Trump Names Susie Wiles as Chief of Staff, First Woman to Hold Title
“Susie is tough, smart, innovative, and is universally admired and respected. Susie will continue to work tirelessly to Make America Great Again.”
President-elect Donald Trump chose Susan Summerall Wiles, his de facto campaign manager, as his White House Chief of Staff.
Wiles is the first female to hold the hold the position.
“Susie Wiles just helped me achieve one of the greatest political victories in American history, and was an integral part of both my 2016 and 2020 successful campaigns,” President Trump said in a press email. “Susie is tough, smart, innovative, and is universally admired and respected. Susie will continue to work tirelessly to Make America Great Again. It is a well deserved honor to have Susie as the first-ever female Chief of Staff in United States history. I have no doubt that she will make our country proud.”
People noticed that Trump’s campaign became better managed and organized since he had Wiles aboard.
By the way, her father is the late Pat Summerall, a former football player, and beloved broadcaster with the late John Madden.
The chief of staff position was created in 1946. Since then, only males have held the title.
It’s probably the most important job, usually the first position picked by the incoming president.
Here is CNN reporting the announcement. Kristen Holmes explained the importance of Wiles:
As we talked about earlier today, Susie had been the top contender going into this. She is someone who makes Donald Trump feel comfortable. She is also someone who has really lasted the longest in Donald Trump’s orbit, a place that is known for knife fighting and backstabbing. She has been loyal to the former president, a constant by his side, since he left office in 2021.
One thing I will say, Jake, she has some stipulations that he clearly agreed to, telling one source that she didn’t want the clown car to be able to have access to the White House at any time, meaning those people who they don’t want near Donald Trump. She clearly won that argument. She will be the first female chief of staff in the United States history.
JUST IN: Donald Trump's campaign manager Susie Wiles has been named Chief of Staff.
She is the first female Chief of Staff in history.
Wiles has been credited for running what is seen as Trump's "most sophisticated and disciplined campaign."
"She is someone who makes Donald… pic.twitter.com/8fqf4gAPH0
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) November 7, 2024
Wiles is a veteran of Florida politics. Politico published a profile on her in April titled “The Most Feared and Least Known Political Operative in America.”
Author Michael Kruse and others couldn’t believe Wiles would work for Trump. She constantly told Kruse through the piece:
“I sort of think, maybe naively, that if everybody knew what I knew — what I know — they wouldn’t feel as some do about Donald Trump. Does that mean I think he’s perfect? There are certainly things I would do and say differently — absolutely,” she told me.
“But people don’t know what I know.”
Overall, Wiles prefers to stay in the background. Maybe if she were more front and center, Mark Cuban wouldn’t have commented on Trump not having strong and independent women around him:
Susie Wiles, the people who know her the best believe, is a force more sensed than seen. Her influence on political events, to many who know what they’re watching, is as obvious as it is invisible. The prints leave not so much as a smudge. It’s a shock when she shows up in pictures. Even then it is almost always in the background. She speaks on the record hardly ever, and she speaks about herself even less.
Trump tried to bring Wiles to the microphone during his speech on Tuesday night after victory. He insisted she join him at the microphone. She eventually made her way to Trump but refused to speak.
Kruse found bipartisan fondness and appreciation for Wiles:
She’s a mother. She’s a grandmother — she turns 67 next month. She’s worked in politics for more than 40 years — for presidents, for mayors, for governors, for members of Congress. She’s a soft-spoken Episcopalian. She’s a self-described moderate. Over the last few months, I’ve talked about Wiles with more than 100 people, people who have worked with her, around her, for her and against her, and there is a surprisingly bipartisan consensus: She’s good at what she does. She’s a savvy operator, a capable manager, a spotter and cultivator of up-and-coming talent, a maker and keeper of relationships with reporters, and a sly, subtle shaper of stories that help frame the political currents that can determine the difference between a win and a loss. She’s helmed signature statewide campaigns in 2010, 2016, 2018 and 2020 — Rick Scott, Trump, DeSantis, Trump again — all of which could have been defeats but were not. “She was already the most successful, well-respected Republican operative in Florida by a long mile, and she’s now cementing that brand,” said Ashley Walker, a Democratic strategist who twice ran Barack Obama’s Florida campaigns and has worked in lobbying with Wiles. “She is,” said Joe Gruters, a former chair of the Florida Republican Party, current state senator and longtime Trump ally, “the most valuable political adviser in the country.”
