Trump's new chief of staff is not John Kelly – Mother Jones

Susie Wiles with Donald Trump at an election night party on November 6, 2024. Alex BrandonAP

Donald Trump announced On Thursday, Susie Wiles, who as his de facto campaign manager is responsible for enforcing a level of discipline that helped him win on Tuesday, will serve as his chief of staff.

Wiles has earned a reputation as a smart, pragmatic and effective campaign worker. For critics of Trump's plan — which includes deporting millions of immigrants, imposing tariffs that could increase inflation, firing scores of officials and using the Justice Department to prosecute critics — her appointment is bad news.

“Susie is tough, smart, innovative and widely admired and respected,” Trump said in a statement Thursday. “Susie will continue to work tirelessly to Make America Great Again.”

Wiles will not be John Kelly, who not only called Trump a fascist but also suggested that as Trump's chief of staff from 2017 to 2019, he worked to stop Trump from giving in to his worst instincts.

Wiles won't go to the White House to stop Trump from implementing his plans – she will be there to help him implement them more effectively. Wiles could be a reason why Trump, who was a bumbling, would-be authoritarian in his first term, will be a more effective one in his second.

Wiles also likely won't go too far in stopping Trump from pursuing some of his worst impulses.

As Tim Alberta recently reported in the AtlanticWiles has occasionally been willing to push back on Trump's bad ideas, but not too often. Here, Alberta describes how Wiles handled Trump's insistence on allowing far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer to travel with Trump in September. That decision made embarrassing headlines when Loomer, who claimed the 9/11 attack was an “inside job,” joined Trump at a 9/11 commemoration event.

“Wiles knew nothing good could come of it. Still, after another round of gentle resistance, she gave in. (Even people like Wiles, who have a track record of talking Trump out of certain reckless ideas, are learning that you can't keep a seat at the table if you tell the man “no” one too many times.) Wiles decided to let Loomer in The journey was not a hill to die on. Maybe, she later remarked to friends, it should have been that way.”

Wiles, the daughter of late NFL broadcaster Pat Summerall, is a longtime GOP operative in Florida and has worked for wealthy candidates in the past. She managed Senator Rick Scott's campaign for governor in Florida in 2010, worked as former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman's presidential campaign manager in 2012, and managed Trump's campaign in Florida in 2016 and 2020. She also worked for Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis before an argument broke out with him.

Wiles also worked as a lobbyist and held a senior lobbying position at the Republican-leaning advocacy group Mercury Public Affairs during the campaign, the newspaper said New York Times. Just this year she was registered as a lobbyist for a tobacco company.

Wiles also worked as a lobbyist from 2017 to 2019 for Ballard Partners, a former Florida-based firm that built a thriving Washington, D.C. practice after Trump's election in 2016 — based in part on perceived access to him.

While Wiles worked there, the firm acquired a diverse list of clients, including a Russian billionaire, a company run by a man with ties to Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, and a solar company controlled by a Chinese state-owned company. Wiles was not a registered lobbyist for all of these clients. However, she signed up to represent a variety of companies, including General Motors and the Motion Picture Association of America.

Wiles also became involved on behalf of Globovisión, a Venezuelan company that wanted to expand into U.S. markets. That plan stalled in 2018 when the Justice Department indicted its founder, Raul Gorrin, on corruption charges. Ballard said it cut ties with the company after learning of the federal investigation. Last month, the Justice Department re-indicted Gorrin, alleging he helped “launder funds he corruptly obtained from Venezuela's state-owned and state-controlled energy company… in exchange for hundreds of millions in bribe payments to Venezuelan officials.”

A Trump spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Wiles' lobbying efforts.