As incoming White House chief of staff, one of Susie Wiles’ vexing challenges will be policing the buffet line of powerful interests who want something from Donald Trump.
It’s a world she knows well. During Trump’s first presidency, she lobbied for many of them.
Mr. Trump was first elected on a pledge to “drain the swamp” in Washington. But his transactional approach to the presidency instead ushered in a lobbying boom that showered allies, including Wiles, with lucrative contracts, empowered wealthy business associates and stymied his agenda after his administration was ensnared in a series of influence-peddling scandals.
Now, as Mr. Trump prepares to return to power, his victory is likely to embolden those who think they can get his ear, raising the prospect that his second administration could face many of the same perils as his first. That will test the ability of Wiles to manage a growing number of high-powered figures — including Trump’s children, his son-in-law Jared Kushner and billionaires like Elon Musk — who will not be dependent on her for access to the president.
The appointment of a former lobbyist to such an important job “bodes very poorly for what we are about to see from the next Trump administration,” said Craig Holman, himself a registered lobbyist for the government watchdog group Public Citizen. “This time around, Trump didn’t even mention ‘draining the swamp.’ … He’s not even pretending.”
In a statement, Brian Hughes, a spokesman from the Trump transition effort, rejected any suggestion that Wiles’ history as a lobbyist would make her susceptible to pressure.
“Susie Wiles has an undeniable reputation of the highest integrity and steadfast commitment to service both inside and outside government,” Hughes said. “She will bring this same integrity and commitment as she serves President Trump in the White House, and that is exactly why she was selected.”
Wiles’ selection as chief of staff was Trump’s first announced hire after his win. Wiles co-led the former president’s campaign and was widely credited with having run an operation that was far more disciplined than his two previous efforts. Even so, she will have her work cut out for her. Though the job has traditionally entailed policing who has access to the president, Trump chaffed at such efforts during his first presidency as he churned through four chiefs of staff.
During his recent victory speech, Trump called Wiles an “Ice Maiden” while praising her as a consummate behind-the-scenes player. She will be the first woman to ever hold the position.
What is also clear is that Wiles, 67, has successfully managed headstrong men across a lengthy career in politics, government and lobbying. The daughter of NFL player and sportscaster Pat Summerall, Wiles worked for U.S. Rep. Jack Kemp, a conservative icon, in the 1970s, followed by stints on Ronald Reagan’s campaign and as a scheduler in his White House.
She later headed to Florida, where she advised two Jacksonville mayors and is credited with helping businessman Rick Scott, now a U.S. senator, win the governor’s office. After briefly managing Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman’s 2012 presidential campaign, she oversaw Trump’s 2016 effort in Florida, when his win in the state helped him clinch the White House.
Wiles was a partner at Ballard Partners, a regional firm that lobbied for Trump’s companies in Florida. Shortly after Trump’s election, Ballard set up shop in Washington and quickly became a dominant player, pulling in more than $70 million in lobbying fees during Trump’s presidency, representing a who’s who of corporate America, lobbying disclosures show.
Many of Wiles’ clients were plain vanilla entities with obvious aims — General Motors, a trade group for children’s hospitals, homebuilders, and the City of Jacksonville, Florida.
One in particular stood out that speaks to the ways, subtle or otherwise, that foreign interests seek to influence U.S. policy. In 2017, Wiles registered as a lobbyist for Globovisión, a Venezuelan TV network owned by Raúl Gorrín, a businessman charged in Miami with money laundering.
Gorrín bought the broadcast company in 2013 and immediately softened its anti-government coverage. He hired Ballard to advise on “general government policies and regulations,” lobbying disclosures show. But rather than working with the agencies that oversee telecommunications, Ballard’s lobbying was trained on the White House, which would have little say in regulating a foreign broadcaster in the U.S. Globovisión paid Ballard $800,000 for a year of work.
Brian Ballard, president of the firm, said that it’s clear to him that Gorrín’s aims weren’t limited to the media business. Gorrín, who owns several luxury properties in Miami, had long positioned himself as a bridge between Venezuela’s socialist government and U.S. officials.
By the time Wiles and a team of Ballard lobbyists represented Globovisión, Gorrín was leading a quiet charm offensive for Nicolás Maduro’s government that sought closer ties with Trump at a time when the country was facing food shortages, violent crime and hyperinflation. It started before Trump took office when Citgo, a subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, kicked in a $500,000 donation for Trump’s inauguration.
“He was a fraud and as soon as we learned he was a fraud, we fired him,” said Ballard. “He would ask us to set up a lot of things, in LA and D.C., and then nothing would happen. It was all a fantasy. He just wanted to use our firm.”
A few days after Ballard dropped Gorrín in 2018, federal prosecutors unsealed charges against the businessman for allegedly using the U.S. finance system to supply Venezuelan officials with private jets, a yacht and champion show-jumping horses as part of a fake loan scheme perpetrated by insiders to pilfer the state’s coffers. Last month, he was charged a second time, also out of Miami, in another scheme to siphon $1 billion from the state oil company, PDVSA.
Ballard said Wiles had almost no role in managing the relationship with Gorrín or several other clients for which she is listed as a lobbyist. But he praised her as someone who is a highly organized “straight shooter” and “tough as nails” despite her soft demeanor.
“She’s the type of person who you want in a foxhole,” he said. “She will serve the president well.”
During Trump’s first term, Maduro engaged in a peacemaking offensive that included attempts to hire at least two other lobbyists. It fizzled out, however. In 2019, the White House slapped crushing oil sanctions on the OPEC nation, closed the U.S. Embassy in Caracas and recognized the head of the opposition-controlled National Assembly as the country’s legitimate ruler. Maduro was then indicted in 2020 by the U.S. Justice Department on federal drug trafficking charges out of New York.
Gorrín has long denied any wrongdoing and remains a fugitive. In a brief interview with The Associated Press, he called Wiles a “lady” and said she always acted professionally and humanely.
Ballard called the firm’s work for Gorrín a “big mistake.” Going forward, Ballard expects access to the White House to be more tightly controlled just as his firm, after a steep learning curve during the first Trump administration, will do a better job vetting potential clients to make sure their interests align with the president’s agenda.
“We learned a lot,” he says, “and so did the president.”
Globovisión wasn’t Wiles’ only client with foreign ties.
In early 2019, she registered with the Justice Department as a foreign agent working for one of Nigeria’s main political parties for two months. Another client was an auto dealership owned by Shafik Gabr, a wealthy businessman who was in a financial dispute related to selling cars in Egypt with the subsidiary of the German automaker Volkswagen.
Wiles was also a registered lobbyist for the subsidiaries of a multi-national gaming company and a Canadian company looking to build a massive copper and gold mine near Alaska’s salmon-rich Bristol Bay.
Wiles was hardly an outlier in Trump’s Washington, where his eponymously named hotel served as a hub for lobbyists, business leaders and foreign governments looking to rub shoulders with Trump World figures as they sought the president’s favor.
Though much of it was part of the normal course of business in Washington, a number of Trump allies and advisers were investigated and charged with crimes linked to their work on behalf of foreign countries and entities.
After becoming Trump’s de facto campaign manager in 2022, Wiles kept on lobbying, this time for Mercury, a multinational public affairs and lobbying firm. Most recently she was representing the maker of Swisher Sweets cigars.
Published – November 22, 2024 10:33 am IST
