White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, in interviews she gave to Vanity Fair chronicling Donald Trump’s second term, described him as someone with “an alcoholic’s personality” and Vice President JD Vance as a “conspiracy theorist.”
Wiles gave 11 interviews to writer Chris Whipple, an author who has reported extensively on White House chiefs of staff. Throughout the conversations, which took place throughout the first year of Trump‘s second term, she said Trump, who doesn’t drink, “operates [with] a view that there’s nothing he can’t do,” akin to an alcoholic.
The remarks were part of an extensive series of interviews she gave to Whipple, which also included characterizations of many figures in Trump’s orbit. She described one-time White House adviser Elon Musk as “an odd, odd duck” and claimed he was “an avowed ketamine [user],” despite Musk’s recent denials of drug use. Wiles initially refuted the comment to the New York Times as something she “wouldn’t have said” and “wouldn’t know,” though Whipple played the paper a tape with her remarks. Wiles also told Vanity Fair she didn’t have first-hand knowledge of Musk’s alleged use.
She later disavowed her comments to Vanity Fair in an X post on Tuesday, hours after the series of stories was published.
“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,” Wiles 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.”
Vanity Fair did not respond to an immediate request for comment. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also said the administration remains “united fully behind her.”
“Chief of Staff Susie Wiles has helped President Trump achieve the most successful first 11 months in office of any President in American history,” she wrote in an X post. “President Trump has no greater or more loyal advisor than Susie. The entire Administration is grateful for her steady leadership and united fully behind her.”
Wiles also acknowledged areas where the Trump administration got things wrong. She said there was “no evidence” to support Trump’s claim that former President Bill Clinton made frequent visits to Epstein’s private island, and she said Trump “was wrong about” suggestions that Clinton engaged in anything illegal with Epstein.
She also said a report that immigration agents arrested two mothers and their children despite their complying with immigration checks could have been the result of “an overzealous Border Patrol agent, I don’t know.”
“I can’t understand how you make that mistake, but somebody did,” she told Vanity Fair.
Wiles also said that Trump’s sweeping tariff policies have been “more painful than I expected,” but she believed a more middle-ground approach than Trump‘s initial “reciprocal” plan would prevail. She also acknowledged the Trump administration’s legal targeting of some of his political enemies, including former FBI director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, may have veered into direct retribution.
“I mean, people could think it does look vindictive,” Wile said of the federal indictment of Comey. “I can’t tell you why you shouldn’t think that.”
Wiles later said she doesn’t think Trump “wakes up thinking about retribution.”
“But when there’s an opportunity, he will go for it,” she added.
