White House chief of staff Susie Wiles received a torrent of support from top Trump officials led by Vice President JD Vance on Saturday after she rebuked a Vanity Fair article quoting her apparent criticism of key members of the administration.
The article quotes Wiles as labeling Vance “a conspiracy theorist for a decade” and suggesting the once-Trump critic’s MAGA conversion was “sort of political” as a result of his 2022 Senate run. She also made questionable comments toward the president, who she said had an “alcoholic’s personality,” and several others.
Vance came to her defense, alongside almost every major Trump official, who expressed their support online, at a campaign appearance in Pennsylvania. The vice president admitted that he was a conspiracy theorist “sometimes,” and said he often jokes with Wiles about his beliefs.
“Sometimes I am a conspiracy theorist, but I only believe in the conspiracy theories that are true. And by the way, Susie and I have joked in private and in public about that for a long time,” Vance said.
He pointed to “crazy conspiracy theories” he feels vindicated on, including how “it was stupid to mask three-year-olds at the height of the COVID pandemic,” that “the media and the government were covering up the fact that Joe Biden was clearly unable to do the job,” and that “Biden was trying to throw his political opponents in jail rather than win an argument.”
Vance lauded Wiles’s genuineness and loyalty despite her comments about him.
“Susie is who she is in the President’s presence, she’s the same exact person when the President isn’t around. I’ve never seen Suzy Wiles say something to the President and then go and counteract him or subvert HIS WILL behind the scenes,” he said.
“Susie Wiles — we have our disagreements,” he added. “We agree on much more than we disagree, but I’ve never seen her be disloyal to the President of the United States, and that makes her the best White House Chief of Staff that I think the President could ask for.”
Wiles blasted the Vanity Fair piece on Tuesday morning, calling it 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. I assume, after reading it, that this was done to paint an overwhelmingly chaotic and negative narrative about the President and our team,” she said.
The article also quotes Wiles as describing Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought as “a right-wing absolute zealot” and saying Attorney General Pam Bondi “completely whiffed” on the Epstein files.
Vought, like many other officials ranging from the Treasury Department to the Department of Veterans Affairs, defended Wiles.
“Susie Wiles is an exceptional chief of staff,” Vought wrote on X. “I have had the privilege of working in President Trump’s White House for every single minute of his two terms. Let me be very clear: It has never worked this well or been more oriented towards accomplishing what he wants to accomplish. In my portfolio, she is always an ally in helping me deliver for the president. And this hit piece will not slow us down.”
After her initial silence on the matter, Bondi posted on X to defend her “dear friend” who “fights every day to advance President Trump’s agenda… with grace, loyalty, and historic effectiveness.”
She added, “Any attempt to divide this administration will fail. Any attempt to undermine and downplay President Trump’s monumental achievements will fail. We are family. We are united.”
Many other Trump officials echoed the same sentiment.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who appeared in a banner photo with Wiles for the article alongside Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and others, said Trump has “no greater or more loyal advisor than Susie.”
Vance said he took away a lesson from the Vanity Fair controversy: don’t talk to the legacy media.
“If any of us have learned a lesson from that Vanity Fair article, I hope it’s that we should be giving fewer interviews to mainstream media outlets,” he said.
Discount Applied Successfully!
Your savings have been added to the cart.