White House chief of staff Susie Wiles spoke candidly to Vanity Fair in an interview published Tuesday, offering pointed character assessments of key figures in the Trump administration — including President Donald Trump — before later condemning the story as misleading.
In the interview, Wiles said Trump “has an alcoholic’s personality” and operates with the belief that “there’s nothing he can’t do. Nothing, zero, nothing.” She framed the comment as her personal observation rather than a clinical judgment, noting that “some clinical psychologist” would likely disagree with her characterization.
Wiles also referenced her family history when explaining why she believes she can read “big personalities.” Her father, sportscaster Pat Summerall, struggled with alcoholism, and Wiles said she helped her mother arrange an intervention. Summerall later remained sober for 21 years before his death.
According to the report, Wiles also described Vice President JD Vance as having been “a conspiracy theorist for a decade,” and suggested his shift to supporting Trump after past criticism was “sort of political.”
The article’s author, Chris Whipple, said he spoke with Wiles in March about immigration enforcement. Whipple wrote that Wiles told him the administration should more carefully scrutinize certain deportation decisions, referencing a period when the U.S. deported Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador. The White House said at the time that those deported were members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang who were in the U.S. illegally.
“I will concede that we’ve got to look harder at our process for deportation,” Wiles told Whipple, according to the report. She added that if someone is “a known gang member” with a criminal history and the government can demonstrate it, removal may be justified — but if there is uncertainty, she believes the process should “lean toward a double-check.”
After the story was published, Wiles rejected its portrayal in a post on X, calling it “a disingenuously framed hit piece.” She wrote that significant context was ignored and that comments from her and others were omitted in a way that, in her view, was designed to depict the administration as chaotic and negative.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also defended Wiles in a statement, saying she has helped Trump deliver “the most successful first 11 months in office” and describing her as one of the president’s most trusted and loyal advisers.
