When Donald Trump takes office again in January, there will be a new figure in his inner circle worth watching. He announced on Thursday that Susie Wiles, the veteran political strategist who helped run his 2024 presidential campaign, will be his next White House chief of staff. The 67-year-old is the first woman to be tapped for the role in U.S. history.
“Susie is tough, smart, innovative, and is universally admired and respected,” Trump said in a statement. “Susie will continue to work tirelessly to make America great again.”
Wiles was born in New Jersey and is the daughter of famed broadcaster Pat Summerall. She’s a longtime Republican operative and lobbyist whose first campaign role was during Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential bid. Over the past 15 years, she’s helped remake Florida politics. She was instrumental in now-Senator Rick Scott winning the 2010 governor’s race despite having little political experience. She also co-chaired Trump’s Florida campaign in the 2016 presidential election, helping him defeat Hillary Clinton in the state, and helped save now-Governor Ron DeSantis’s floundering 2018 campaign. (The two later had a falling out.)
After his loss in the 2020 election, Trump hired Wiles to manage his next presidential campaign. Political observers credit her with helping professionalize what was an extremely chaotic campaign operation, navigating Trump’s whims, and helping to rein in some of his worst impulses. (Though not all of them, clearly.) She’s part of the president-elect’s inner circle, with media reports saying that even Trump’s family members have come to trust her. Wiles “just has a master ability to manage multiple things of significance simultaneously,” her co–campaign manager, Chris LaCivita, told Politico, “which makes her, from a management standpoint, the perfect pick.”
The White House chief of staff is often described as the second most powerful person in Washington. Their job is to drive the president’s agenda and act as a gatekeeper. During Trump’s first administration, he cycled through four of them: Reince Priebus, John Kelly, Mick Mulvaney, and Mark Meadows. Kelly — who recently said Trump fits “into the general definition of fascist” — has described being chief of staff as “the least enjoyable job” he’s ever had.
While advising Trump’s Florida campaign in 2016, Wiles brushed off the candidate’s penchant for chaos, his inflammatory rhetoric, and the sexual-misconduct allegations against him. “I’m committed to change, and fundamentally that’s why I’m here,” she told the Tampa Bay Times at the time. “I will tell you this: The Donald Trump that I have come to know does not behave that way, and the lens that I look at him through, I don’t see any of that. I see strengths, I see smarts, I see a work ethic that is unparalleled.”
Come January, Wiles will get to work helping Trump impose his extreme agenda. During his victory speech early Wednesday morning, the president-elect praised Wiles and alluded to the ruthlessness we can expect from her on the job. “Susie likes to stay sort of in the back, let me tell you,” he said. “The ‘Ice Maiden,’ we call her the Ice Maiden.”
