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Susie Wiles, a veteran strategist who led Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign, has been appointed as his White House Chief of Staff.
Susie Wiles Appointed The First Woman White House Chief Of Staff (Photo: Reuters)
Susie Wiles, one of the two managers for Donald Trump’s campaign, was on Thursday appointed Trump’s White House chief of staff, entrusting a top position to a political operative who helped the Republican win the election. The announcement, by Trump himself, came while he prepares for a return to the White House on January 20.
“Susie is tough, smart, innovative, and is universally admired and respected,” Trump said in a statement.
“I have no doubt that she will make our country proud,” he added.
Trump chose Wiles over former House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican who is close to Trump and has been a frequent visitor to Mar-a-Lago.
McCarthy had been in contention as well as Brooke Rollins, who was the former acting director of Trump’s Domestic Policy Council, news agency Reuters quoted sources as saying.
Trump had even thanked Wiles during his speech in Florida on November 6, and had said, “Susie likes to stay in the back, let me tell you, we call her the ice maiden.”
WHO IS SUSIE WILES
Sixty-seven-year-old Susie is the daughter of NFL player and sportscaster Pat Summerall and will be the first woman to serve as White House chief of staff.
Wiles worked in the Washington office of New York Rep. Jack Kemp in the 1970s. Following that were stints on Ronald Reagan’s campaign and in his White House as a scheduler.
Wiles then headed to Florida, where she advised two Jacksonville mayors and worked for Rep. Tillie Fowler. After that came statewide campaigns in rough-and-tumble Florida politics, with Wiles being credited with helping businessman Rick Scott win the governor’s office.
After briefly managing Utah Governor Jon Huntsman’s 2012 presidential campaign, she ran Trump’s 2016 effort in Florida, when his win in the state helped him clinch the White House.
Two years later, Wiles helped get Ron DeSantis elected as Florida’s Governor. But the two would develop a rift that eventually led to DeSantis to urge Trump’s 2020 campaign to cut its ties with the strategist when she was again running the then-president’s state campaign.
Wiles ultimately went on to lead Trump’s primary campaign against DeSantis and trounced the Florida governor.
Trump campaign aides and their outside allies gleefully taunted DeSantis throughout the race — mocking his laugh, the way he ate and accusing him of wearing lifts in his boots — as well as using insider knowledge that many suspected had come from Wiles and others on Trump’s campaign staff who had also worked for DeSantis and had had bad experiences.
WHAT WOULD BE SUSIE WILES’s ROLE
With her selection as President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming White House chief of staff, veteran Florida political strategist Susie Wiles moves from a largely behind-the-scenes role of campaign co-chair to the high-profile position of the president’s closest adviser and counsel.
As gatekeeper to the president, the chief of staff typically wields great influence. The person manages White House staff, organises the president’s time and schedule, and maintains contact with other government departments and lawmakers.
Wiles, a long-time Florida-based political strategist, and fellow campaign manager Chris LaCivita are credited with running a more disciplined operation for Trump’s third presidential bid compared with his past campaigns.
SUSIE’S ROLE IN TRUMP’S RACE FOR WHITE HOUSE
Shortly before DeSantis dropped out of the presidential race in January, Wiles made a rare appearance on social media. She responded to a message that DeSantis had cleared his campaign website of upcoming events with a short but clear message: “Bye, bye.”
Joining up with Trump’s third campaign in its nascent days, Wiles is one of the few top officials to survive an entire Trump campaign and was part of the team that put together a far more professional operation for his third White House bid — even if the former president routinely broke through those guardrails anyway.
She largely avoided the spotlight, even refusing to take the mic to speak as Trump celebrated his victory early Wednesday morning.
However, she showed she was not above taking on tasks reserved for volunteers. At one of Trump’s appearances in Iowa in July of last year, as the former President posed for pictures with a long line of voters, Wiles grabbed a clipboard and started approaching people waiting to get them to fill out cards committing to caucus for Trump in the leadoff primary contest.
“If we leave the conference room after a meeting and somebody leaves trash on the table, Susie’s the person to grab the trash and put it in the trash can,” said Chris LaCivita, who served as campaign co-chair along with Wiles.
Another of her three posts on X this year was in the closing days of the campaign, clapping back after billionaire Mark Cuban remarked that Trump didn’t have “strong, intelligent women” in his orbit. After Wiles’s selection as White House chief of staff, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, a Trump backer, quipped on X that the president-elect had chosen a “strong, intelligent woman” as his chief of staff.
Wiles was able to help control Trump’s worst impulses — not by chiding him or lecturing, but by earning his respect and showing him that he was better off when he followed her advice than flouted it. At one point late in the campaign, when Trump gave a widely criticised speech in Pennsylvania in which he strayed from his talking points and suggested he wouldn’t mind the media being shot, Wiles came out to stare at him silently.
Trump often referenced Wiles on the campaign trail, publicly praising her leadership of what he said he was often told was his “best-run campaign.”
“She’s incredible. Incredible,” he said at a Milwaukee rally earlier this month.
