With her selection as President-elect Donald Trump ‘s incoming White House chief of staff, veteran Florida political strategist Susie Wiles moves from a largely behind-the-scenes role of campaign co-chair to the high-profile position of the president’s closest adviser and counsel.
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She’s been in political circles for years. But who is Ms. Wiles, the operative set to be the first woman to step into the powerful role of White House chief of staff?
The daughter of NFL player and sportscaster Pat Summerall, Ms. Wiles worked in the Washington office of New York Rep. Jack Kemp in the 1970s. Following that were stints on Ronald Reagan’s campaign and in his White House as a scheduler.
Ms. Wiles then headed to Florida, where she advised two Jacksonville mayors and worked for Rep. Tillie Fowler. After that came statewide campaigns in rough and tumble Florida politics, with Ms. Wiles being credited with helping businessman Rick Scott win the governor’s office.
After briefly managing Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman’s 2012 presidential campaign, she ran Mr. Trump’s 2016 effort in Florida, when his win in the state helped him clinch the White House.
Two years later, Ms. Wiles helped get Ron DeSantis elected as Florida’s governor. But the two would develop a rift that eventually led to DeSantis to urge Mr. Trump’s 2020 campaign to cuts its ties with the strategist, when she was again running the then-president’s state campaign.
Ms. Wiles ultimately went on to lead Mr. Trump’s primary campaign against DeSantis and trounced the Florida governor.
Ms. Wiles had posted just three times on X this year at the time of her announcement. Shortly before DeSantis dropped out of the presidential race in January, Ms. Wiles made a rare appearance on social media. She responded to a message that DeSantis had cleared his campaign website of upcoming events with a short but clear message: “Bye, bye.”
Joining up with Mr. Trump’s third campaign in its nascent days, Ms. Wiles is one of the few top officials to survive an entire Trump campaign and was part of the team that put together a far more professional operation for his third White House bid — even if the former president routinely broke through those guardrails anyway.
She largely avoided the spotlight, even refusing to take the mic to speak as Mr. Trump celebrated his victory early Wednesday morning.
But she showed she was not above taking on tasks reserved for volunteers. At one of Mr. Trump’s appearances in Iowa in July of last year, as the former president posed for pictures with a long line of voters, Ms. Wiles grabbed a clipboard and started approaching people waiting to get them to fill out cards committing to caucus for Mr. Trump in the leadoff primary contest.
“If we leave the conference room after a meeting and somebody leaves trash on the table, Susie’s the person to grab the trash and put it in the trash can,” said Chris LaCivita, who served as campaign co-chair along with Ms. Wiles.
Another of her three posts on X this year was in the closing days of the campaign, clapping back after billionaire Mark Cuban remarked that Mr. Trump didn’t have “strong, intelligent women” in his orbit. After Ms. Wiles’ selection as White House chief of staff, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, a Trump backer, quipped on X that the president-elect had chosen a “strong, intelligent woman” as his chief of staff.
Ms. Wiles was able to help control Mr. Trump’s worst impulses — not by chiding him or lecturing, but by earning his respect and showing him that he was better off when he followed her advice than flouted it. At one point late in the campaign, when Mr. Trump gave a widely criticised speech in Pennsylvania in which he strayed from his talking points and suggested he wouldn’t mind the media being shot, Ms,. Wiles came out to stare at him silently.
Mr. Trump often referenced Ms. Wiles on the campaign trail, publicly praising her leadership of what he said he was often told was his “best-run campaign.”
“She’s incredible. Incredible,” he said at a Milwaukee rally earlier this month.
In his first administration, Mr. Trump went through four chiefs of staff — including one who served in an acting capacity for a year — in a period of record-setting personnel churn.
A chief of staff serves as the president’s confidant, helping to execute an agenda and balancing competing political and policy priorities. They also tend to serve as a gatekeeper, helping determine whom the president spends their time and to whom they speak — an effort under which Mr. Trump chafed inside the White House.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly said he believes the biggest mistake of his first term was hiring the wrong people. He was new to Washington then, he has said, and didn’t know any better.
Published – November 08, 2024 11:54 am IST
