Published8. November 2024, 2:41 p.m
New Chief of Staff: Most Powerful Woman in Washington – and the World? This is Susie Wiles
Just two days after his election victory, Donald Trump announced his first personal details. His long-time campaign strategist Susie Wiles will become chief of staff in the White House in January – the first woman ever.
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Christina Pirskanen
Susie Wiles will soon become the most powerful woman in Washington. Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he was making Wiles his White House chief of staff. She will be the first woman to ever hold this position. But who is the 67-year-old?
Profile: This is Susie Wiles
IMAGO/USA TODAY Network
Name: Susan Summerall Wiles
Place of birth: New Jersey, USA
Political party: republican
Family: two children – Caroline Wiles and Katie Wiles
Nicknames: Ice maiden, ice baby
A veteran of Florida politics, Wiles rose from being Donald Trump’s 2016 Florida campaign manager to senior adviser to his 2024 candidacy. She is considered the architect of the Trump comeback, which helped him win in a landslide in the electoral vote and probably also in the national vote. In a statement, the 47th US president said Wiles was “tough, smart, innovative and admired and respected by all.”
Wiles was a campaign planner for former US President Ronald Reagan (1981-1989) and worked in his Labor Department. In 1988, she also served as deputy vice presidential campaign manager for the George HW Bush-Dan Quayle ticket. Since then, she has worked for numerous other Republican mayors, governors and members of Congress.
In 2018, she supported then-Florida Congressman Ron DeSantis in his struggling gubernatorial campaign. He won – later there was a break. DeSantis called on the Trump team to fire Wiles from his 2020 campaign. But Wiles didn’t let that go: She used her knowledge of DeSantis to pick him apart when he ran against Donald Trump. When he had to end his presidential candidacy, Wiles spoke up on X. Only “Bye Bye” was written in the now deleted post.
Private life away from the spotlight
Wiles is one of three children of the well-known American football player and commentator Pat Summerall. She attended the University of Maryland and received a Bachelor of Arts there. In 1985, she married Lenny Wiles, a Republican political consultant. Together they have two daughters, Caroline and Katie. The couple divorced in 2017.
Little else is known about the successful campaign manager – she rarely gives interviews and tends to avoid public appearances. Even when Donald Trump asked her to speak on stage as an “ice cream girl” after his election victory, she was only hesitantly lured out from behind the group of people – before she scurried back into the background after a few seconds. According to the Berlin morning post She spends her free time bird watching and baking cakes for her eight-year-old grandson.
Did she sneak her daughter into the White House?
After Donald Trump took office in 2017, Wile’s daughter Caroline was hired by the White House as deputy assistant to the president and head of planning. The Washington Post then published an article about her having an incomplete degree from Flagler College and raised questions about her “unusual background for a senior White House official.”
Further investigation revealed that Caroline Wiles had been in legal trouble for two drunk driving cases in 2005 and 2007. She ultimately left the White House in February 2017 after failing an FBI background check. In 2024, Caroline Wiles was back on Team Trump – with $222,000 as the fourth highest paid employee (as of June) of this year’s Trump campaign.
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