Donald Trump reportedly screamed at Susie Wiles during an Oval Office meeting on Thursday, after Republicans lost both chambers of Congress. She resigned as White House chief of staff hours later, and a new report says she had been planning a Camp David gathering meant to keep herself in power.
Four sources familiar with the argument told the Daily Mail that Trump turned on Wiles, 69, in front of other aides and berated her over the GOP’s midterm losses. Wiles walked out of the room while the president was still shouting, the outlet reported.
“He exploded at her,” a source close to the president told the Daily Mail.
A White House source said Trump yelled at Wiles about the losses until she left. Two other sources told the outlet he threw her out of the meeting.
“He told her to leave,” another source said.
Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino was in the room. So was Morgan DeWitt-Snow, a close Wiles ally who runs the White House personnel office. According to the report, DeWitt-Snow came out “visibly rattled” and went to sit with Wiles elsewhere in the West Wing instead of returning to her desk.
A White House official denied that Trump raised his voice, telling the Daily Mail: “He would never yell at Susie.”
A fourth source said Wiles had been warned she was about to be fired. She went to see Trump on Thursday night and quit before he could do it. According to a White House official, Trump didn’t accept her resignation on the spot and told her they would talk about it later. On Friday morning, Wiles went back to the Oval Office and told him it had to be done.
Two sources told the outlet that Wiles asked to stay on through a transition running until February. Trump said no, and Friday was her last day.
“She’s tired,” the White House official said. “She didn’t want to keep fighting.”
A source close to the president called that “a bald-faced lie.” As proof, the source pointed to the weekend schedule: Wiles had booked a Camp David offsite for Saturday, when Trump would be in Florida, and invited White House officials and aides loyal to her. Two sources told the Daily Mail the purpose was to work out how she could survive the week and stay in power. The trip was delayed and has now been canceled.
Wiles’s allies also spent the days after the election trying to make Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth the public face of the GOP’s losses, three sources told the outlet. They blamed his role in leading the Iran war, which has driven up the cost of living.
“Susie was trying to push out Pete,” a senior Pentagon official said.
According to a source close to the president, close advisers told Trump more than once that Wiles’s team was leaking to the press about Hegseth to take attention off her.
“I think eventually enough people talked to him that he got very upset,” the source said.
Critics also pointed to money. A senior administration official told the Daily Mail that Wiles ran a political operation that spent close to half a billion dollars and still lost both chambers. Another source said that as recently as six weeks before the election, she was telling people directly that Republicans would win.
The report also says Wiles had argued internally for a narrower deportation policy that would limit removals to people convicted of or wanted for violent crimes. She told colleagues the mass deportation campaign was costing Republicans votes. Her replacement, Stephen Miller, is the architect of that campaign.
Before choosing Miller, Trump weighed Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and Bill Pulte for the job, according to the outlet. Ambassador to India Sergio Gor also made clear he was available. Trump ultimately picked Miller, his longest-serving aide, because Miller vowed to help bring an end to the Iran war, the Daily Mail reported.
Trump announced the change on Truth Social on Friday. He wrote that Wiles “has done an outstanding job” and will be “moving over to the Trump Political Operation.” Miller takes over on Monday.
When Trump boarded Marine One for Florida on Friday, Miller, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and aide Natalie Harp went with him. Wiles did not.
