With her selection as US President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming White House chief of staff, veteran Florida political strategist Susie Wiles moves from a largely behind-the-scenes role of campaign co-chair to the position of high profile closest advisor to the president. and advice.
He has been in political circles for years. But who is Wiles, the agent who will be the first woman to take on the powerful role of White House chief of staff?
He has decades of experience, most of it in Florida.
Wiles, the daughter of NFL player and sportscaster Pat Summerall, worked in the Washington office of New York Rep. Jack Kemp in the 1970s. This was followed by stints on Ronald Reagan’s campaign and in his White House as planner.
Wiles then headed to Florida, where he advised two Jacksonville mayors and worked for Rep. Tillie Fowler. After that came statewide campaigns in Florida’s turbulent politics, and Wiles is credited with helping businessman Rick Scott win the governorship.
After briefly managing Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman’s 2012 presidential campaign, he managed Trump’s 2016 campaign in Florida, when his victory in the state helped him clinch the White House.
She has a history with Ron DeSantis.
Two years later, Wiles helped get Ron DeSantis elected governor of Florida. But the two would develop a rift that eventually led DeSantis to urge Trump’s 2020 campaign to cut ties with the strategist, when she was again running the then-president’s state campaign.
Wiles ultimately led Trump’s primary campaign against DeSantis and defeated the Florida governor. Trump campaign aides and outside allies gleefully mocked DeSantis throughout the race, mocking his laugh, his eating, accusing him of wearing lifts on his boots, as well as using inside knowledge that many suspected came from Wiles and others in the Trump campaign. staff who had also worked for DeSantis and had bad experiences.
Wiles had published only three times in X this year at the time of his announcement. Shortly before DeSantis dropped out of the presidential race in January, Wiles made a rare appearance on social media. She responded to a message that DeSantis had cleared his campaign website of upcoming events with a brief but clear message: “Bye, bye.”
She avoids being the center of attention, most of the time.
Joining Trump’s third campaign in its nascent days, Wiles is one of the few top officials to survive an entire Trump campaign and was part of the team that put together a much more professional operation for his third White House bid. Even if the former president routinely broke those barriers anyway.
She largely avoided the spotlight, refusing to even take the microphone to speak as Trump celebrated his victory early Wednesday.
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But he showed that he did not hesitate to take on tasks reserved for volunteers. At one of Trump’s appearances in Iowa last July, as the former president posed for photos with a long line of voters, Wiles grabbed a clipboard and began approaching people waiting to fill out cards pledging to participate in the caucus. of Trump in the elections. initial primary contest.
“If we leave the conference room after a meeting and someone leaves trash on the table, Susie is the person who should pick up the trash and put it in the trash can,” said Chris LaCivita, who served as campaign co-chairman along with Wiles.
Another of her three posts on Following Wiles’ selection as White House chief of staff, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, a Trump supporter, joked to X that the president-elect had chosen a “strong, smart woman” as his chief of staff. .
He can control some of Trump’s worst impulses
Wiles was able to help control Trump’s worst impulses, not by berating him or lecturing him, but by earning his respect and showing him that he was better off following his advice than ignoring it. At one point in the campaign, when Trump gave a widely criticized speech in Pennsylvania in which he strayed from his talking points and suggested he wouldn’t mind if the media were shot, Wiles came out to watch him quietly.
Trump often referenced Wiles during the election campaign, publicly praising his leadership in what he said he was often told was his “best-run campaign.”
“She is incredible. Unbelievable,” he said at a rally in Milwaukee earlier this month.
Will it have staying power?
In his first administration, Trump went through four chiefs of staff, including one who served in an acting capacity for a year, in a period of unprecedented staff turnover.
A chief of staff acts as a confidant to the president, helping to execute an agenda and balancing competing policy and political priorities. They also tend to act as gatekeepers, helping determine who the president spends time with and talks to, an effort that irritated Trump inside the White House.
Trump has repeatedly said he believes the biggest mistake of his first term was hiring the wrong people. He was new to Washington then, he said, and didn’t know any better.
But now, Trump says, he knows the “best people” and who to avoid when looking for a job.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
