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Trump's Chief of Staff: He Has an Alcoholic Personality

Donald Trump has "an alcoholic personality" and Vice President JD Vance has been a conspiracy theorist for decades. This is according to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles in a series of interviews with author Chris Whipple, published in Vanity Fair on Tuesday.

Wiles says that Trump, who is a teetotaler, sees no limits at all to what he can accomplish.

- High-functioning alcoholics, or alcoholics in general, have their personalities strengthened when they drink.

The interviews were conducted over the past year and the statements are described as extremely unusual for coming from Wiles - one of Trump's closest associates. After publication, she is very critical of the magazine and believes that the quotes were taken out of context.

“The article that was published this morning is a slanted smear against me and the best president,” she writes in a post on X. 

Analysis: What’s interesting is what Wiles says about the rest

That White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles says that Donald Trump has an “alcoholic personality” is not the most interesting thing about the Vanity Fair article, writes CNN’s Aaron Blake. He thinks it’s more interesting that she’s coming down hard on other powerful people in the president’s administration.

Wiles says, among other things, that Attorney General Pam Bondi “completely failed” in her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein documents and suggests that the chaos surrounding the Department of Efficiency can be linked to Elon Musk – an “admitted ketamine user.”

“It’s undeniably the type of quote that can create a bad atmosphere internally,” writes Blake.

DN’s Björn Af Kleen writes that Wiles has stayed out of the spotlight and barely uttered a single public word during Trump’s second term, and that she does so outspokenly now that she does open her mouth.

“Is she trying to push herself out of the Oval Office?” he asks, but at the same time notes that she generally portrays the administration in a favorable light.

The statements will not change the fact that Wiles has a strong position with Donald Trump, writes Axios’ Zachary Basu.

“If anything, the interviews reveal the key to her success: she is not a brake put in place to influence or hold back Trump, but an ‘enabler’ of the president’s vision.”