White House chief of staff Susie Wiles revealed an "itch" that makes her no different from the rest of the self-promoters and cranks in President Donald Trump's orbit, a columnist observed.
The president's top staffer gave a series of shockingly revealing interviews to Vanity Fair's Chris Whipple, and New York Times writer Frank Bruni was fascinated by her motivations for dishing out gossip about Trump's "alcoholic’s personality" and dismissing Vice President JD Vance as “a conspiracy theorist.”
"Why did she do it? Why discard her usual discretion and speak so frankly, on the record, about her cracked compatriots in the Trump administration?" Bruni wrote. "It’s a great question, but it’s not the most important one, which is this: Why does she do it? I’m referring not to the interview but to her job. If she can see the incoherence, immoderation and instability all around her, why abet it?"
The answer to both questions is the same, in Bruni's estimation.
"The first year of Trump’s return to the White House has shown or reminded us of many things, including the fragility of democracy, the prevalence of cowardice and the intensity of tribalism," he wrote. "But it has been an especially stark and galling education in the intoxication of power."
"And Wiles is a more illuminating entry on that syllabus than other senior administration officials, who wear their vainglory so conspicuously it might as well be a sandwich board spelling out their attachment to their entourages, to their letterheads, to the pomp and the perks," Bruni added.
Unlike wildly unqualified administration officials like Pete Hegseth, Kash Patel or Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – whom she affectionately calls "my Bobby" – Wiles is a seasoned political pro who has preferred to work behind the scenes. But Bruni said her interviews betrayed that self-cultivated reputation.
"Wiles is certainly no Hegseth, showily doing push-ups with the troops; no Patel, with his premature expectorations; no Kristi Noem, zipping down to El Salvador for a macabre photo op," Bruni wrote. "But she’s also human, with an itch to make sure that her presence and her sway at the pinnacle of power don’t go unnoticed, unrecorded, underappreciated."
"Even someone like Wiles savors the air up there," the columnist added. "Even if it’s toxic with conspiracy theories and zealotry."