President Trump may be a teetotaler, but he has an "alcoholic's personality," according to chief of staff Susie Wiles. It's one of the surprisingly candid observations revealed in a lengthy Vanity Fair profile of the powerful yet low-profile White House figure. The piece by Chris Whipple is based on multiple interviews over the past year, so extensive it has a Part 1 and a Part 2. Wiles is already calling it a "hit piece" and saying her remarks were taken out of context. Some of those drawing attention:
- "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." Trump, says Wiles, has "an alcoholic's personality." He "operates [with] a view that there's nothing he can't do. Nothing, zero, nothing."
- She said Trump was not "on a retribution tour," but when Whipple mentioned the prosecution of New York Attorney General Letitia James on mortgage fraud, she said, "Well, that might be the one retribution." On the same general topic: "In some cases, it may look like retribution," she said. "And there may be an element of that from time to time. Who would blame him? Not me."
- She said Trump "was wrong" about his allegations that the Jeffrey Epstein files incriminate Bill Clinton.
- Vice President JD Vance has been a "conspiracy theorist for a decade."
- Elon Musk is "an avowed ketamine user" and "an odd, odd duck, as I think geniuses are," she said, adding that his move to cripple the United States Agency for International Development left her "aghast."
- Attorney General Pam Bondi "completely whiffed" on her early handling of the Epstein files, failing to appreciate "the very targeted group that cared about this," she said. "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."
- She called Russell Vought, head of the Office of Management and Budget and an author of the Project 2025 conservative blueprint "a right-wing absolute zealot."
It's a lot, and Wiles has been quick to respond:
- "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 tweeted. "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."
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