White House Chief of Staff Susan Wiles has exposed internal divisions within the Trump administration on issues ranging from immigration enforcement to government spending cuts.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, the first female chief of staff described the teetotal president as having “the character of an alcoholic“ and a tendency toward impulsivity.
"He has the personality of an alcoholic," Wiles said of Trump, explaining that growing up with an alcoholic father prepared her to deal with "extravagant personalities.".
Trump doesn't drink, but she believes he acts "as if there's nothing he can't do": "Nothing, zero, nothing.".
"A clinical psychologist who knows a million times more than I do would argue with me. But when alcoholics drink, their personalities come out in full force. And I know extraordinary personalities," Wiles said.
In the interview, she also made some scathing comments about other members of the presidential administration. Wiles claims that Vice President J.D. Vance "has been a conspirator for ten years." She criticized entrepreneur Elon Musk for dismantling the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
After publication, Wiles called the Vanity Fair article "a disingenuous, fabricated, defamatory piece about me and the best president, White House staffer, and cabinet member in history." She claims the article misses important context and is selectively quoted to create a negative image.
“A significant amount of context was missed and much of what I and others said about the president and the team was not included in the interview“, Wiles wrote on the social media platform X.
Trump, who calls Wiles “the most powerful woman in the world“, told the New York Post that he has complete confidence in his chief of staff.
The president said Wiles was correct in describing him as someone with an “alcoholic temperament“, explaining that he has a “possessive and addictive“ personality.
Vance also defended Wiles, saying he admired her consistency and sincerity both in and out of the president's presence.
“I have never seen her be disloyal to the president of the United States, and that makes her the best White House chief of staff a president could ask for,“ Vance said, noting that he and Wiles often joked that he was a conspiracy theorist: “I'm a conspiracy theorist sometimes, but I only believe conspiracy theories that are true.“