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Trump chooses Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff
Newly elected Republican President Donald Trump has appointed campaign chief Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff.
President-elect Donald Trump called his White House Chief of Staff Thursday: Susie Wiles, his de facto campaign manager and one of the most powerful political forces in Florida you may not have heard of.
“Susie Wiles just helped me achieve one of the greatest political victories in American history, and was an integral part of my successful 2016 and 2020 campaigns,” Trump said in a statement. “Susie is tough, smart, innovative and universally admired and respected. Susie will continue to work tirelessly to Make America Great Again.”
Susan Summerall Wiles has a political history in Jacksonville
Wiles, 67, will be the first woman to hold the title of White House chief of staff in American history. But who is the button-down grandmother who helped put Trump back in power?
Wiles, 67, is a private person who rarely comes to the fore during campaigns or in interviews. She prefers to keep campaigns quietly organized and on track while she serves as the powerhouse behind several major Florida politicians and become essential to Trump’s triumphant comeback.
Trump publicly thanked her and fellow campaign manager Chris LaCivita during his victory speech Wednesday as she stood at the back of the stage.
“Susie likes to stay in the back, I can tell you that,” Trump said. “We call her the Ice Girl.”
Here’s what you need to know.
Who is Susie Wiles? Donald Trump’s chief of staff
Born in New Jersey, Wiles was one of three children of legendary sportscaster and former NFL kicker Pat Summerall. Her early career in politics included working for New York Rep. Jack Kemp, a former teammate of her father’s with the New York Giants, and in the campaigns of former President Ronald Reagan.
Wiles moved to Jacksonville with her husband Lanny Wiles, also a Republican political consultant, where she worked as a consultant and in government before taking more than a decade off to raise her two daughters. They divorced in 2017.
Over the next few years, she worked with Secretary of Labor Raymond J. Donovan, served as deputy director of operations for Dan Quayle’s vice presidential campaign, and served as district director for U.S. Representative Tillie K. Fowler (R-FL). before helping John Delaney become Jacksonville’s first Republican mayor since shortly after the Civil War in 1995. She later served as Delaney’s chief of staff and worked as communications director for Jacksonville Mayor John. Peyton in 2004.
“She is a Republican, but not at all ultra-conservative,” Delaney said in a speech. interview with USA TODAY earlier this year. ‘Actually, you would be more affected by moderation than anything else. … She would lag behind on the environment, and on gay rights.”
Wiles has two daughters, Katie and Caroline. Caroline was hired briefly to serve as deputy assistant to the president and director of planning in Trump’s White House in 2017, but resigned after failing an FBI background check.
Susie Wiles helped Rick Scott, Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump rise to power
Senator Rick Scott was an unknown former hospital company executive who turned the entire Florida GOP establishment against him when Wiles joined his campaign in 2010 and helped him tap into the Tea Party wave to narrowly win the race for governor .
“Most Republicans were told that if they worked on my campaign in the primaries, they would never work in Republican politics, so I will be forever grateful that someone with Susie’s reputation came to work for me,” said Scott, adding that Wiles “is very smart. she’s a hard worker, she’s a team player, I think she gives really good advice.”
Wiles briefly worked as a campaign manager for Utah Governor Jon Huntsman’s presidential campaign, but later resigned. Politico reported that this was due to a bitter feud with John Weaverthe candidate’s chief strategist.
In between her positions, Wiles worked at several powerful lobbying firms, including APCO Worldwide, her own firm Wiles Consulting, Inc, and Ballard Partners, Florida’s largest government affairs agency, where she she led the Jacksonville office with former Jacksonville Jaguars player Tony Boselli.
While most Republicans in Jacksonville sided with presidential candidate Jeb Bush in 2015, Wiles became co-chairman of Donald Trump’s campaign in Florida. She helped Trump win the state by 1.2 percentage points over Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Trump reportedly sent her to help Ron DeSantis’ floundering gubernatorial campaign.
Did Ron DeSantis fire Susie Wiles?
Andrew Gillum was leading in the polls at the time Ron DeSantis brought in Wiles to lead his campaign as campaign chairman. In his victory speech, DeSantis called her “truly the best in the business.”
