White House launches damage control over unfiltered Wiles interviews

The White House rushed to defend chief of staff Susie Wiles on Tuesday after her blunt private views on President Trump's first year were revealed in a series of stunning on-the-record interviews.Why it matters: Wiles is the most powerful aide in the White House — credited with running a more disciplined, loyal and effective operation than Trump's first term, which was routinely undercut by leaks and internal feuds.That makes her candid commentary to Vanity Fair — in which she questioned the judgment, execution or consequences of many of Trump's most aggressive policies — all the more striking.What they're saying: "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 wrote in her first original X post since October 2024."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 added.Virtually the entire Trump Cabinet swiftly rallied around Wiles, with statements of support issued by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Energy Secretary Doug Burgum, FBI director Kash Patel and countless other Trump allies.White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt tweeted that Wiles "has helped President Trump achieve the most successful first 11 months in office of any President in American history."White House budget director Russ Vought, who Wiles described as a "right-wing absolute zealot" to Vanity Fair, added that she "is always an ally in helping me deliver for the president. And this hit piece will not slow us down."The big picture: Wiles' months of interviews with Chris Whipple, who chronicled the modern chief of staff role in a 2017 best-seller, repeatedly stray from or contradict the administration's public line on Trump's most controversial policies.Jan. 6 pardons: Wiles said she questioned whether Trump should pardon all 1,500+ Jan. 6 defendants and advised him against freeing the most violent rioters — a warning he ultimately ignored. She praised the FBI's Jan. 6 investigation, which Trump has railed against, and acknowledged: "There have been a couple of times where I've been outvoted. And if there's a tie, he wins."Elon Musk and DOGE: Wiles described the billionaire Trump donor as "an avowed ketamine" user and "an odd, odd duck, as I think geniuses are." She said she was "aghast" at Musk's unilateral dismantling of USAID — a humanitarian agency that did "very good work" — and that "no rational person could think the USAID process was a good one. Nobody."Deportations: "I will concede that we've got to look harder at our process for deportation," Wiles told Whipple after the Trump administration sent hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members to a brutal prison in El Salvador, only to later acknowledge errors in some cases.Tariffs: Wiles revealed there were "huge disagreements" over Trump's "Liberation Day" reciprocal tariffs, and that she recruited Vice President Vance to try to halt Trump's rollout until there was "complete unity." That effort failed, and Wiles admitted to Whipple that the tariff process had been "more painful than I expected."Jeffrey Epstein files: Wiles had scathing criticism for Attorney General Pam Bondi's handling of the Epstein files, saying she "completely whiffed" by handing out "binders full of nothingness" to MAGA influencers and falsely claiming there was a "client list" on her desk. Wiles confirmed that Trump is "in the file" but denied any evidence of wrongdoing, chalking it up to him and Epstein being "young, single playboys." She also said Trump was wrong to claim that former President Bill Clinton had visited Epstein's island, telling Whipple: "There is no evidence."Israel: Wiles said elements of the MAGA coalition are "disturbed that we are as cozy with Israel as we are." After Trump praised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a "war hero" in October, Wiles reportedly winced, telling Whipple: "I'm not sure he fully realizes that there's an audience here that doesn't love it."Venezuela: Wiles said that Trump's military strikes against drug traffickers in the Caribbean are about making Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro cry "uncle," appearing to contradict the official U.S. position that the campaign is not about regime change. She added that if Trump authorized strikes on Venezuela's mainland — as he recently suggested he would — that would be "war" and require congressional approval.DOJ retribution: Wiles revealed early in the term that she and Trump had "a loose agreement that the score settling will end before the first 90 days are over." When Trump continued ordering the prosecutions of his political enemies through the summer, Wiles acknowledged that "it may look like retribution. And there may be an element of that from time to time." She singled out the case against New York Attorney General Letitia James as "the one retribution," and admitted that the prosecution of former FBI director James Comey may "look vindictive" to some people.The bottom line: Trump has praised Wiles as the indispensable architect of his second term, and her standing inside the White House is unlikely to change.If anything, the interviews reveal the key to her success: She isn't a guardrail installed to influence or restrain Trump, as Vance told Whipple, but a "facilitator" for the president's vision."Susie Wiles — we have our disagreements," Vance said at a rally in Pennsylvania Tuesday. "We agree 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."