#susie-wiles
4 entries with this tag
Three Days After the Midterm Rout, Trump Pushed Out Chief of Staff Susie Wiles — Reportedly Blaming Her for the Party's Losses in Front of Others — and Handed the Most Powerful Staff Job in the White House to Stephen Miller, the Hardline Architect of the Administration's Most Extreme Policies; Rather Than Course-Correct After a Historic Rebuke, Trump Scapegoated His Aide and Doubled Down on His Most Divisive Adviser
On November 6, 2026 — three days after voters flipped both chambers of Congress against him — Trump announced that Susie Wiles was out as White House chief of staff and would be replaced, effective November 9, by Stephen Miller, until then the deputy chief of staff for policy and the homeland-security adviser, and the figure most associated with the administration's hardest-line immigration and executive-power policies. Accounts of the exit differ: Axios reported Wiles submitted her resignation; others, citing CNN, said she resigned after watching Trump lose confidence in her; the Washington Post flatly described Trump as having removed her. The New York Times reported that Trump had blamed Wiles for the party's midterm losses in front of other people. Whichever framing is right, the through-line is the same, and it is a failure of character and of judgment rolled into one. Handed a historic repudiation at the ballot box, a leader capable of self-correction asks what he got wrong. Trump instead faulted his chief of staff — the latest in a series of women pushed out of top roles in his administration — and elevated, to the single most powerful position in the building, the adviser most responsible for the very agenda the voters had just rejected. It was the opposite of a course correction. It was a doubling-down, with a scapegoat.
The White House Counsel Sent Politico a Letter Giving It 48 Hours to Retract Three Stories About Chief of Staff Susie Wiles or Face an "Immediate Review" of Its White House Access and "Available Legal Remedies" — While the Administration Floated Moving the Entire Press Corps Out of the Building and Restoring the Briefing Room to Its Old Use as a Swimming Pool; Politico Corrected the One Error It Found and Refused the Rest
In late October 2026, the Trump White House escalated its campaign against the press from exclusion to coercion. On October 19, White House Counsel Will Scharf wrote to Politico's global editor-in-chief, Jonathan Greenberger, demanding that the outlet retract or correct three stories about Chief of Staff Susie Wiles within 48 hours — warning that noncompliance would trigger an "immediate review" of Politico's relationship with the White House and "consideration of available legal remedies." That a government lawyer, whose duty runs to the Constitution, would threaten a news organization's access and hint at legal action over unflattering coverage is a direct inversion of the First Amendment. Politico did not capitulate: its attorney, Theodore Boutrous, said the outlet "categorically rejects the false accusations," had reexamined all three articles, concluded exactly one warranted a correction and corrected it, and said the demand "further confirms the unlawful retaliatory and viewpoint discriminatory motives" behind the administration's September ban of Politico, CNN, and MS NOW. At the same time, the New York Times reported the administration was weighing moving the entire White House press corps out of the building — with Trump floating restoring the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room to its original use as a swimming pool. Together the two moves describe the project plainly: the press is to be corrected, relocated, or removed until coverage of the White House is coverage the White House controls.
Leon Black Testifies He Paid Epstein $158 Million, Refuses to Answer NDA Questions, Gets Subpoenaed Mid-Interview — Judge Finds Trump's Acting AG "Conceded" He's Violating Epstein Files Law, Orders Unredaction of Trump Sexual Assault Allegation and "Torture Video" Emails
Billionaire Leon Black, co-founder of Apollo Global Management, testified before the House Oversight Committee and admitted paying Jeffrey Epstein $158 million — 30 to 60 times more than he paid other advisors for similar work. He claimed he "knew Jekyll, didn't know Hyde," said Epstein told him the fees were tax-deductible "60-cent dollars" (they weren't), and acknowledged continuing the relationship five years after Epstein's 2008 guilty plea to sex crimes involving a minor. When pressed on nondisclosure agreements — including one involving a six-year affair with a Russian model where Epstein advised Black on silencing her — Black refused to answer and was described by Democrats as having "stormed out." Chairman Comer issued two subpoenas on the spot: one for Black's NDAs, another for a videotaped deposition under oath on July 16. "Please call Leon Black" appears over 300 times in Epstein's files. Black's name appears 8,000+ times. He paid $62.5 million to the U.S. Virgin Islands to avoid prosecution and explicitly acknowledged his money funded Epstein's sex trafficking operation. Three women have accused him of rape on Epstein properties — one was 16 with a rare form of Down syndrome. Meanwhile, federal judge Emmet Sullivan found that acting AG Todd Blanche "has conceded that he is in violation" of the Epstein Files Transparency Act and ordered the DOJ to unredact files by July 2 — including an FBI interview with a woman who alleged Trump sexually assaulted her as a teenager after Epstein introduced them (the FBI found her credible and interviewed her four times), and emails about a "torture video" involving sexual activity with minors. A New York Times report revealed VP Vance held Situation Room meetings to coordinate the White House's Epstein cover-up strategy, appearing "panicked" about the MAGA base's reaction. The Situation Room — designed for national security emergencies — became the nerve center for managing the Epstein crisis all summer, with Trump himself refusing to attend because he "snapped at anyone who mentioned it."
Trump's Own Chief of Staff: He Has "An Alcoholic's Personality," Vance Is a "Conspiracy Theorist"
Chief of Staff Susie Wiles told Vanity Fair over 11 interviews that Trump has "an alcoholic's personality," Musk is "an avowed ketamine user" who sleeps in a sleeping bag at the White House, Vance is a "conspiracy theorist," and prosecutions of enemies "may" be retribution.