice President JD Vance as having been a conspiracy theorist for a decade.
But in a post on X, Wiles said that Vanity Fair disregarded significant context to create an overwhelmingly chaotic and negative narrative about the administration.
Wiles, 68, played a key part in Trump's successful 2024 presidential campaign before becoming the first woman to be White House Chief of Staff.
In a New York Post interview, Trump defended Wiles, describing her as fantastic and suggested she had been deceived by the writer.
The president also said he thought Wiles' comments about his personality mirrored remarks he previously made.
Over the course of nearly a dozen interviews with Vanity Fair, Wiles talked about a wide range of issues, including handling of Epstein files, Trump's legal actions against political rivals, and also about personalities around the president.
She admitted that there may be an element of retribution in Trump's efforts to pursue criminal cases against political adversaries or perceived foes.
I don't think he wakes up thinking about retribution, she added. But when there's an opportunity, he will go for it.
Wiles is widely considered among the most powerful members of the Trump White House in his second term. Prior to becoming chief of staff, Wiles had a long history working with Trump, including as his campaign manager in Florida in 2016 and as the head of his fundraising apparatus, Save America.
In the interview, she credits her upbringing with an alcoholic father as what enabled her to work with the president.
High-functioning alcoholics or alcoholics in general, their personalities are exaggerated when they drink, she said. So I'm a little bit of an expert in big personalities.
While the president does not drink, she said Trump has an alcoholic's personality and governs with the mindset that there's nothing he can't do. Nothing, zero, nothing.
Among the other figures that Wiles commented on was JD Vance, a one-time critic of Trump who has since become a close ally and vice-president.
Vance stated he had not read the article but believes in conspiracy theories that are true, citing reports of former President Joe Biden's ill-health as an example.
Wiles reserved some of her strongest comments for tech billionaire Elon Musk, who had led cost-cutting efforts at the Department of Government Efficiency before leaving the government.
She described Musk as an avowed Ketamine [user] and acknowledged her initial disbelief at his approach to streamlining operations in government.
On Tuesday morning - hours after the Vanity Fair article was published - Wiles took to X, accusing the magazine of a disingenuously framed hit piece aimed at her, Trump, and other cabinet members.
The White House has also defended Wiles, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stating that Wiles has played a critical role in Trump's administration, despite the scrutiny.
Wiles characterized her comments as taken wildly out of context and called for a more balanced depiction of her views on Trump and his policies.
As of now, Musk has not commented on the article.
