President Donald Trump is standing behind White House chief of staff Susie Wiles after an interview in which she voiced unguarded views on him and his administration was released.
Trump was one of the targets of the interview with Vanity Fair, in which Wiles described the teetotaling president as having an “alcoholic’s personality.” Speaking with the New York Post on Tuesday, Trump said he wasn’t offended by the remarks, even agreeing with her.
“No, she meant that I’m — you see, I don’t drink alcohol,” Trump said. “So everybody knows that — but I’ve often said that if I did, I’d have a very good chance of being an alcoholic. I have said that many times about myself, I do. It’s a very possessive personality.”
“I’ve said that many times about myself. I’m fortunate I’m not a drinker,” he added. “If I did, I could very well, because I’ve said that — what’s the word? Not possessive — possessive and addictive type personality. Oh, I’ve said it many times, many times before.”
The president said that he hadn’t read the interview but stressed that Wiles has done a “fantastic job” in her position. He also suggested the interviewer could have been deceptive.
“I think from what I hear, the facts were wrong, and it was a very misguided interviewer, purposely misguided,” he said, going on to bash the magazine’s credibility.
Wiles made the description of Trump in a wider description on her style of management, saying she was “a little bit of an expert in big personalities.” Other targets of blunt assessments from Wiles included Vice President JD Vance, whom she described as “a conspiracy theorist for a decade,” and key Trump ally Elon Musk, who she said was addicted to ketamine.
After the initial shock of the interview, Trump’s Cabinet was quick to rally around her. Vance led the defense, also agreeing with her assessment. “Sometimes I am a conspiracy theorist, but I only believe in the conspiracy theories that are true,” he said. “And by the way, Susie and I have joked in private and in public about that for a long time.”
“Susie Wiles — we have our disagreements,” Vance added. “We agree on much more than we disagree, but I’ve never seen her be disloyal to the president of the United States, and that makes her the best White House chief of staff that I think the president could ask for.”
Wiles herself bashed the article, calling it a “disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the finest President, White House staff, and Cabinet in history.”
“Significant context was disregarded and much of what I, and others, said about the team and the President was left out of the story,” she said. “I assume, after reading it, that this was done to paint an overwhelmingly chaotic and negative narrative about the President and our team.”