Even those who do not like Trump told Kruse that if he should win, they hope he brings Wiles to the White House
Wiles helped Trump win Florida in 2016. He brought her back in 2020. Florida is the only swing state he won in 2020.
In March 2021, Trump asked Wiles to come back. She served as CEO of Trump’s Save America PAC. Politico described the job as one “to instill order.” One adviser said Trump told everyone “around Mar-a-Lago that Susie is now in charge.”
Wiles knew all the ins and outs about DeSantis, a huge plus for Trump’s victory over the Florida governor in the 2024 primary. In fact, it’s believed Wiles fed stories about DeSantis to the media:
“The only person that could have potentially even given a challenge to Trump was DeSantis, and so killing him and killing him early and in every way possible was the best strategy,” Fabrizio, the Trump pollster, told me. “And let’s not forget, if you look at the major reporters that started covering this” — the rise and then fall of DeSantis — “several of them had come out of Florida,” he said, naming Marc Caputo of The Bulwark (formerly of the Miami Herald and POLITICO), Alex Leary of the Wall Street Journal (Tampa Bay Times) and Michael Bender of the New York Times (ditto) — all of whom have known Wiles and vice versa for the better part of a decade and a half. (I worked at the Tampa Bay Times, too, before going to POLITICO; back then, though, I wrote about politics sparingly.) “DeSantis people weren’t feeding them anything on Trump, even rumors,” Fabrizio told me. “What were they getting fed?”
—“I know she talked to reporters,” a Republican consultant who knows Florida and Wiles well told me. “I also know that she knows what I know, and I know that she would sometimes direct reporters to me, because that gives her a layer, a level, of distance.”
“They had their hands on this narrative all along,” a Democratic consultant who knows Florida and Wiles well told me. “That’s what Susie does.”
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Comments
Pat Summerall’s daughter.
Interesting tidbit. I hear she’s a pistol and runs a tight ship.
Now THAT is interesting information and can be seen in the pic.
In 1958, her father Pat Summerall kicked a fifty yard field goal in the middle of a snow storm to send the game into overtime. The giants won in overtime to get into a playoff which they won to send them into the finals against the Baltimore, a game they lost in what was one of the most memorable in NFL history.
No. That would be the ice ball
No doubt, that will make her an excellent Chief of staff!
My apology. The game was the final game of the regular season and the Giants needed to beat the Browns to force a playoff with the Browns. The Giants won 13-10 with a little less than two minutes to play. Summerall’s 49 yard field goal in the snow put them up 13-10 and they managed to hang on to force a play off which they won. Here is a link to the story of that iconic game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkR5JKV3STY
Check it out. For those old enough to remember, it is great to remember. It was an iconic game in an iconic season. The video is worth it for the film of the great Jim Brown, perhaps the greatest running back of all time.
Doesn’t Ms. Wiles know she’s working for a misogynist? No? Well, she’ll figure that out in no time!
/snark
.
I was going to post about how I couldn’t wait for the Usual Suspects to call her a misogynist.
“The Female Face of Misogyny!”
Lia Thomas already has that one,
Mark Cuban:
“Donald Trump, you never see him around strong, intelligent women. Ever. It’s just that simple. They’re intimidating to him. He doesn’t like to be challenged by them.”
President elect Trump:
“Susie is tough, smart, innovative, and is universally admired and respected. Susie will continue to work tirelessly to Make America Great Again. It is a well deserved honor to have Susie as the first-ever female Chief of Staff in United States history. I have no doubt that she will make our country proud.”
Giving Tim Walz a run for the money on clownishness.
Well he knows what he’s up against so I’d have to say he’s making these choices and putting appropriate weight on them. It does look like she didn’t excellent job with his campaign and no doubt she’ll do it excellent job for him in the white house. Well he knows when he’s having
Did an excellent job on his campaign. I really hate when the voice dictation changes my words after I read through.
Eye no wad ewe mean.
That’s why I type.
Seems to be exactly the type of no nonsense person needed in that demanding role of ‘herding cats’ in DC while keeping the snakes out of the Oval Office. I suspect that Trump has a much better staffing plan in place to put competent, trustworthy appointees in place than what happened in his first term.
Trump was blindsided, now bruised he is ready to draw political blood.
Blindsided by the amount of resistance among the permanent bureaucracy for sure. His appointments in 1st.term, not just the Cabinet level but the ones way down on the org charts (there’s multiple thousands of Executive branch appointed officials) were …not optimal.
