Susie Drops A Doozy
Deep Dives
Explore related topics with these Wikipedia articles, rewritten for enjoyable reading:
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White House Chief of Staff
8 min read
The article centers on Susie Wiles's role as Chief of Staff and references Chris Whipple's book on chiefs of staff. Understanding the historical power, responsibilities, and notable figures in this position provides crucial context for why Wiles's candid interviews are so extraordinary and politically damaging.
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Unitary executive theory
18 min read
The article mentions Russ Vought advancing the 'unitary executive' theory to grant more power to Trump. This constitutional interpretation about presidential power is central to understanding the legal framework being used to justify executive actions described in the article.
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United States Agency for International Development
15 min read
USAID's dismantling under Musk is a major focus of the article, with Wiles expressing shock at the humanitarian consequences. Understanding USAID's history, scope of operations, and global impact helps readers grasp the magnitude of what Wiles describes as 'breaking china.'
Susie Wiles helped steer the Trump campaign to victory in 2024, in part by turning against her former boss, Ron DeSantis and helping to sideline him as a contender. Wiles was rewarded mightily when Trump named her his official and powerful gatekeeper as White House Chief of Staff.
But now, Wiles has swung those gates wide open by giving 11 recorded interviews to Vanity Fair, delivered in Part One and Part Two punches, with a series of truly jaw-dropping statements and claims.
The piece, which also presented highly unflattering photos of Trump’s motley set of advisors, provides the first, broad insider’s look at the Trump 2.0 White House. It confirms some things we’ve long suspected about key figures in the President’s orbit; it offers Wiles’s unique perspective on the lies, tensions and missteps that have characterized the regime; and it lays bare both her sycophantic devotion to Trump and her inability to prevent, and later her deep complicity in, some of Trump’s most terrible policies and acts.
Before we get into those, a bit about how wild it is that this piece even happened at all—and the circling of the wagons it has triggered.
The unguarded guardian
As the New York Times reported,
The nation’s capital was stunned on Tuesday by an explosive new article recounting a year’s worth of unguarded conversations with the usually guarded Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff who spilled on everything from President Trump’s “alcoholic’s personality” to the brewing war in Venezuela.
Wiles typically “shuns publicity” but somehow agreed to 11 interviews this year with Chris Whipple, who previously wrote a book on White House chiefs of staff. Perhaps Wiles saw herself as someone to be counted among these historic figures and decided candor would serve her.
It did not. After the article published, a clearly upset Wiles blasted it on social media, which she rarely uses, calling it “a disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the finest President, White House staff, and Cabinet in history.” (Narrator: None of that last part is true.)
And while not disputing what she actually said on tape to Whipple, or any of the facts set forth in the article, Wiles claimed that “significant context was disregarded and much of what I, and others, said about the team and the President was left out of the story.”
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