00:00US President Donald Trump has publicly stood by his White House Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles,
00:13following the publication of two Vanity Fair articles that revealed internal cracks inside Trump's second-term administration.
00:21The articles were based on interviews with Wiles and offered rare insights into her views on President Trump
00:29and several senior figures in his inner circle, including Vice President J.D. Vance, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Budget Chief Russ Vought, and Tech Billionaire Elon Musk.
00:42Speaking to the New York Post on Tuesday, President Trump reaffirmed his confidence in Wiles, calling her the most powerful woman in the world,
00:51and saying she had done a fantastic job as Chief of Staff.
00:57She's done a fantastic job. I have full confidence in her.
01:04One of the most widely discussed remarks from the Vanity Fair interviews was Wiles' description of President Trump as having what she called an alcoholic's personality,
01:15despite the President being a teetotaler.
01:18Wiles said her upbringing with an alcoholic father prepared her to manage big personalities,
01:24and she argued that Trump operates with a mindset that there is nothing he can't do.
01:29He has an alcoholic's personality, a view that there's nothing he can't do, nothing, zero, nothing.
01:40President Trump did not dispute the characterisation. Instead, he defended Wiles' description and said he has often made similar comments about himself.
01:51I've often said that if I did drink, I'd have a very good chance of being an alcoholic. It's a very possessive personality.
02:03The Vanity Fair articles also addressed the Trump administration's handling of information related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein,
02:11an issue that has continued to generate public attention.
02:16Wiles suggested that Attorney General Pam Bondi misjudged the public mood when releasing binders of documents that critics described as lacking substantive new information.
02:31First, she gave them binders full of nothingness.
02:35Wiles contrasted Bondi's approach with Vice President J.D. Vance's, saying Vance better understood the issue's significance for some Americans,
02:43describing him as a conspiracy theorist.
02:47On Trump's name appearing in the Epstein files, Wiles said the administration was aware of it,
02:53but insisted the documents did not show Trump doing anything awful.
02:59We know he's in the file, but it doesn't show him doing anything awful.
03:06Wiles also offered blunt assessments of other administration figures,
03:11describing White House Budget Chief Russ,
03:14Vought as a right-wing absolute zealot,
03:16and calling Elon Musk an odd, odd duck.
03:20On foreign policy,
03:23Wiles said President Trump believes Russian President Vladimir Putin ultimately wants the whole country of Ukraine,
03:30despite US efforts to push for a negotiated peace.
03:34She also stated that Trump wants to continue bombing suspected drug boats off Venezuela's coast until President Nicolas Maduro, in her words,
03:44cries uncle.
03:46Following publication, Wiles pushed back forcefully, calling the Vanity Fair articles a
03:52disingenuously framed hit piece that selectively quoted her remarks and omitted context.
03:59This was a disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the finest President White House staff and Cabinet in history.
04:07Other members of Trump's inner circle quickly came to Wiles' defence.
04:13Vice President J.D. Vance, speaking in Pennsylvania, acknowledged joking about conspiracy theories,
04:19but rejected any suggestion that Wiles was disloyal.
04:23And Susie Wiles, we have our disagreements, we agree on much more than we disagree,
04:28but I've never seen her be disloyal to the President of the United States
04:32and that makes her the best White House Chief of Staff that I think the President could ask for.
04:38White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt praised Wiles as incredible
04:42and accused Vanity Fair of what she called a bias of omission.
04:47Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth also weighed in on social media,
04:51writing that there was absolutely nobody better than Wiles.
04:57Despite the controversy, President Trump's public support for his Chief of Staff appears firm,
05:02signalling that Susie Wiles remains a central and trusted figure in his second-term White House,
05:08even as the administration navigates internal disagreements and external scrutiny.
Comments