White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles looks on during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President Donald Trump and members of Trump’s Cabinet at the White House on Oct. 17, in Washington.
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A new Vanity Fair profile by author Chris Whipple cracks open the private world of a White House Chief of Staff who rarely speaks and, when she does, doesn’t hedge.
Speaking with All Things Considered, Whipple said the piece is based on 11 in-depth, on-the-record interviews over the past year, with an extraordinary level of access to Susie Wiles. “Every once in a while in the course of your career as a reporter, lightning strikes,” Whipple told NPR.
In Whipple’s reporting, Wiles doled out criticism for multiple colleagues in and around the White House – including saying Attorney General Pam Bondi “completely whiffed” on her handling of the Epstein files, and calling Vice President J.D. Vance a “conspiracy theorist,” among other characterizations. Whipple’s profile showed Wiles was equally blunt about her boss, describing President Donald Trump as having “an alcoholic’s personality,” a characterization Trump, who does not drink, later echoed himself to another news outlet, saying, “She’s right. I do have an obsessive and addictive personality.”
On Tuesday, Wiles pushed back on X, calling the profile a “disingenuously framed hit piece” and arguing it painted “an overwhelmingly chaotic and negative narrative about the President and our team.”
Whipple told All Things Considered that Wiles’ response stood out precisely because it avoided disputing the substance of the reporting. “Not a single fact in the piece has been contested,” Whipple said.
Listen to the full interview by clicking on the blue button above.
The web copy of this interview was written by Majd Al-Waheidi and edited by Ashley Brown.
