On December 16, 2025, the White House found itself at the center of a media firestorm after Vanity Fair published an explosive profile of Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. The article, which drew on nearly a dozen interviews with Wiles, painted a candid—some would say unflattering—portrait of President Donald Trump’s inner circle, sparking swift reactions from the administration and its allies. What followed was a rare, public airing of grievances, clarifications, and fierce defenses from the highest levels of the Trump White House.
Susie Wiles, who has long been regarded as one of the most powerful and influential figures in Trump’s orbit, was thrust into the spotlight after Vanity Fair quoted her describing President Trump as having an “alcoholic’s personality.” According to Vanity Fair, Wiles said, “High-functioning alcoholics or alcoholics in general, their personalities are exaggerated when they drink. So I’m a little bit of an expert in big personalities.” She added that Trump, a lifelong teetotaler, “operates [with] a view that there’s nothing he can’t do. Nothing, zero, nothing.”
Trump, 79, has never been shy about discussing his abstinence from alcohol—a decision he attributes to the tragic death of his older brother Fred in 1981 from an alcohol-induced heart attack. In an exclusive interview with the New York Post on December 16, Trump responded to the Vanity Fair story with characteristic candor. “No, she meant that I’m—you see, I don’t drink alcohol. So everybody knows that—but I’ve often said that if I did, I’d have a very good chance of being an alcoholic. I have said that many times about myself, I do. It’s a very possessive personality,” the president explained. “I’ve said that many times about myself. I’m fortunate I’m not a drinker. If I did, I could very well, because I’ve said that—what’s the word? Not possessive—possessive and addictive type personality. Oh, I’ve said it many times, many times before.”
Trump went on to defend Wiles, calling her “fantastic” and expressing his full confidence in her leadership as chief of staff. “I think from what I hear, the facts were wrong, and it was a very misguided interviewer, purposely misguided,” he told the Post. Trump also suggested that the Vanity Fair journalist may have deceived Wiles regarding the focus of the profile, adding, “If anybody knows the interviewer, and if they know Vanity Fair, Vanity Fair is a totally—it’s lost its way. It’s also lost its readers, as you know. No, she’s fantastic.”
The president’s robust defense of Wiles was echoed by other senior officials. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt issued a statement to the BBC, praising Wiles’ leadership and accusing Vanity Fair of “bias of omission” and taking Wiles’ words “wildly out of context.” Leavitt said, “President Trump has no greater or more loyal advisor than Susie. The entire administration is grateful to her steady leadership and united fully behind her.”
On the morning of December 16, Wiles herself took to X (formerly Twitter) to dispute the article’s framing. She called it “a disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the finest President, White House staff, and Cabinet in history.” Wiles continued, “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.”
Wiles’ comments in Vanity Fair weren’t limited to the president. She also described Vice President JD Vance as a “conspiracy theorist for a decade” and criticized Attorney General Pam Bondi’s handling of files related to Jeffrey Epstein. Wiles’ frank assessments initially stunned Washington insiders, but the reaction from the administration was swift and supportive. Bondi, for her part, called Wiles a “dear friend” who “fights every day to advance President Trump’s agenda – and she does so with grace, loyalty, and historic effectiveness.” Bondi added on X, “Any attempt to divide this administration will fail. Any attempt to undermine and downplay President Trump’s monumental achievements will fail. We are family.”
Vice President Vance, meanwhile, responded with his trademark humor and self-awareness. Speaking to reporters in Pennsylvania, he said, “Sometimes I am a conspiracy theorist. But I only believe in the conspiracy theories that are true—and by the way, Susie and I have joked in private and in public about that for a long time.” Vance elaborated, “I believed in the crazy conspiracy theory back in 2020 that it was stupid to mask 3-year-olds at the height of the COVID pandemic and that we should actually let them develop some language skills. I believed in this crazy conspiracy theory that the media and the government were covering up the fact that Joe Biden was clearly unable to do the job. And I believed in the conspiracy theory that Joe Biden was trying to throw his political opponents in jail, rather than win an argument against his political opponents.”
Wiles’ remarks about tech billionaire Elon Musk, who briefly served as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) before a public spat with Trump, also drew attention. She described Musk as an “avowed Ketamine user” who “sleeps in a sleeping bag in the EOB,” referring to the Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House. “He’s an odd, odd duck, as I think geniuses are,” Wiles said. Reflecting on Musk’s aggressive cost-cutting at USAID, she admitted being “initially aghast” but acknowledged, “With that attitude, you’re going to break some china. But no rational person could think the USAID process was a good one. Nobody.”
Amid the swirl of controversy, Trump loyalists rallied around Wiles. White House budget director Russell Vought tweeted, “Susie Wiles is an exceptional chief of staff… In my portfolio, she is always an ally in helping me deliver for the president. And this hit piece will not slow us down.”
Wiles, who became the first woman to serve as White House Chief of Staff after playing a pivotal role in Trump’s 2024 campaign, is credited with bringing stability and unity to the administration. Unlike some of her predecessors, she has encouraged a diversity of opinions and open dialogue around the president. “I want him to have more inputs, not less, more information, not less, more people talking to him, not fewer,” she told the New York Post. “I view my responsibility as making sure he gets unvarnished information and complete truth.”
In a striking moment, Wiles also shared Trump’s private assessment of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intentions in Ukraine. She told Vanity Fair, “The experts think that if he could get the rest of Donetsk, then he would be happy. Donald Trump thinks he wants the whole country.”
As the administration closed ranks, Trump announced a rare Oval Office address for December 17, 2025, promising to tout his administration’s record and set the tone for the year ahead. “It has been a great year for our Country, and THE BEST IS YET TO COME!” he wrote. For now, the episode has only solidified the bond between Trump and his chief of staff, with both projecting confidence and unity in the face of controversy.
