Trump names 'Republican kingmaker' Susie Wiles as White House Chief of Staff

Just two days after winning the 2024 US presidential election, President-elect Donald Trump appointed campaign manager Susie Wiles as the new White House chief of staff on Thursday. With the announcement, Wiles will become the first woman to serve the post.

“Susie Wiles just helped me achieve one of the greatest political victories in American history, and was an integral part of both my 2016 and 2020 successful campaigns,” Trump said in a statement. The Florida native is Trump’s first key White House appointment as the Republican firebrand gears up to assemble his team.

“Susie is tough, smart, innovative and is universally admired and respected," he added. The 67-year-old was at the helm of Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign and is touted as the most respectable operative in Republican politics.

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Before joining Trump’s campaign, Wiles worked as his state director in Florida during his 2016 and 2020 bids for the office. In the past, Wiles has also helped Florida Senator Rick Scott to win the state governor race in 2020. While the Trump administration was struggling during the midterms, Wiles was brought in to help save the 2018 campaign of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who won that race after initially floundering.

After Trump’s thunderous victory over US Vice President Kamala Harris in the November 5 polls, Wiles was considered to be the frontrunner to be the White House chief of staff. “If she wants it, it’s hers,” a Trump adviser told NBC News just hours before Trump made the announcement. “Her standing with Trump and what she just pulled off [winning by a huge margin], makes it an easy choice if she wants it," the adviser furthered.

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Wiles started her career in Republican politics back in the 1970s. She was assistant to Jack Kemp in the House in 1979, and served as a personal secretary to former Labor Secretary Raymond Donovan during the Reagan administration. She has also served as a top staffer to Republican mayors John Delaney and John Peyton.

‘I don’t curse. I’m polite’: The woman behind Trump’s rise to glory

Wiles entered the orbit of the president-elect ahead of the 2016 US presidential election when Trump was looking for someone to help him navigate through Florida, which was a purple state at that time. “I’m told you know something about Florida,” Trump told Wiles when they first spoke on the phone, NBC News. 

Interestingly, Wiles has also worked in the private sector for the lobbying firm Ballard Partners, and Mercury, a public affairs firm. She remained with Mercury throughout the 2024 presidential contest. While Wiles is yet to respond to her appointment, she is known to be a polite operative.

In a rare interview with Politico, published in April, Wiles explained how she came “from a very traditional background”. “In my early career things like manners mattered and there was an expected level of decorum. And so I get it that the GOP of today is different,"
she recalled.

“There are changes we must live with in order to get done the things we’re trying to do. I haven’t, and likely won’t, fully adapt. I don’t curse. I’m polite. It’s not who I am. But people either know that I’m a solid person, and I hope many do, or they don’t and judge me by my work for President Trump,” she added.

She took offence when she was asked what she would say to someone who likened her role as a senior aide to Donald Trump to one of “history’s most notorious aiders and abettors”.

“I would turn my back and walk away. I wouldn’t answer it. Because it’s vile. It doesn’t deserve a response. They don’t know the inner workings of Trump world. They don’t know. And so they don’t have a right to judge in that way, in my opinion, and I’m not going to dignify it. I’m not," she averred.

With inputs from agencies.