Susie Wiles Is Telling Us About Us

Susie Wiles, Donald Trump’s Chief of Staff, in a recent set of Vanity Fair interviews, just told us a lot about what is going on in the White House. Vanity Fair’s reporting shows that Ms. Wiles has Trump’s trust and is managing to keep most of the ‘big personalities’ corralled and supporting Trump’s agenda. This is a contrast to his first term, when top advisors came and went. But the price for an even keel is, unsurprisingly, complete deference to whatever Trump wants. She sees her role as furthering his agenda, not stopping bad ideas or correcting mistakes.

That’s what General John Kelly, Trump’s chief of staff from 2017-19, tried (sometimes) to do. He came away concluding that Trump fits the definition of a fascist– and being regularly denigrated by Trump. Ms. Wiles, in contrast, has enough “juice” that it seems she will survive a series of revelations that would sink lesser mortals.

In her interviews Ms. Wiles touched on a number of big foreign policy issues: the dismantling of USAID, tariffs, Venezuela, among others. Her description of how these have been decided is not reassuring.

USAID. The demise of USAID she lays at the door of Elon Musk, whom she describes as an “odd duck” and regular ketamine user. Wiles herself was taken aback when Musk dismantled USAID, apparently with no high-level decision or Presidential direction. Wiles thought USAID was doing good work. She ultimately excuses the President because “He doesn’t know the details of these smallish agencies.” This is either a lie—he was after all President for four years, so it’s hard to imagine he didn’t know what USAID was—or a description of mind-boggling ignorance and dereliction of duty. Does Ms. Wiles understand what she’s saying?

Tariffs. Wiles admits the tariff policy was a bit underwhelming: “ ‘So much thinking out loud is what I would call it,’ said Wiles of Trump’s chaotic tariff rollout.” There was a lot of opposition. She tried to get Vance to slow things down but failed, and is ultimately reduced to the kind of hand-wringing that reminds one sadly of a battered spouse: “I said, ‘This is where we’re going to end up. So figure out how you can work into what he’s already thinking.’ Well, they couldn’t get there.”

Venezuela. Wiles says the quiet part out loud, which is that the attacks on drug-carrying boats are not really about stopping drugs: “He wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle.” Wiles opines that putting boots on the ground would require Congressional approval, but there is zero reason to think she would try to stop a contradictory Trump decision.

Ms. Wiles tries to have it both ways. She admits her reservations about many decisions, but also her inability or unwillingness to change them. She describes the failings of key players like Musk, Vance—a conspiracy-theorist and political chameleon—and Trump himself, who she says has an ‘addictive personality’ that makes him think he can ‘do anything’. But she seems to see her collection of asylum inmates as possessed of excusable if not charming quirks, not fatal flaws. They make her job more interesting. The first thing a President under our constitutional system should understand is that they cannot ‘do anything,’ but this doesn’t seem to faze Ms. Wiles.

Ultimately her self-justification is the same as that of all the extremists and grifters in Trump’s orbit: things are so bad that extreme measures are needed. Destroying USAID— jeopardizing hundreds of thousands of lives, permanently damaging America’s global reputation, upending the careers of thousands of dedicated civil servants—is understandable because you need to break some china. Robert Kennedy is admirable because “in order to get back to the middle, you have to push it too far.” Trump’s collection of unqualified sycophants is “a world-class Cabinet, better than anything I could have conceived of” because this is what’s needed to take on the “deep state.”

Trump himself is a profoundly damaged human being in the grip of narcissistic visions, unable to separate fantasy from reality. But Ms. Wiles comes across in her interviews, and in other accounts, as perfectly sane. She is praised for her focus and lack of ego. Sane people around Trump in his first term saw how dangerous he was and thought it their duty to push back. Ms. Wiles, however, has found a way to sleep at night because radical steps are needed to ‘get back to the middle’. In her own mind—and in this I’m afraid she mirrors the views of millions of Americans—she abets craziness in the name of normalcy. The best one can say of her is that we all know what the road to hell is paved with.

Adam Wasserman is a retired CIA analyst with experience on failing democracies in the former Soviet Union, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. He served on the State Department Policy Planning Staff, the CIA Red Cell, and the National Security Council staff. He is a member of The Steady State. All statements of fact, opinion, or analysis expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official positions or views of the US Government. Nothing in the contents should be construed as asserting or implying US Government authentication of information or endorsement of the author’s views.

Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 360 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.