The Memo: Susie Wiles faces big challenges as Trump’s first chief of staff

The second Trump administration is beginning to populate, with the president-elect appointing a border czar, nominating an ambassador to the United Nations and choosing a leader of the Environmental Protection Agency.

But the most important appointment President-elect Trump has made so far is his first — Susie Wiles as his White House chief of staff.

Wiles is a Florida-based strategist who served as Trump’s campaign manager. In his victory speech last week, Trump expressed his “tremendous appreciation” for the job Wiles and fellow campaign leader Chris LaCivita had done.

Wiles is less prone to seek the spotlight than many other people in Trump’s orbit. 

“Susie likes to stay sort of in the back. … We call her the ice baby,” he said.

Wiles, the first woman to hold the job, will need all of her calm and discipline to succeed.

During Trump’s first term, he went through four chiefs of staff: Reince Priebus, John Kelly, Mick Mulvaney and Mark Meadows.

Here are the main challenges Wiles is likely to face.

Managing up, managing Trump

One of the key jobs for any chief of staff is to maintain the trust of the president.

That was a particular problem in the first Trump administration, at least as far as Priebus and Kelly were concerned.

Trump often seemed to bridle against Priebus, whom his closer MAGA allies viewed as an unwelcome emissary from the GOP establishment.

When Kelly, a retired Marines Corps general, took over, he sought to impose greater discipline on a chaotic White House. But the rigidity of that approach seemed to frustrate Trump in the end.

Mulvaney, who served 14 months as Trump’s acting chief of staff, told this column he believes Wiles could fare better. 

She “has the exact sort of skill set that you need to be successful. I think she is well suited to being a really good chief of staff,” he said.

Mulvaney added, “She seems to have Trump’s trust — and other people’s respect when it comes to representing Trump.”

Preventing leaks

The first Trump White House was fractious in every respect. But the preponderance of leaking was one big example. 

The MAGA loyalists suspected that Trump’s agenda was being undermined by leaks from within the national security and foreign policy establishment, in particular. But they themselves would also leak to advance themselves or hurt rivals within Trump’s court.

No White House is ever leak-proof.

But admirers of Wiles note the Trump 2024 campaign was run as a much tighter ship than his 2016 renegade effort.

The hope among Republicans is that this approach can carry over into the White House now that she is at the helm.

They also contend that Wiles’s relative aversion to the spotlight may help.

“She is stealthy and powerful — and those are the most valued and useful people,” said Brad Blakeman, who served on the senior staff in former President George W. Bush’s White House.

“She has already run a campaign that was flawless, that was leak-proof and that was strategic.”

There’s also one more positive indicator on the leak question.

Wiles first came to national prominence as a key aide to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). 

But the two became estranged, apparently after DeSantis accused Wiles of leaking to the press. 

She is said to have been so outraged by the suggestion that it effectively helped end their professional relationship.

Cutting out the backstabbing

The leakiness of the Trump first-term White House was only the most obvious manifestation of an administration in which factionalism and personal rivalries ran rampant.

But Wiles might have one big advantage, insiders say. As the first chief of staff of Trump’s second term, she can create her own team. 

“The most important thing about her appointment is that it was the first job,” said Mulvaney. “Trump trusted her to put together the team in the West Wing. It will not be a team that she inherits. She will be involved in building that team from the ground up.”

Doug Heye, a former communications director of the Republican National Committee, noted that Wiles’s familiarity with Trump is also an advantage in this regard.

“Critically, Trump trusts her,” Heye said. “Everyone Trump initially hired at the White House at the 2016 campaign was essentially new to him.”

Priebus, Trump’s first chief of staff, seemed to be alluding to these dynamics in a recent interview with The Washington Post.

“Susie is in a much different place than I was,” Priebus told the Post. “She isn’t sharing power with anyone.”

Dealing with Capitol Hill

Trump will of course have a legislative affairs staff in due course.

He looks likely to have a unified GOP government, too, with a Republican Senate majority already assured and likely a House majority as well.

But the House majority will be tiny, which could prove difficult.

According to Mulvaney, it can also cause difficulties from a chief of staff’s perspective, especially with a president as freewheeling as Trump.

“If I was concerned about one thing it would be this — she is going to have to be able to establish that she speaks for the president, otherwise she won’t have any credibility on the Hill,” he said.

Mulvaney added that, in his time in the White House, he saw various members of the administration tell members of Congress Trump’s position on an issue — only for the then-president to publicly go in a different direction.

“When that happens, the leadership on the Hill then talks directly to the president — and that can get cumbersome,” he said.

The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage.