Susie Wiles Denies Telling Vanity Fair That Elon Musk Is an ‘Avowed Ketamine User.’ There’s Reportedly a Recording of Her Saying It

White House chief of staff Susie Wiles made a series of blunt remarks about the second Trump administration in a wide-ranging Vanity Fair interview series — including a line describing Elon Musk as an “avowed ketamine [user].” Now, she says she never made that comment and wouldn’t have known whether it was true.

In an interview with The New York Times on Monday, Dec. 15 — one day before Vanity Fair published its two-part series — Wiles, 68, rejected the allegation outright.

“That’s ridiculous,” she told the Times. “I wouldn’t have said it and I wouldn’t know.”

The Times reported that Chris Whipple, who conducted the interviews with Wiles and wrote the Vanity Fair story, played the outlet a recording of her remarks about Musk. In the Vanity Fair piece, Whipple wrote that Wiles said: “The challenge with Elon is keeping up with him. He’s an avowed ketamine [user]. And he sleeps in a sleeping bag in the EOB [Executive Office Building] in the daytime. And he’s an odd, odd duck, as I think geniuses are. You know, it’s not helpful, but he is his own person.”

Earlier this year, the Times also reported that Musk had been abusing drugs while increasing his support for Donald Trump’s 2024 reelection campaign, during which he donated millions. Sources close to Musk alleged to the Times that he had acknowledged using ketamine frequently — sometimes daily — and that it had begun harming his bladder, a complication associated with heavy use.

Musk has previously spoken publicly about ketamine use. In a March 2024 interview with Don Lemon, he said he took “a small amount” about once every two weeks to help with depressive moods.

“If you’ve used too much ketamine, you can’t really get work done, and I have a lot of work,” Musk said at the time.

After the Times published its report, Musk posted drug test results on X showing negative findings for ketamine, ecstasy, cocaine, amphetamines and other substances. The test’s collection date was listed as June 11 — 12 days after the Times report. Fastest Labs of South Austin’s website notes that urine drug tests can detect substances ingested within roughly 2–10 days, not longer.

A Times spokesperson said in June that the newspaper stood by its reporting, saying Musk had criticized the story but had not presented anything that contradicted what the outlet said it uncovered.

After Vanity Fair published Whipple’s story on Tuesday, Wiles responded on X, calling it “a disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the finest President, White House staff, and Cabinet in history.”

She added that “significant context was disregarded” and said she believed details were left out to portray “an overwhelmingly chaotic and negative narrative” about the president and his team.

“The truth is the Trump White House has already accomplished more in eleven months than any other President has accomplished in eight years,” Wiles wrote, attributing that to Trump’s “leadership and vision.” She ended by saying the administration would continue pursuing its agenda, including “Making America Great Again!”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also defended Wiles in a separate statement, calling her a key adviser to Trump and praising her leadership.