Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles described the president as having an ‘alcoholic’s personality’ in a Vanity Fair interview, which Trump said he agreed with.
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said he stood by his chief of staff Susie Wiles after she described him as having an “alcoholic’s personality” in a Vanity Fair interview.
Wiles also called Vice President JD Vance a “conspiracy theorist” and labelled tech billionaire Elon Musk an “odd, odd duck” in the lengthy profile.
Trump told the New York Post that Wiles was right in her characterisation, despite being teetotal himself.
“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,” Trump said.
He added that Wiles had “done a fantastic job” as his chief of staff.
Wiles dismissed the Vanity Fair article as a “disingenuously framed hit piece” in a statement.
“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 wrote.
The magazine quoted Wiles as saying Trump “operates (with) a view that there’s nothing he can’t do.”
She was critical of Musk’s role leading the Department of Government Efficiency, calling him a “complete solo actor.”
Wiles also said Vance had been “a conspiracy theorist for a decade” regarding the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.
Several top Trump administration officials defended Wiles following the publication.
Vance said in a speech that he and Wiles had “joked in private and in public” about conspiracy theories.
“We have our disagreements, we agree on much more than we disagree, but I’ve never seen her be disloyal to the president of the United States,” Vance said.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on social media platform X that there was “absolutely nobody better” than Wiles.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Wiles was “incredible” and accused Vanity Fair of “bias of omission.” – AFP
