So much for Susie Wiles containing Trump’s chaos
The White House chief of staff was supposed to be able to control the havoc of Trumpworld. Does it seem as if that’s happening?
SHE has been billed as the “Ice Maiden”, the woman who would crack heads in President Donald Trump’s orbit, keep the clown car moving forward, and make the second coming of Trump run much more smoothly than the first.
Yet, for Susie Wiles, Trump’s chief of staff, the chaos just keeps coming.
The president’s only nominee to fail so far, Matt Gaetz, was reportedly nominated for Attorney-General after Boris Epshteyn lobbied Trump while Wiles was elsewhere.
On Inauguration Day came the wholesale pardoning of the Jan 6 convicts, some of whom assaulted police officers, a move that few Republicans could defend on substance. “It was surprising to me that it was a blanket pardon,” said North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis in an interview with PBS.
Then there was the confusing federal funding freeze, announced and then rescinded after an outcry by the media, Democrats, Republicans and constituents. On Monday (Feb 3), despite the rescission, a federal judge ordered the administration to lift the freeze. On Tuesday, despite the court order, there were still reports of organisations locked out of funds.
And this week there was the on-again, off-again trade war, which Trump launched over the objections of his aides, then abandoned (temporarily?) for few meaningful concessions from Mexico and Canada. (The jury is still out on China.)
Not to mention the Elon Musk of it all. Musk, the world’s richest man, has become a towering figure in Trump’s orbit, ungovernable by Wiles. His portfolio seems to be whatever he wants it to be. There were several reports that Musk, who gave Trump’s campaign more than US$250 million, had annoyed Wiles, who supposedly subsequently blocked him from getting an office in the West Wing. But really, who needs an office in the West Wing if the president gives you carte blanche?
“I don’t welcome people who want to work solo or be a star,” Wiles told news website Axios in January. “My team and I will not tolerate backbiting, second-guessing inappropriately, or drama. These are counterproductive to the mission.”
Musk has recently been reminded that he reports to Wiles, according to NBC News, a development that Musk didn’t expect. His title is “special government employee”, but Musk, with his billions and his minions, is unlike any other White House staffer. A night owl like Trump, he speaks to the president regularly by phone, which makes it difficult for Wiles, who keeps a more traditional schedule, to regulate the relationship and Musk’s moves.
The mayhem, as Wiles, who ran Trump’s campaign certainly knows, is just part of life in Trumpworld. That Wiles would somehow contain the president was always just a wish in a town that loves narratives – the “gatekeeping” chief of staff is a quintessential Washington figure.
But crashing the gates makes for better TV ratings and keeps an easily bored president engaged. Disorder will remain a feature of this White House no matter how Wiles and her allies try to brand her as the person who can tame Trump (and Musk).
“The president’s leadership style manifests itself in chaos and he likes to have multiple irons in the fire at the same time – and there isn’t really any staff person who is going to change that,” said Marc Short, who served as chief of staff to former vice-president Mike Pence. “The notion that there is going to be an organisational process when he has a belief that power struggles make it better... that makes it hard for any chief of staff when he is fostering it.”
In his first term, Trump went through four chiefs of staff, roughly one for each year he served. Wiles has said she intends to stay all four years. Given that she has been in Trump’s orbit for nearly a decade, this just might happen. And she has many successes under her belt. She cut her teeth in old Washington, when James A Baker III filled the role for then president Ronald Reagan. In the ensuing years, she worked in local Florida politics, successfully running Senator Rick Scott’s campaign for governor in 2014 and reviving Governor Ron DeSantis’ faltering first election bid in 2018. (The two later had a bitter falling out.) She led Trump’s successful 2024 campaign. Wiles has also been credited with kneecapping DeSantis during his GOP presidential primary run – see the infamous “pudding fingers” advertisement.
But shivving DeSantis is quick work compared to wrangling a Trump White House. Wiles and her allies have been expert at marketing and branding, something she clearly has in common with her boss. Yet, as often is the case with Trump, the narrative and the hype don’t match reality. Washington, so desperate for a normal figure in these abnormal times, has propped Wiles up as a kind of miracle worker, maintaining order like nobody else could. But if the last two weeks have been order, what would chaos look like?
