AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson
White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles received backlash from supporters of President Donald Trump on Tuesday after her decision to speak to Vanity Fair led to a series of disastrous headlines for the Trump administration.
In a two-part profile published on Tuesday – which included a number of explosive quotes from 11 separate interviews Wiles granted the publication over the past year – the White House chief of staff revealed the president’s disparaging nicknames for allies and cabinet members, described Vice President JD Vance as a “conspiracy theorist,” diagnosed Trump with an “alcoholic’s personality,” and even admitted Trump had been a passenger on Jeffrey Epstein’s plane.
Describing the profile as a “disingenuously framed hit piece,” Wiles claimed in a social media post that “significant context was disregarded and much of what I, and others, said about the team and the President was left out of the story.”
However, supporters of the president were less than pleased with Wiles’ defense.
Responding to Wiles’ statement, The Blaze host Auron MacIntyre wrote, “When a mainstream publication contacts me about one of their hit pieces I ignore them because I know that they will twist and distort any response… 3 years ago I was teaching high school… Why do you as a political operator at the highest level not know this?”
Joel Pollak, the opinion editor of New York Post spinoff The California Post, offered similar criticism, writing, “I don’t know why Republicans continue to give privileged access to mainstream media or center-left publications determined to destroy them. Journalists are not your friends, especially from Democrat agenda-driven outlets like the @nytimes and @VanityFair.”
“It is too late in the game for this to be a defense,” reacted former CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan. “Anyone close to the President should know that Vanity Fair leads the way in the information war for Trump’s most powerful & despicable enemies.”
She warned, “If you do not know this, you are not qualified to be in a junior role let alone a senior one.”
Mike Cernovich criticized Wiles for “doing glam interviews with Bolshevik media” and likened her willing participation to “hanging yourself with your own words,” while Fox News contributor Byron York called Wiles’ defense “perhaps one of the most naive statements ever made by an official at the highest levels of the government.”
“I don’t understand why anyone from this administration would give an interview to Vanity Fair,” weighed in Townhall columnist Kurt Schlichter. “What the hell?”
Despite the backlash, Wiles received support from several members of the Trump administration, including FBI Director Kash Patel, as well as President Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr.
“Susie Wiles is by far the most effective and trustworthy Chief of Staff that my father has ever had,” Trump Jr. declared.
“Fake news comes after you when you’re effective… and there’s nobody in @realDonaldTrump’s team more effective than @SusieWiles,” insisted Patel.
