Dec.17

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Susie Wiles Says the Quiet Part out Loud... Over and Over and Over

When we read that Donald Trump's chief of staff, Susie Wiles, was sitting for an interview with Vanity Fair, several questions leapt to mind: (1) "What is the administration's goal, here?"; (2) "Why Vanity Fair, of all outlets?" and (3) "Why is the notoriously in-the-shadows Wiles talking to ANYONE?"

Now that the interview has been published, we still have those questions. And we also have a fourth one: Did NOBODY in the administration think about these things? Wiles sat for hours and hours of interview time across 11 sessions, and the interview (split into two parts) is accompanied by heavily posed photos of not only Wiles, but also J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair, social media guru Dan Scavino, and Underboss Stephen Miller. This was not an offhand remark at a press conference; it was a high-investment engagement, and one that key members of the administration were clearly aware of.

And actually, let's pause on the images for a second, because they are... pretty bizarre. For example, this is the image that leads off the first part of the interview:

What kind of picture did they think they were taking here? It looks like a promo for a reboot of Dynasty or maybe Billions.

There are also "environment" shots of every person shown here. Here is the one for Karoline Leavitt:

There are plenty of people online who know way more about photography than (Z) does (but maybe not more than V does) who have plenty of Photography 101 questions about this image. For example, why is her suit so crumpled—why wasn't it smoothed out? Why is the empty chair pointing forward; is she waiting for the return of the lord of the manor? What's with the American flag towel? And what are those lamps doing there? They clearly don't fit on the mantle, which is why their lampshades are askew from pressing up against the wall. The other "environment" photos, particularly the one of Vance standing next to a light switch, the one that highlights Miller's gut, and the one that shows off Rubio's ass, are just as bad.

The articles also contain extreme close-ups of each of the photo subjects. Here are, in order, Wiles, Rubio, Leavitt, Vance and Miller:

It's hard to say which one is the worst. And before you say, "Well, Karoline Leavitt's shot isn't so bad," know that people who know about these things, and have looked at the full-size version, say you can see where a plastic surgeon injected filler into her lips. In any event, the photos are so very unflattering that there is much speculation that Vanity Fair, or at least the magazine's photo staff, deliberately tried to make these people look bad. That seems very, very plausible to us.

And now, the actual interview, which was a real ripsnorter. If you want to read it, the two parts are here and here. You have to have a subscription, though the magazine is using this opportunity to sell a year's worth of access for $12 (plus you get a free tote!).

Here are the 10 most notable things Wiles said, in our view (and note that it was NOT easy to keep it to 10):

1. Trump the Alcoholic: This might be the item that's getting the most play of anything in the interview. Wiles notes that while Trump really is a teetotaler, he's got an "alcoholic's personality," by which she means he is confident to the point of recklessness. In other words, the ship of state is being steered by a drunk driver. Good to know, we suppose.
   
   
2. Venezuela: Wiles asserted that everything that the administration has done on the Venezuela front is legal, and that when it comes to getting Congress' permission, Trump & Co. "Don't need it yet." She says that will change if the U.S. makes an attack on land. This interpretation of events runs contrary to the messaging that is coming from the White House, which says that it can do whatever it wants without checking with Congress. This interpretation is also going to come as news to anyone who has served in the Navy, the Marines or the Coast Guard—that it doesn't count as war until it's on land.
   
   Wiles also said the purpose behind the strikes is to take down Nicolás Maduro, not to stop drug trafficking. This also runs contrary to the White House's messaging.
   
   
3. Office Politics: Wiles said some rather unflattering things about various members of the inner circle. She asserted that J.D. Vance only became a Trumper for political reasons, but that he's been a conspiracy theorist for at least a decade. She described Russell Vought as a "a right-wing absolute zealot." She said that Elon Musk is an "odd, odd duck." Wiles later tried to clean this up by presenting herself as something of a mother hen presiding over a bunch of "junkyard dogs" (in her words).
   
   
4. Epstein Mobilier: Wiles also tossed "Attorney General" Pam Bondi under the bus a bit, decreeing that Bondi completely misjudged the Epstein situation, and that it may cost the administration significantly. She also said it was a mistake by Trump to link Bill Clinton to the whole thing, and the President should not have done so. She also conceded that Trump DID pal around with Epstein, but said that it's not a big deal, because they were both "young, single playboys."
   
   
5. Immigration: Wiles also acknowledged significant errors on the immigration enforcement front, including that the government should not have gotten involved with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and that it certainly should not have deported a 4-year-old cancer patient.
   
   
6. Tariffs: Wiles said the process of implementing tariffs was haphazard, and that since they've been in place, "it's been more painful than I expected." Yep, who could have foreseen this, besides, you know... everyone.
   