In large part this was due to him having little to no experience with DC, a big part of why he was elected is his outsider status. Without having a Rolodex of experienced folks competent in the inner working of all the Federal agencies/Dept he had to rely on others.
IMO the big difference between 1st term and 2nd term DJT will be the rapid pace of filling those multiple thousands of appointments with more MAGA oriented folks or at least folks who won’t undermine his agenda. 1st term appointment lagged and left SES career bureaucrats running the day to day operations and that as much as anything stymied his agenda. I truly believe Trump and his inner circle have learned from that experience and will be set to go hard and fast with appointments on day one.
RINOS didn’t help either.
There’s still plenty of RINOS around. For that matter there’s plenty of folks who won’t be onboard with the incredibly ruthless tactics that will be necessary to deport illegal aliens. When every city has daily footage looking like the Elian Gonzales footage plenty of whining will come from even supposedly MAGA folks.
Then there’s the part where we go after those that employed illegal aliens and seize their assets (it was part of a criminal enterprise) and their building/job site/equipment under civil asset forfeiture then put their ass through a trial and into prison. I suspect plenty of folks don’t have the stomach for bringing true accountability and punishment using every single devious interpretation possible to bring maximum legal pain and financial ruin to create a very effect deterrent.
Unfettered ruthlessness in dealing with illegal aliens and those who facilitated them, yes including ‘church groups’ NGO and farmers wanting cheap labor and those whose lawn care was done by an illegal and so on feeling every oz of possible pain will not be popular with some who voted MAGA.
What can I say. Trump chose a True Value.
“was an integral part of both my 2016 and 2020 successful campaigns”
ISWYDT!
She and DeSantis are on the outs. This is when I turn anxious – when Trump is choosing personnel.
I hope and pray he picks good people who support mass deportations and will carry them out. Please, dear God!
A national program to identify the and collect information about illegals is the best way to remove them from America.
OK…knowing what we know now…. does anyone believe DeSantis would have been elected this time? Who would be VP… Nikki?
I think he could have been but I will take the bird in the hand and not ponder it further.
Yes and he would have and WILL make a great President.
However, as healthyguy says, its time to move on with whats going to actually happen instead of pondering what could have been.
Trump got a boost from being shot that DeSantis probably would not have had.
Frankly, I also think he got a boost from being convicted.
yes don’t like both sides liking her and calling her a moderate
We don’t no moderates in the WH
We need dragon slayers
Trump’s choices are now guided by experience. No more Tillersons or Mad Dogs, or another Sessions.
On the other hand Mike Pompeo was floated as Sec.Def.
I don’t understand why he doesn’t understand that Pompeo is a snake
Floated by whom? Paul Ryan? Why not just appoint Raffensbrrger?
The usual DC inside baseball ‘they/undisclosed sources’…. though Mick Mulvaney, who probably knows Trump’s thinking, was directly quoted by Sky News ‘Pompeo has inside track for Sec Def’.
Politico reported that Pompeo, Sen Cotton and Mike Rogers are the three names at top of the list for Sec Def quoting ‘sources inside Trump Camp’.
Grain of salt or not the fact that Trump didn’t immediately curb stomp the idea of Pompeo as Sec Def is troubling to me.
Trump is using his feminine Wiles.
Very clever!
Those wiles can be quite effective! I think Mrs. Wiles will be too.
Watch as he appoints women and other protected minorities. Also watch the left wingers say absolutely nothing about it. Or, saying,” that’s different!”
Now, the vile Dhimmi-crats will criticize the fact that Wiles isn’t a woman “of color.”
White’s a color. In fact, it’s all colors.
For those of us on the Light Side, anyway.
Slightly Off Topic but related
Why can’t Vice President JD Vance be “elected” the Majority Leader?
Majority Leader is a creation of and a rule of the Senate, so negating this rule is a Senate only function that the Supreme Court CANNOT review.
What “trumps” Senate Rules… the U.S. Constitution that makes the Vice President the President of the Senate.
Senate President >= Majority Leader.
Senate President = Speaker of the House
Now JD Vance can set the agenda of the Senate and can decide and schedule which Bills and Confirmations and Recesses the Senate will have.
Mim Moco
I’m not sure if I just don’t follow your argument, or you mistyped it.
Are you proposing that Vance be BOTH the Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader?
Has anyone told Mark Cuban yet?