{"id":85843,"date":"2025-12-16T21:45:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T21:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/85843\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T21:45:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T21:45:12","slug":"florida-republicans-rally-around-susie-wiles-after-controversial-vanity-fair-profile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/85843\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Republicans rally around Susie Wiles after controversial Vanity Fair profile"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida Republicans are rallying around White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles after an attention-grabbing profile in Vanity Fair<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After Wiles called the article a \u201chit piece<\/a>,\u201d many longtime associates said she still deserves the confidence of President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cSusie Wiles has been a close friend of mine for years. I\u2019ve been proud to fight alongside her in support of President Trump since we started serving as Florida co-chairs of his campaign back in 2015,\u201d posted Republican National Committee Chair Joe Gruters, who served in 2016 as co-Chair of the Florida arm of Trump\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing can derail the great work President Trump and his team, led by Susie, have done to get America back on track. It\u2019s not going to work. Anyone who knows Susie knows that she is a patriot, tough, and brilliant. She is the best White House Chief of Staff I\u2019ve ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gruters, a Sarasota Republican, was among multiple party operatives who went to a meeting at the White House shortly after the Vanity Fair piece was published. That piece quotes Wiles through a series of on-the-record conversations, including remarks that Trump had an \u201calcoholic\u2019s personality.\u201d Wiles said many of the remarks were taken out of context.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Donald Trump Jr., the President\u2019s son and a Jupiter resident, offered full-throated support of Wiles after the piece ran.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Susie took over my father\u2019s political operation after J6, people forget how many \u2018Republicans\u2019 were treating him like a pariah. Countless operatives, consultants and elected Republicans thought my dad\u2019s political career was over and wanted nothing to do with him. They attacked him ruthlessly and predicted that he would lose if he ran for office in 2024,\u201d the younger Trump said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot Susie. She was a loyal fighter for him from the moment she came on board. When things were tough and other supposed friends left my dad like a bunch of rats, Susie stood by his side and worked her ass off everyday to rebuild his political operation and ensure that his comeback in 2024 would be successful. When others cowered, she stood strong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another source close to the White House suggested there is no rattled confidence in Wiles\u2019 leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cSusie has stood shoulder-to-shoulder with President Trump through weaponized lawfare, assassination attempts, and smear campaigns,\u201d the source said. \u201cShe is private and doesn\u2019t speak to the press \u2014 so the public may not understand her leadership and her relentless pursuit to deliver for President Trump and his America First Agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Republican allies on the Hill rushed to her defense as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cSusie is a fantastic chief of staff, and she is doing a great job helping President Trump accomplish his agenda. She is smart, fearless and loyal. It\u2019s disheartening to see the press come after her, but frankly, not surprising,\u201d U.S. Sen. Rick Scott posted. \u201cVanity Fair is the same publication that writes puff pieces on antisemite Hasan Piker, who told his followers to kill me. Susie Wiles is crushing it!\u201d<\/p>\n

Wiles notably ran<\/a> Scott\u2019s first campaign for Governor in 2010.<\/p>\n

Other Republicans boasting strong support in Trump circles also rushed to the Chief of Staff\u2019s defense. U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna called herself part of \u201cTeam Susie.\u201d Luna\u2019s 2020 campaign for Congress was managed by James Blair, now Wiles\u2019 Deputy White House Chief of Staff.<\/p>\n

And U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, a Naples Republican who Trump endorsed for Florida Governor<\/a> in 2026, also defended Wiles.<\/p>\n

\u201cSusie Wiles is a legend, a trailblazer and I\u2019m honored to call her a friend,\u201d he posted. \u201cLast November, she engineered the greatest political comeback in US history and as White House Chief of Staff, she\u2019s delivering<\/p>\n

President Trump\u2019s America First Agenda. Thank you for your consummate leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Cory Mills, a New Smyrna Republican weathering his own scandals<\/a>, also put in his support.<\/p>\n

\u201cSusie Wiles has done more for conservatives and American politics than anyone,\u201d Mills posted. \u201cShe supported the greatest American comeback and has stood by President Trump through all odds. These attacks against her are a testament to her successes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida Republicans are rallying around White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles after an attention-grabbing profile in Vanity…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8861,445,3951,409,46924,28,30,29,2508,46925,33230],"class_list":["post-85843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-anna-paulina-luna","tag-byron-donalds","tag-cory-mills","tag-donald-trump","tag-donald-trump-jr","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-joe-gruters","tag-rick-sciott","tag-susie-wiles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}