Donald Trump announced his first staffing choices for his administration Thursday, naming longtime Republican political operative Susie Wiles, who worked on all three of his presidential campaigns, as his White House chief of staff. Wiles will be the first woman to hold the position.
“Susie is tough, smart, innovative and is universally admired and respected,” Trump said in a statement. He also praised her for helping him achieve “one of the greatest political victories in American history.”
As a campaign operative, Wiles, 67, is respected by both Republican and Democratic strategists. She was co-chair of Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign and is often credited with injecting order into his chaotic political organization.
She worked on several prominent GOP campaigns, including those of Sens. Rick Scott and Mitt Romney and of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose flailing 2018 campaign she’s credited with saving. After a falling out with DeSantis, Wiles joined Trump’s 2024 campaign and subsequently powered the governor’s downfall in the Republican primary.
The daughter of the late NFL legend Pat Summerall, Wiles is known as an effective operative with ties to MAGA leaders and the Republican establishment. She has also managed to withstand Trump’s management style, being the only campaign manager to have lasted an entire Trump campaign, according to The New York Times.
And perhaps most crucially for her political survival, she seems to know when not to question Trump’s decisions. For example, Wiles reportedly tried to nudge Trump to reconsider allowing far-right instigator Laura Loomer to travel on his plane to public events in September but ultimately relented, The Atlantic reported: Even people like Wiles, who have a track record of talking Trump out of certain reckless ideas, learn that you cannot retain a seat at the table if you tell the man ‘no’ one time too many.
As White House chief of staff, Wiles will serve essentially as a gatekeeper to Trump, organizing his schedule, managing White House staff and coordinating with other departments within the administration. It is one of the most powerful positions in any administration — and a notoriously difficult one under Trump: He ran through four chiefs of staff in his first term, and his longest-serving chief of staff, John Kelly, recently said Trump fits the definition of a fascist.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
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