JD Vance Responds After Trump’s Chief of Staff Calls Him a ‘Conspiracy Theorist’

Vice President JD Vance responded publicly after White House chief of staff Susie Wiles described him as a “conspiracy theorist” in a wide-ranging series of interviews published by Vanity Fair.

Wiles, 68, spoke to the magazine throughout President Donald Trump’s first year back in office. In one conversation with Vanity Fair’s Chris Whipple, she suggested that only certain administration officials fully grasped the significance of releasing the Epstein files.

“The people that really appreciated what a big deal this is are Kash [Patel] and [FBI deputy director] Dan Bongino,” Wiles said, adding, “Because they lived in that world. And the vice president, who’s been a conspiracy theorist for a decade.”

Wiles also told the magazine she viewed Vance’s evolution from a vocal Trump critic to one of the president’s strongest allies as a move shaped by politics.

“His conversion came when he was running for the Senate. And I think his conversion was a little bit more, sort of political,” Wiles said.

Vance, 41, addressed the comments while speaking to a crowd at Uline Shipping Supplies in Alburtis, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday, Dec. 16 — the same day the Vanity Fair series was published. He laughed and slapped the podium when an audience member asked how he felt about Wiles’ remarks.

“Well, first of all, if Susie— I’ll trust what you said. I haven’t looked at the article. I’ve of course heard about it,” he began.

“But, conspiracy theorist. Sometimes I am a conspiracy theorist, but I only believe in the conspiracy theories that are true,” he continued, prompting cheers and applause. “And by the way, Susie and I have joked in private and in public about that for a long time.”

He then offered examples of positions he argued were once dismissed but later looked more credible to him. “For example, I believed in the crazy conspiracy theory back in 2020 that it was stupid to mask 3-year-olds at the height of the COVID pandemic, that we should actually let them develop some language skills,” he said. He went on to accuse the media and the government of downplaying concerns about former President Joe Biden’s ability to do the job, and he claimed Biden’s administration targeted political opponents.

“So, at least on some of these conspiracy theories it turns out that a conspiracy theory is just something that was true six months before the media admitted it, and that’s my understanding,” Vance said.

Wiles also issued her own response to the Vanity Fair interviews, calling the project “a disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the finest President, White House staff, and Cabinet in history” in a post shared to X on Tuesday.

“Significant context was disregarded and much of what I, and others, said about the team and the President was left out of the story,” she wrote. “I assume, after reading it, that this was done to paint an overwhelmingly chaotic and negative narrative about the President and our team.”

Wiles added that the Trump White House had, in her view, already delivered historic results in its first 11 months, crediting Trump’s leadership and saying the work would continue “in our relentless pursuit of Making America Great Again!”

When reached for comment about the Vanity Fair article, the White House shared a statement from press secretary Karoline Leavitt praising Wiles’ role and saying the administration “united fully behind her.”