She joined his transition team, but in 2019, according to Politics and the New York TimesSome DeSantis loyalists feared that the state GOP was filled with “Susie people” and rumors circulated that Wiles was there as a lobbyist to gain influence within the government. After the Tampa Bay Times published an internal memo With her name on it, describing an “aggressive” fundraising plan, DeSantis blamed her for the leak and fired her.
Wiles has denied leaking documents.
Insiders say DeSantis tried to “ruin her life” and prevent her from returning to politics, even pressuring Trump to fire her from running his 2020 campaign in Florida.
“He definitely tried to make me some kind of pariah, and I was never able to get an appointment with him or anything like that after it happened to address it head-on,” Wiles said.
Wiles grew in power under Trump
While she was initially let go, Trump’s campaign brought Wiles back into the 2020 race over DeSantis’ objections and ended up Florida carried by more than 3 percentage pointstripling his margin of victory from 2016 and building Wiles’ reputation despite Trump’s national loss.
In 2021, Trump appointed her CEO of his political action committee Save America PAC, leading to increased involvement in other areas of his political operations. Wiles is believed to be responsible in the investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents unnamed person in Special Prosecutor Jack Smith’s original indictment to whom Trump allegedly showed a secret map, according to ABC News.
Wiles ultimately ran Trump’s 2024 campaign alongside LaCivita and helped outmaneuver DeSantis’ main challenge by getting most of the Florida GOP congressional delegation to support Trump before DeSantis had officially announced.
Wiles has a “calming presence” on Trump
The soft-spoken Wiles is credited with keeping Trump’s campaign organized and focused despite the candidate’s very public legal issues and personal quirks.
She helped orchestrate an unprecedented one “campaign from the courtroom” during his trial in New York City on charges of paying and covering up hush-money payments to an adult film actress, including daily rants from Trump, events in Manhattan, court visits from top allies – including the Speaker of the House of Representatives and vice presidential candidates – and An massive fundraising blitz That has helped Trump close the funding gap with President Joe Biden, despite his historic felony conviction earlier this spring.
“I think she has a very good balance,” said former Trump White House press secretary Sean Spicer. ‘She doesn’t want to be in the spotlight. She has the experience. She has the confidence. She flies right on the radar where you want to be.”
These could be important qualities for a president who has gone through four chiefs of staff — Reince Priebus, John Kelly, Mick Mulvaney and Mark Meadows — in his first term.
The average tenure for a White House Chief of Staff is approximately eighteen months. President Joe Biden had two, Ron Klain and Jeff Zients, during his time in office, and President Barack Obama had five — Rahm Emanuel, Pete Rouse, Bill Daley, Jack Lew and Denis McDonough — for eight years.
Will Susie Wiles be the first female White House chief of staff?
Yes. All 31 previous chiefs of staff were men.
Numerous deputy chiefs of staff with varying responsibilities have been women, most recently Jen O’Malley Dillon, Anne Tomasini and Natalie Quillian in the Biden administration, and Kirstjen Nielsen, Emma Doyle and Katie Walsh in Trump’s first term.
There has been a presidential chief of staff who was a woman, but not during his time in office. Jean Becker After his term of office, he served as chief of staff to former President George HW Bush.
Fans of “The West Wing” will remember CJ Cregg, played by Allison Janney, the first White House press secretary and then chief of staff to fictional President Josiah Bartlett (Martin Sheen).
What does the White House Chief of Staff do?
The Chief of Staff wields enormous influence in the administration, serving as a gatekeeper to the Oval Office with daily access to the President and control over the Executive Office.
The chief of staff directs the White House staff, organizes the president’s time and schedule, directs and manages policy development, negotiates legislation, and liaises with other departments and lawmakers. This is a political position that does not require confirmation by the Senate.
The position was created in 1946 under President Dwight Eisenhower, expanding the role of private secretary after President Franklin D. Roosevelt restructured the White House staff and created the Executive Office of the President.
USA TODAY’s Fernando Cervantes Jr. contributed to this story.
(This story has been updated with new information.)