President-elect Donald Trump made history twice this week, first by winning the White House for a second time as a former president, and then by naming Susie Wiles to be his chief of staff.
Wiles, a longtime GOP operative and advisor to Trump, will be the first woman to hold that coveted position in American history. By all accounts, she has earned it. Wiles is credited with tightening up Trump’s campaign operations after his 2020 loss and helping him win both the Electoral College and national popular vote in 2024 – an achievement that has eluded Republican candidates for president for 20 years.
“Susie 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,” Trump said in a statement on Thursday, announcing her White House appointment.
“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 honor 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,” he said.
Former President Donald Trump’s co-campaign manager Susie Wiles is seen at Nashville International Airport as Trump arrives on July 27, 2024 in Nashville, Tennessee. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
However, while Wiles is known, respected and even feared in Florida, she is not well-known in Washington, D.C., and certainly not nationally. So who is Susie Wiles? Here are five things to know about the next White House chief of staff:
Her father was a legendary NFL broadcaster, and she helped him overcome addiction
Wiles is the daughter of late legendary NFL broadcaster Pat Summerall. Summerall was an NFL champion kicker and the lead color commentator alongside John Madden on CBS for more than two decades.
During his broadcast career, Summerall admitted to becoming an alcoholic. In his 2006 biography, he recounted how his daughter, Susie, staged an intervention for him and helped him break addiction.
From left to right, halfback Phil King, star place kicker Pat Summerall and quarterback Don Heinrich, of the New York Giants, toast each other with drinks at the Lone Star Boat Club here Nov. 2nd to celebrate their team’s smashing of the Green Bay Packers Nov. 1st at Yankee Stadium, 20-3. Summerall scored eight points on two field goals and two extra-point kicks. (Getty Images)
“Dad, the few times we’ve been out in public together recently, I’ve been ashamed we shared the same last name,” Wiles said in a letter that was read during the intervention, according to Summerall’s 2006 autobiography, “On and Off the Air.”
Summerall wrote that the words of his daughter inspired him to take steps to address his addiction.
Her first job in politics was with her father’s old teammate
In the late 1970s, Wiles was hired as an assistant to Summerall’s old teammate on the New York Giants, someone who went on to have a long and successful career in the House of Representatives and later be nominated for vice president. That was none other than the late Jack Kemp, one of the chief backers of former President Ronald Reagan’s supply-side economics theories and architect of the Regan tax cuts.
Wiles went on to work for Reagan himself as a scheduler for his 1980 presidential campaign and later the White House. She left Washington, D.C., for Florida in the 1990s and served as chief of staff to John Delaney, the mayor of Jacksonville. She also worked as the district director for Rep. Tillie Fowler in Northeast Florida.
SUSIE WILES, THE ‘ICE BABY,’ IS A TOP CONTENDER FOR TRUMP’S CHIEF OF STAFF, SOURCES SAY
Congressman Jack F. Kemp speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference. (Cynthia Johnson/Getty Images)
Delaney heaped praise on Wiles in an interview for Politico Magazine. “I’ve described her as a political savant — just otherworldly sort of political instincts,” he said.
Wiles continued to be a fixture of Florida politics for decades, eventually helping a health care executive named Rick Scott become governor in 2010. Scott is now Florida’s junior senator and this week is celebrating his re-election to a second term.
She once described herself as a ‘card-carrying member of the GOP establishment,’ but supported Trump
Wiles has worked for every stripe of Republican imaginable, from moderate to hard-line conservative. However, she surprised her friends and allies when, in 2015, she decided to become the Trump campaign’s co-chairwoman in Florida.
“As a card-carrying member of the G.O.P. establishment, many thought my full-throated endorsement of the Trump candidacy was ill advised — even crazy,” Wiles told the New York Times in a rare public statement.
Former President Donald Trump attends a game between the NFL Pittsburgh Steelers and the New York Jets with senior campaign consultant Susie Wiles on Oct. 20, 2024 in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. (Evan Vucci-Pool/Getty Images)
Though faced with skepticism, Wiles explained to the Tampa Bay Times at the time that she believed no other Republican running for the presidency in 2016 was prepared to deliver the change she felt Washington, D.C., needed. She said national Republicans had developed “an expediency culture” and lost sight of core principles.
“I said, ‘I don’t want this to continue.’ I think it seriously will damage our republic and who among that group can really have the fortitude to shift what I’ve seen happening over all these years?” Wiles told the paper.
It turned out that her instincts were right. Trump won the primary and shocked the political establishment by defeating Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in an upset.
She helped Ron DeSantis become governor before a falling out
In 2018, a young Florida congressman named Ron DeSantis decided to run for governor. He won a contested Republican primary thanks to Trump’s endorsement, but his campaign was struggling and behind in the polls.
With a little more than a month before the election, DeSantis hired Wiles to right the ship. Her guidance is largely credited with pushing DeSantis over the finish line in a narrow victory over disgraced former Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum.
TRUMP NAMES SUSIE WILES AS FIRST FEMALE WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF IN HISTORY
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump brings Susie Wiles to the podium at an election night watch party on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024 in West Palm Beach, Florida. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
However, a rift grew between DeSantis and Wiles after the election. Politico reported that state first lady Casey DeSantis was suspicious of Wiles’ growing influence and power in the governor’s orbit. Eventually, Wiles was edged out of DeSantis’ inner circle.
She wound up back in Trump’s orbit for his unsuccessful 2020 campaign and remained a close and valued advisor as he plotted a return to the White House in 2024. She was with the Trump campaign when DeSantis mounted his own campaign for president, and many suspect Trump’s team used Wiles’ insider knowledge of DeSantis to defeat the Florida governor.
In January, Wiles responded to a report on X that DeSantis had cleared his campaign website of upcoming events.
“Bye, bye,” she wrote.
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She is a registered lobbyist
In addition to her work on political campaigns, Wiles is a registered lobbyist.
Federal disclosures filed in April show Wiles was a lobbyist for the tobacco company Swisher International while running the Trump campaign. The documents show she worked to influence Congress on “FDA regulations.”
WIles is the co-chair for the Florida and Washington, D.C., offices of Mercury Public Affairs, a lobbying firm whose clients include AirBnB, AT&T, eBay, Pfizer, Tesla, and the Embassy of Qatar, although she is not a registered lobbyist for any of those clients.
Previously, Wiles worked for Ballard Partners, a Florida-based firm started by lobbyist Brian Ballard.
Fox News’ Jackson Thompson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.