Donald Trump has made the first key appointment of his upcoming administration, announcing that campaign manager Susie Wiles will become his White House Chief of Staff.
In a statement, the Trump-Vance transition team said: “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.
“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.”
Wiles, 66, is one of the most powerful players in Republican politics, with The New York Times describing her as “perhaps the most significant voice inside Mr Trump’s third presidential campaign”.
In his victory speech in Florida in the early hours of Wednesday, Trump mentioned her name seven times. “Susie likes to stay in the back, let me tell you. We call her the ice maiden”, he joked, adding. “She is not in the background (anymore).”
Along with Chris LaCivita, Wiles was widely credited for running what was seen as Trump’s most sophisticated and disciplined campaign yet, which included keeping many of the fringe voices in his orbit at bay.
She has worked in Republican politics since the late 1970s and went on to become a campaign scheduler on Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential bid, and later in his administration.
In her late twenties, she moved from New Jersey, where she was born and raised, to Jacksonville, Florida, with her then-husband, Lanny, an “advance man” who handled publicity for candidates during political campaigns.
When the couple had their two daughters, Katie and Caroline, she took some time out to raise them but then went full-throttle back into the game – eventually running Trump’s Florida operations in his first bid to become president. Many attribute him winning the state by 1.2 percentage points over his rival Hillary Clinton to Wiles.
Opting to stay in Florida, she also helped lead Ron DeSantis’ 2018 campaign for Florida governor, before a falling out that prompted DeSantis to successfully lobby the Trump team to fire her. Wiles was brought back shortly thereafter for the 2020 campaign in Florida.
The Chief of Staff is, historically, the first appointee named by the President-elect and is charged with overseeing all policy and day-to-day White House affairs.
The last Trump administration saw four people appointed to the position; former Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus, General John Kelly, former South Carolina Representatice Mick Mulvaney and former North Carolina Representative Mark Meadows.
Meadows is facing criminal charges in two states – Arizona and Georgia – for his efforts to overturn election results in 2020, while Kelly – Trump’s longest serving chief – has become an outspoken critic of the President-elect, warning shortly before Election Day that he demonstrated the criteria of a “fascist.”
