Members of President Donald Trump’s inner circle are frantically angling to succeed White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, believing she might step down or be forced out after the midterms, according to a report from The Washington Post.
A belief exists that Wiles is on the outs with the president because she has butted heads with him on policy and personnel decisions which has created a race for power inside Trump's inner circle.
White House aides who "kept clashes muted" through Trump’s second term have begun "jostling more openly for power" as they brace for widespread midterm losses and internal upheaval, the Post reported, citing interviews with 20 staffers, advisers and people close to the president.
A handful of aides, including Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, top housing official Bill Pulte and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, have begun angling for the job should it become available, the paper said. The past week in the White House has been “the new Wild Wild West,” one Trump ally told the Post.
Wiles has given no indication to aides or allies that she plans to leave, the Post reported. It noted that high-level White House staffers "frequently cycle out after 18 months to two years," and that Trump had four chiefs of staff, including an acting one, during his first term.
The jockeying started in earnest last week, the Post said, after Trump first "reached out to Katie Zacharia about becoming press secretary without consulting Wiles," according to four people familiar with the decision. The move was viewed internally as undermining Wiles and creating the impression of an unsettled center of power in the West Wing. The Daily Mail and Daily Beast reported that Wiles preferred CNN commentator Scott Jennings for the job.
Trump has also told allies he is frustrated that "no one is publicly defending him as vociferously as he would like 18 days before the midterms," the Post reported. He has been calling friends, aides and outside advisers because he appears worried "information is not reaching him," according to an adviser who received one of the calls. He has also vented about the midterms and his two outside political strategists, James Blair and Chris LaCivita, who are close allies of Wiles.
Politico Playbook reported Thursday that Trump has been asking allies about replacing Wiles. Trump called the report “TOTAL FAKE NEWS” and said in a statement: “Susie Wiles is my loyal and longest serving Chief of Staff — there is a reason for that.”
Many Trump aides and allies believe they will lose the House, the Post reported, though the margin is unclear. Advisers and strategists describe the Senate as a 50-50 proposition despite heavy spending by MAGA Inc. and the Senate Leadership Fund, and acknowledge that typically red states, including Kansas and Texas, are in play.