Chief of staff discusses Trump in Vanity Fair interview, later pushes back on article’s framing

White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles offered candid comments on President Donald Trump and several senior administration officials in a series of interviews with Vanity Fair published in a Dec. 16 article. Hours after the report’s publication, Wiles rejected the article as a “disingenuously framed hit piece” and said it attempted to portray the administration in a negative light.

The two-part profile, written by Chris Whipple, was based on 11 phone conversations Whipple said he conducted with Wiles over the past year following Trump’s return to the Oval Office in January. Whipple said the exclusive interviews touched on a range of topics, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportations, the Epstein files, Elon Musk, cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development, the deployment of the National Guard in U.S. cities, and the strikes on vessels suspected of smuggling drugs.

Vanity Fair reported that Wiles described Trump as having “an alcoholic’s personality” and said he “operates [with] a view that there’s nothing he can’t do. Nothing, zero, nothing.” 

Wiles acknowledged in the interview that her remarks were not clinical, citing her upbringing as the daughter of the late NFL broadcaster Pat Summerall, who struggled with alcoholism before becoming sober. Summerall remained sober for 21 years before his death in 2013, Whipple reported.

“Some clinical psychologist that knows one million times more than I do will dispute what I’m going to say. But high-functioning alcoholics or alcoholics in general, their personalities are exaggerated when they drink. And so I’m a little bit of an expert in big personalities,” Wiles told Vanity Fair. 

According to Whipple, Wiles also criticized other figures in the Trump administration, including Vice President JD Vance, whom she described as having been “a conspiracy theorist for a decade.” Wiles also suggested Vance’s eventual support for Trump — after earlier criticism — was “sort of political.”

Another administration official mentioned by Wiles was Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, whom Vanity Fair said she described as “a right-wing absolute zealot”. Vought, a co-author of Project 2025, has played a central role in the administration’s civil service restructuring efforts, FOX News reported.

The profile further reported that Wiles called tech billionaire Elon Musk, who earlier this year led the Department of Government Efficiency, “a complete solo actor” and an “avowed ketamine [user].” 

On the handling of the Epstein files, Wiles faulted Attorney General Pam Bondi for misleading the public about a purported client list, Whipple reported.

“I think she completely whiffed on appreciating that that was the very targeted group that cared about this,” Wiles told Whipple. “First, she gave them binders full of nothingness. And then she said that the witness list, or the client list, was on her desk. There is no client list, and it sure as hell wasn’t on her desk.”

Hours after the report’s publication, Wiles forcefully pushed back on its framing, posting on X Dec. 16 that the article ignored context and omitted favorable comments about Trump and his team.

“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. Significant context was disregarded and much of what I, and others, said about the team and the President was left out of the story,” Wiles wrote. “I assume, after reading it, that this was done to paint an overwhelmingly chaotic and negative narrative about the President and our team.”

“The truth is the Trump White House has already accomplished more in eleven months than any other President has accomplished in eight years and that is due to the unmatched leadership and vision of President Trump, for whom I have been honored to work for the better part of a decade,” she continued. “None of this will stop our relentless pursuit of Making America Great Again!”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt issued a statement backing Wiles, calling her a central figure in the administration’s success.

“Chief of Staff Susie Wiles has helped President Trump achieve the most successful first 11 months in office of any President in American history. President Trump has no greater or more loyal advisor than Susie,” Leavitt said. “The entire Administration is grateful for her steady leadership and united fully behind her.”

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also praised Wiles, calling her “arguably the most perfect presidential chief of staff in modern American history.” He said her leadership has earned the Cabinet’s trust and helped it function “more as an unusually efficient family than as assemblage of competing rivals.”