‘An Alcoholic’s Personality’: Trump Chief’s Unfiltered Takes On President, Policies
President Trump’s Chief of Staff Susie Wiles spoke extensively — across 11 interviews from Jan. 11 to Nov. 5 — with author and reporter Chris Whipple, offering rare insight into internal debates and her reservations about several Trump policies.
Whipple wrote a two-part story about Wiles for Vanity Fair. In it, Wiles, the first woman to hold the post, described Trump as having “an alcoholic’s personality,” said Vice President JD Vance’s shift from Never Trumper to MAGA was “sort of political” and called him “a conspiracy theorist.” She also confirmed Elon Musk was a “avowed ketamine [user].”
Wiles took to social media to call the story a “disingenuously framed hit piece,” defending the president and his team. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who was also featured in the story, called it “another example of disingenuous reporting” and shows “the bias of omission.”
But, Trump told the New York Post Tuesday that he has no issue with Wiles’ remarks, including her description that he has an “alcoholic’s personality.” He claimed the piece had facts wrong, but that his chief of staff is “fantastic.”
INSIDE THE ARTICLE
Wiles did not dispute the article’s facts, but said key context and positive comments about the administration were omitted.
On Trump: Wiles said she is “bit of an expert in big personalities” because alcoholics’ “personalities are exaggerated when they drink” and her father was one. She told Whipple that Trump has “an alcoholic’s personality” and that he “operates [with] a view that there’s nothing he can’t do. Nothing, zero, nothing.”
Trump responded Tuesday, saying, “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,” adding he has an addictive and possessive personality.
Retribution tour: Asked whether Trump’s presidency had become a “retribution tour,” Wiles said they had an agreement that score-settling would end within the first 90 days. After that deadline had passed in August she told Whipple: “I don’t think he’s on a retribution tour.”
“A governing principle for him is, ‘I don’t want what happened to me to happen to somebody else.’ And so people that have done bad things need to get out of the government. In some cases, it may look like retribution. And there may be an element of that from time to time. Who would blame him? Not me,” Wiles said.
Epstein: Wiles said she reviewed what she called “the Epstein file,” acknowledged Trump was on Epstein’s plane log, but said he was “not in the file doing anything awful.” She also said Trump was wrong to claim former President Bill Clinton visited Epstein’s island dozens of times, saying there is “no evidence” of that.
Wiles said Attorney General Pam Bondi “whiffed” on understanding how much President Trump’s base of supporters cared about the release of the files. She criticized Bondi for handing out binders to conservative influencers in February that only contained previously reported information, adding, “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.” Wiles was referencing a Fox News appearance by Bondi.
Venezuela strikes: She said Trump’s strategy was to keep “blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle,” a remark that appeared to contradict the administration’s stated position that the strikes were about drug interdiction, not regime change.
Rubio, Vance: Trump has floated a Vance–Rubio ticket for 2028 as the heirs to the Trump MAGA movement. Both men were once critical of Trump but are now in his cabinet. Wiles noted that Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s shift was ideological and principled, while Vice President J.D. Vance’s were political and tied to his 2022 Senate run.
Wiles said Trump was clear-eyed about his goals after four years out of office, allowing her to pick her battles, though she says they have difficult conversations every day.
“I’m not an enabler. I’m also not a bitch,” Wiles said. “I try to be thoughtful about what I even engage in. I guess time will tell whether I’ve been effective.”
WE COULD’VE WARNED YOU
Chris Whipple, who wrote the Vanity Fair piece, told Mo News back in April that Wiles was warned not to talk to him by Trump’s former Chief Reince Priebus at a dinner before the inauguration — advice she clearly ignored.
Whipple has written some of the most well-known profiles of presidential chiefs of staff. He notes that “The average tenure for a modern White House chief of staff is a year and a half… Wiles may yet eclipse Trump’s so-far longest-lasting chief, John Kelly, at 17 months.”
He reported that she originally planned to serve just six months but has not found the job overwhelming: “You go to bed at night, you say your prayers, and you get up and do it again,” Wiles said.
Asking about the 68-year-old’s health, along with the 79-year-old president, Wiles said her’s is “good” and Trump’s is “great. “My kids are grown. I’m divorced. This is what I do if I stay four years,” she added.
🎧 Listen to our full interview with Chris Whipple on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.