Trump appoints Susan Wiles as chief of staff; first woman in the position ever

WASHINGTON: US President-elect Donald Trump has appointed Susan Wiles, the Florida Republican strategist who led his successful 2024 election campaign, to be the White House chief of staff. Wiles will be the first woman in the position in the history of the American presidency.

Trump’s decision was greeted with cheer in his own ecosystem, and with relief even among critics who see in Wiles a possible moderating influence over the former president.

In a statement on Thursday, Trump said, “Susan Wiles just helped me achieve one of the greatest political victories in American history, and was an integral part of both my 2016 and 2020 successful campaigns. Susie is tough, smart, innovative, and is universally admired and respected. Susie will continue to work tirelessly to Make America Great Again. It is a well-deserved honour to have Susie as the first-ever female Chief of Staff in United States history. I have no doubt that she will make our country proud.”

Wiles, 67, is the daughter of a former American football star turned broadcaster, the late Pat Summerall. She made her name running some of the most successful political campaigns, including that of the state governor Ron DeSantis, in her home state of Florida.

Role and challenge

As chief of staff, Wiles will control access to the President, determine personnel appointments, shape policy, work with cabinet members, run interagency meetings, coordinate with governors, push priorities with Congressional leadership and legislators, process the information that gets to the President’s desk, manage crises, and be in the room during every critical decision. But, most importantly, the chief of staff is seen to speak for the President, and that will give Wiles unprecedented authority in the Trump administration.

But while that is usually the mandate of the chief of staff, Trump’s personality means that Wiles’s core job will also involve managing him and running the administration smoothly despite his chaotic managerial style. In his first term, Trump had four chiefs of staff in the span of four years.

Trump is reported to have developed a strong working relationship with Wiles, who ran his Florida operations in 2016 and 2020, and then took over the national campaign operations as he prepared for his third bid. As Trump’s unusually generous statement indicated, he has a high degree of respect for her abilities and judgment. According to books and reported pieces that extensively documented Trump’s years in Mar-a-Lago in the past few years, Wiles is among the few who is understood to be able to counsel him against particular decisions and actions that Trump may have instinctively veered towards but were counterproductive.

Wiles also walks into the job with high credibility after delivering the election win and that will give her authority over the various political factions that comprise Trump’s Make America Great Again movement, all of which will seek to influence and get the President’s ear.

But Wiles comes with almost no experience of Washington. While she started out as a scheduler in the Ronald Reagan campaign back in 1980, her political career has largely revolved around campaigns and Florida. How Wiles navigates DC and the task of governance will be keenly watched in the American capital.

Making history

The fact that Trump has appointed a woman as chief of staff is particularly symbolic given the strong debate around gender in this election.

His rival Kamala Harris’s supporters, including entrepreneur Mark Cuban, had said that Trump didn’t have strong women around him, to which Wiles, an otherwise infrequent social media presence, had posted on X that Cuban needed help identifying the strong and intelligent women surrounding Trump. “Well, here we are! I’ve been proud to lead this campaign,” Wiles said, also acknowledging the Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump and Trump transition policy chair Linda McMahon.

Her appointment was greeted with unanimous cheer in Trump’s ecosystem. Vice President-elect JD Vance said, “This is great news. Susie was a huge asset to President Trump on the campaign and will be a huge asset in the White House. She’s also just a really good person.” Elon Musk, expected to one of Trump’s top advisers in the new administration, said, “Susie Wiles is great.” Going across party lines, Jared Moskowitz, a Democratic representative in the House from Florida, posted on X, “I worked with Susie... She is brilliant, tough, strategic. She will serve the country well.”

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