President Donald Trump came to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles’ defense Tuesday after her comments to Vanity Fair, saying he had an “alcoholic’s personality.”
In a series of 11 interviews she gave to Vanity Fair, chronicling Trump’s second term, Wiles described him as someone with “an alcoholic’s personality” and Vice President JD Vance as a “conspiracy theorist.”
“No, she meant that I’m — you see, I don’t drink alcohol. So everybody knows that — but I’ve often said that if I did, I’d have a very good chance of being an alcoholic,” Trump told the New York Post. “I have said that many times about myself, I do. It’s a very possessive personality.”
“I’ve said that many times about myself. I’m fortunate I’m not a drinker. If I did, I could very well, because I’ve said that — what’s the word? Not possessive — possessive and addictive type personality. Oh, I’ve said it many times, many times before.”
VP Vance also defended the chief of staff Tuesday, writing in an X post that the entire team loves her “because she is loyal and good at her job. An extremely rare combo in the halls of power.”
“If any of us have learned a lesson from that Vanity Fair article, I hope that the lesson is we should be giving fewer interviews to mainstream media outlets,” he said while speaking in Pennsylvania Tuesday.
Wiles’ remarks against Trump and Vance were part of an extensive series of interviews she gave to Vanity Fair’s Chris Whipple. She even described Elon Musk as “an odd, odd duck” and claimed he was “an avowed ketamine [user],” despite Musk’s recent denials of drug use.
Following the publication of the story, Wiles claimed that her comments were taken out of context.
“The article published early this morning is a disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the finest President, White House staff, and Cabinet in history,” she wrote in an X post. “Significant context was disregarded and much of what I, and others, said about the team and the President was left out of the story. I assume, after reading it, that this was done to paint an overwhelmingly chaotic and negative narrative about the President and our team.”
“I didn’t read it, but I don’t read Vanity Fair — but she’s done a fantastic job,” Trump added to the NY Post. “I think from what I hear, the facts were wrong, and it was a very misguided interviewer, purposely misguided.”
Other White House officials slammed the paper’s characterization of the second Trump administration, including Pete Hegseth and Karoline Leavitt. The Department of Defense secretary blamed Vanity Fair for trashing and smearing the administrations “best and most effective people.” Leavitt echoed this sentiment, saying that the president has “no greater or more loyal advisor.”
