President-elect Donald Trump tapped Susie Wiles, his reelection campaign co-chair, as White House chief of staff Thursday as his transition team prepares to launch the second Trump administration. Wiles will be the first woman in history to hold that role.
“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 public statement.
“Susie is tough, smart, innovative, and is universally admired and respected,” the president-elect added. “Susie will continue to work tirelessly to Make America Great Again. It is a well-deserved honor to have Susie as the first-ever female chief of staff in United States history. I have no doubt that she will make our country proud.”
Susan Summerall Wiles, daughter of NFL kicker and legendary sportscaster Pat Summerall, graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park.
She began her career in politics working for Rep. Jack Kemp, one of her father’s teammates on the New York Giants. She worked on Ronald Reagan’s 1980 campaign before becoming chief of staff to John Delaney, who served as mayor of Jacksonville, Florida, in the 1990s. She advised another mayor of Jacksonville, John Peyton, in the 2000s.
She advised Rick Scott’s successful 2010 Florida gubernatorial campaign and was campaign manager for Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.’s unsuccessful presidential run in 2011.
Wiles ran the lobbying firm Ballard Partners, based in Tallahassee, Florida, for nearly a decade.
She ran the 2016 Trump campaign’s operations in Florida. Trump reportedly sent her to advise Ron DeSantis’ successful 2018 gubernatorial campaign in the Sunshine State. In his victory speech, DeSantis described her as “best in the business.”
Yet in 2019, DeSantis dismissed her from her role as a top adviser. She later described working for DeSantis as the “biggest mistake” of her career.
Wiles became CEO of Trump’s Save America PAC in March 2021. Politics writer Myra Adams described her as Trump’s effective “chief of staff” as he made endorsements in the 2022 midterm elections.
Although she typically stays in the background, Wiles wrote on X in defending Trump against billionaire Mark Cuban’s claim that Trump doesn’t surround himself with “strong, intelligent women.”
“I’m told [Mark Cuban] needs help identifying the strong and intelligent women surrounding Pres. Trump,” she posted. “Well, here we are!”
[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]
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