President Donald Trump defended his White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles, after she gave a series of interviews to Vanity Fair that exposed internal tensions within his administration and sparked controversy over her candid assessments of key officials, while simultaneously admitting he had not read the article himself.
Trump said he has complete confidence in Wiles and that she has done a fantastic job, despite the fallout from the profile published on December 16, 2025. The magazine based its reporting on 11 interviews with Wiles, providing a rare glimpse into the thinking of one of the most powerful people in the White House.
The Vanity Fair articles revealed that Wiles described Trump as having an alcoholic personality, though she noted the president does not drink alcohol.
Wiles made sharp assessments of other administration officials in the interviews. She called Vice President JD Vance a conspiracy theorist for a decade, described Russell Vought, the Office of Management and Budget chief, as a right-wing absolute zealot, and referred to tech billionaire Elon Musk as an odd duck. She also suggested that Attorney General Pam Bondi had failed to handle matters related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein properly.
Perhaps most controversially, Wiles discussed the administration’s approach to retribution against perceived political enemies. When asked about the Justice Department’s accusations against New York Attorney General Letitia James, Wiles said the James case might be retribution. She added that Trump will go for retribution when the opportunity arises.
The chief of staff also addressed the attempted prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey.
In response to the articles, Wiles called them a disingenuously framed hit piece on what she described as the finest administration in history. She claimed significant context was disregarded, and much of what she and others said about the team and the president was left out of the story.
Trump’s statement that he had not read the Vanity Fair article before defending Wiles left even some allies stunned. The president said he believed the facts were wrong and that the reporting was misguided, despite not having reviewed the piece himself.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt issued a statement defending Wiles, while other administration officials also rallied to her support. Vance acknowledged that he and Wiles had joked about his believing conspiracy theories, adding that he had never seen her be disloyal to the president. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on social media in support of Wiles.
The controversy was further complicated by questions about the photographs accompanying the articles. Photographer Christopher Anderson, who took portraits of Trump’s inner circle, firmly denied that the photos were manipulated. Anderson said he had been doing close-up portraiture for many years and photographed subjects across the political spectrum.
The profile appeared about six weeks after Trump’s administration faced a challenging Election Day on November 4, 2025, when voters in multiple states cast ballots in contests seen as a referendum on his presidency.
Wiles, who rarely grants public interviews and generally stays out of the spotlight, holds the historically powerful position of White House chief of staff. The role typically involves serving as the president’s gatekeeper, confidant, and executor of his agenda, often requiring the ability to tell the president brutal truths.
The incident highlighted tensions between traditional media coverage and the Trump administration’s approach to communications. Critics have compared Trump’s campaign of revenge and retribution to authoritarian tactics.
Throughout the Vanity Fair interviews, Wiles provided insights on a range of sensitive topics. The interviews painted a picture of an administration pushing the boundaries of presidential power while Trump’s chief of staff worked to manage his impulses and execute his vision.
The controversy over the Vanity Fair profile underscored the unusual nature of Wiles’s relationship with Trump and her willingness to speak candidly about administration dynamics. Her defense of the president, combined with her frank assessments of his personality and approach to governance, revealed the delicate balance she must strike in her role as the most powerful person in the White House, second only to Trump himself.
The fallout from the interviews continued as the administration pushed back against what it characterized as biased media coverage while simultaneously dealing with questions about why Trump would defend his chief of staff over an article he admitted he had not read, leaving observers puzzled about the president’s decision-making process and his relationship with one of his most trusted advisers.
