With a shake-up expected at Donald Trump’s White House, chief of staff Susie Wiles is reportedly making sure she will still be standing when others are gone.
As Republicans search for someone to blame for losing Congress, the Daily Mail reported, people close to Wiles have been working to point fingers in every direction except hers.
Their targets are some of the biggest names in Trump’s orbit. Wiles’ allies have been "briefing" against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who pushed hardest for the Iran war, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whose department shares the blame for peace talks with Tehran that went nowhere.
The strategy has a built-in twist. Rubio wasn’t actually running those negotiations. Trump gave that job to Vice President JD Vance, who traveled to Islamabad and Geneva with special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
That means any attack on Rubio over Iran is likely to bounce back onto Vance, according to the report.
“It sets up a situation in which Rubio or his allies will say, well no, Mr President, you had JD negotiate in Iran not me,” one White House official told the Daily Mail. “And that then sets up Vance and Rubio on a collision course.”
Vance and Rubio are considered the front-runners for the 2028 GOP nomination. Getting them to blame each other for the war, according to a senior Trump official, is precisely what the Wiles camp wants.
“Susie is looking to protect herself but ultimately she’s also trying to protect the boss,” the official said. “Shifting the blame to Hegseth, putting Rubio in the firing line, and giving JD a headache guarantees her survival post-midterm but also protects Trump’s legacy.”