The White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles, on Tuesday, did the kind of thing that has tended to get Trump World people in trouble in the past: She spoke on the record to a media outlet, Vanity Fair, and said some things that the president might not like to hear.
It was doing exactly that, in Trump’s first term, that led to Steve Bannon’s departure from the White House. But as of now, the president is still standing by Wiles.
Per The New York Post, Trump is saying that he didn’t read the piece, but doesn’t appear to be angry at Wiles. He even agreed with Wiles’ observation that he has “an alcoholic’s personality.”
“No, she meant that I’m — you see, I don’t drink alcohol. 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,” Trump told the Post.
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“I’ve said that many times about myself. I’m fortunate I’m not a drinker. 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,” he added.
Trump stands by chief of staff Susie Wiles after bombshell Vanity Fair interviews — admits he has ‘alcoholic’s personality’ https://t.co/wfcJCdFQZK pic.twitter.com/1mbnYe3b3M
— New York Post (@nypost) December 16, 2025
“I didn’t read it, but I don’t read Vanity Fair — but she’s done a fantastic job,” Trump added. “I think from what I hear, the facts were wrong, and it was a very misguided interviewer, purposely misguided.”
The article published early this morning is 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…
— Susie Wiles (@SusieWiles) December 16, 2025
Wiles, earlier in the day, had denounced the article, for which she had contributed several on-the-record interviews over the course of the last year, as “a disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the finest President, White House staff, and Cabinet in history.” Wiles also denied a quote in which she referenced ketamine use by Elon Musk, although the reporter, Chris Whipple, played a tape, to the New York Times, of Wiles saying the quote.
Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.
