Susie Wiles, White House chief of staff, criticizes Bondi and opines on Trump in Vanity Fair

WASHINGTON AP Susie Wiles President Donald Trump s understated but influential chief of staff criticized Attorney General Pam Bondi s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein episode and broadly defended the president s aggressive second administration in a series of interviews published Tuesday in Vanity Fair Wiles recounted the magazine in a wide-ranging revealing series of conversations that she underestimated the embarrassment involving Epstein the disgraced financier but sharply criticized how Bondi managed the scenario and the populace s expectations After the story was published Wiles disparaged it as a disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the finest President White House staff and Cabinet in history Notable context was disregarded and much of what I and others mentioned about the organization and the President was left out of the story she wrote in a social media post I assume after reading it that this was done to paint an overwhelmingly chaotic and negative narrative about the President and our company Wiles did not deny the comments that were attributed to her In her rebuttal Wiles argued that Trump had accomplished more in months than any president had in eight years because of his unmatched leadership and vision None of this will stop our relentless pursuit of Making America Great Again she mentioned Press secretary Karoline Leavitt also rose to Wiles defense writing on the X platform that President Trump has no greater or more loyal advisor than Susie The entire Administration is grateful for her steady leadership and united fully behind her In the interview Wiles announced Trump wants to keep bombing alleged drug boats in the waters off the coast of Venezuela until that country s leader Nicolas Maduro cries uncle And at one point declared she and Trump had a loose agreement that his retribution campaign would end before the first days of his second term but it continues well beyond the three-month mark Trump tapped Wiles after she managed his winning campaign She is the first woman to ever serve as White House chief of staff and is known for shunning the spotlight It is rare for her to speak as extensively and openly as she did about the president to the magazine which published its lengthy interview with her and other members of the White House staff and the Cabinet Wiles has been speaking to Vanity Fair since just before Trump took office last January Required about Epstein Wiles reported hadn t really paid attention to whether all these rich essential men went to that nasty island and did unforgivable things to young girls She noted she has read the Epstein file and that Trump is not in the file doing anything awful He and Epstein were friends before they had a falling out The Justice Department is facing a Friday deadline to release everything it has on Epstein after Trump after objecting to the release signed regulation requiring that the papers be made populace Wiles criticized Bondi s handling of the episode going back to earlier in the year when she distributed binders to a group of social media influencers that included no new information about Epstein That led to even more calls from Trump s base for the files to be disclosed I think she absolutely whiffed on appreciating that that was the very targeted group that cared about this Wiles revealed of Bondi First she gave them binders full of nothingness And then she stated that the witness list or the client list was on her desk There is no client list and it sure as hell wasn t on her desk Wiles over the series of interviews described the president behind the scenes very much as he presents himself in population an intense figure who thinks in broad strokes yet is often not concerned with the details of process and guidelines She added though that he has not been as angry or temperamental as is often suggested even as she affirmed his ruthlessness and determination to achieve retribution against those he considers his political enemies Trump she explained has an alcoholic s personality even though the president does not drink But the personality trait is something she recognizes from her father the famous sports broadcaster Pat Summerall High-functioning alcoholics or alcoholics in general their personalities are exaggerated when they drink And so I m a little bit of an expert in big personalities she mentioned adding that Trump has a view that there s nothing he can t do Nothing zero nothing On Venezuela Wiles mentioned Trump wants to keep the pressure on Maduro He wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle And people way smarter than me on that say that he will Her comment though seemed to contradict the administration s position that the strikes are about stopping drugs and saving American lives not regime change She stated the administration is very sure we know who we re blowing up The continued strikes and mounting death toll have drawn scrutiny from Congress which has pushed back and opened investigations Wiles described much of her job as channeling Trump s power whims and desired guidelines outcomes including managing his desire for vengeance against his political opponents anyone he blames for his electoral defeat and those who pursued criminal cases against him after his first term We have a loose agreement that the points settling will end before the first days are over Wiles stated early in his administration telling Vanity Fair that she does try to tamp down Trump s penchant for retribution Later in she pushed back I don t think he s on a retribution tour she stated arguing he was operating on a different principle I don t want what happened to me to happen to somebody else And so people that have done bad things need to get out of the executive In a few cases it may look like retribution And there may be an element of that from time to time Who would blame him Not me Appealed about the prosecution of New York Attorney General Letitia James for mortgage fraud Wiles allowed Well that might be the one retribution