   
7. Misogyny: Perhaps some Americans find this administration to be a bit misogynistic? If so, that is the fault of... women. Wiles asserts that Trump always punches back when attacked, and said that these days, it tends to be women doing the punching. Ipso facto, they started it.
   
   
8. Enemies of the State: Wiles tells Vanity Fair that "I don't think he wakes up thinking about retribution. But when there's an opportunity, he will go for it." This strikes us as a distinction without much of a difference. It also strikes us as an out-and-out falsehood; look at Trump's late-night social media messages, and it's clear he's thinking about revenge morning, noon, and night. Wiles did concede that the prosecutions of Letitia James and James Comey "might be vindictive." We suspect that observation might just come up at trial, if these things ever get before a jury (which, admittedly, is unlikely).
   
   
9. Third Term: In Wiles' view, Trump cannot run for a third term, and does not intend to do so. She says that he hints at that possibility because it's "driving people crazy," which is fun for him.
   
   
10. Job Description: Historically, the chief of staff is something of a double firewall. They insulate the president from most of the crap that people might bring to him, and they also serve as a check on the president themselves, as one of the people (and maybe the only person) who can say "Mr. President, you might want to rethink that." In the interview, Wiles makes clear she has no interest in the second part of that, and that she thinks her only job is to enable Trump in whatever he wants to do.

Clearly, Wiles said WAY more than she was supposed to say. You can tell, because she and the White House went into damage-control mode as soon as the magazine hit the newsstands (assuming they even have newsstands anymore). Wiles, for her part, got on Twitter to decree:

The article published early this morning is a disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the finest President, White House staff, and Cabinet in history.

Significant context was disregarded and much of what I, and others, said about the team and the President was left out of the story. I assume, after reading it, that this was done to paint an overwhelmingly chaotic and negative narrative about the President and our team.

The truth is the Trump White House has already accomplished more in eleven months than any other President has accomplished in eight years and that is due to the unmatched leadership and vision of President Trump, for whom I have been honored to work for the better part of a decade.

None of this will stop our relentless pursuit of Making America Great Again!

Leavitt basically parroted this during her daily press conference, and Trump did the same later in the day, even agreeing about the "alcoholic personality" part. All of this is nonsense, of course. First, if you sit for 11 hours of interviews, the magazine is not going to print every word, or even most words. By definition, this is an exercise in taking things out of context. The only question is whether that was done in a dishonest manner.

Now certainly it is possible that the magazine misrepresented what Wiles said. After all, the photos the staff chose definitely make a statement. However, while Wiles, et al., made many claims about the magazine's reporting, nobody denied that she said the words she was quoted as saying. Nobody offered up any explanation as to how more "context" would have led to a different, or better, understanding. In the absence of that, then it's all just hot air from an administration that's angry it got embarrassed.

And that leads us back to the basic questions we started with: What the heck happened here? What did the administration hope to accomplish with this? And how did they end up with something that went so badly off the rails, from their perspective? The only thing we can say with some confidence is that this was a notoriously undisciplined operation during Trump's first term. Then, for the first 10 months of Trump v2.0, it was shockingly disciplined, almost at Obama levels. Now, based on this and other recent incidents, it looks like the disicpline is breaking down again.

Beyond that, we're at something of a loss. There is a school of thought out there that the dam is about to break, and Wiles is the first rat to jump off the ship. That is the point of view taken by Anthony Scaramucci and by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), among others. The problem here is that while Wiles said a lot of impolitic things, she does not come off as someone who thinks their time is short, or someone who has soured on Trump. By all indications, she's still a hardcore loyalist, and she's still a trusted insider.

Another idea that's out there is that Wiles knows that history (and maybe the courts) will judge the Trump administration harshly, and she basically wants to get "It wasn't me!" out there, on the record. This also seems like a reach to us. Neither history nor the legal system will take much note of a single interview, done for a non-hard-news publication.

Our best guess, though we don't feel great about it, is that Wiles has spent most of her career in the shadows, and this was a chance to be the star for once. And when someone is getting the star treatment, especially for the first time, they tend to overdo it. They don't want the fun to end, so they say a lot of stuff, to keep the ball rolling, and to keep the recorder running. Anyhow, if correct, this would explain why she accepted the interview offer in the first place, and why she was willing to pose for whatever damn photos Vanity Fair asked for, and why she developed the worst case of verbal diarrhea this side of Donald Trump at a Trump rally.

The other thing we are sure about, beyond the crumbling discipline, is that the White House has once again played things foolishly. The administration should have acted as if there was nothing to see here, and that reading the interview was no more interesting than reading the white pages. But they freaked out, which sends the message that there's some fire behind that smoke. As a result, one or two of Wiles' quotes probably will see the light of day again sometime next year, either coming from a reporter after something like an invasion of Venezuela, or maybe in a Democratic campaign ad or two. (Z)