Despite being one of the most powerful figures in Donald Trump's second administration, Susie Wiles is not a household name.
Given the White House chief-of-staff's determination to avoid the spotlight, that's exactly how she wanted to keep it.
But this week, Trump's trusted enforcer sent the White House into damage control over a series of unusually revealing interviews she gave to a journalist for a Vanity Fair profile.
Among the eyebrow-raising quotes was Wiles describing her boss as someone with an "alcoholic's personality" and Vice-President JD Vance as a calculating "conspiracy theorist".
Here's what we know about Trump's right-hand woman and what she calls the "hit piece" that everyone has been talking about.
The daughter of a star
Wiles is known for keeping a low profile, but has been associated with Trump since the start of the president's political rise.
She helped win him the key state of Florida during his first run for president in 2016, having long been a political operator for the Republican Party in the state.
She then helped engineer Trump's comeback in 2024, before she was appointed his chief of staff.
As detailed in the Vanity Fair piece, she is the daughter of professional football player Pat Summerall.
She got her start in politics in the 1980s, working in the White House during the Reagan administration.
A low-profile operator
In comparison to Trump's first term, observers have noted Wiles has so far run a more organised White House.
Even though she has been in political circles for years, Wiles has long avoided the cameras and rarely speaks publicly.
Despite playing an integral role in his campaign, she refused even to take the mic to speak as Trump celebrated victory on election night last November.
"Susie likes to stay in the background … we call her the ice maiden," Trump said at the time.
In the Vanity Fair piece, she described her role as facilitating his decisions rather than constraining the president.
What she said about Trump
The two-part magazine feature drew on nearly a dozen interviews Wiles had with journalist Chris Whipple, author of The Gatekeeper, a book that explored the role powerful chiefs-of-staff play in US politics.
In the interview, the usually understated political operator was candid on a range of issues and figures at the top of the Trump administration.
She assessed Trump as having "an alcoholic's personality," even though the president does not drink, and affirmed that he was "from time to time" motivated to achieve retribution against those he considers political enemies.
She said Trump "will go for [retribution] … when there's an opportunity".
On Vance, Bondi and immigration
Wiles was also upfront about members of Trump's inner circle.
[EL TWEET: Vance on Wiles]Vance, viewed by some as the likely successor to Trump, has been "a conspiracy theorist for a decade," she said, and his MAGA conversion — he once compared Trump to Adolf Hitler — was, according to her, "sort of political".
In response, Vance wrote on X: "The President and the entire team love Susie because she is loyal and good at her job. An extremely rare combo in the halls of power."
She also said Elon Musk overstepped in his crusade to cut down the US government through the Department of Government Efficiency, in particular when the billionaire owner of X gutted the US's largest aid agency, USAID.
And she was particularly critical of Attorney-General Pam Bondi for her handling of the Epstein case, saying she "whiffed" on handling public expectations by suggesting the Justice Department had a client list waiting to be disclosed only for the administration to later say it did not exist.
Wiles also said the White House made mistakes in its chaotic deportation of US residents, admitted Trump's Liberation Day tariffs were "more painful" than expected, and shared that the US president was more sceptical of Vladimir Putin than he publicly appeared.
Wiles and the White House react
In a post on X, Wiles responded by describing the interview as a "disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the finest President, White House staff and Cabinet in history".
"Significant context was disregarded and much of what I, and others, said about the team and the President was left out of the story," she posted.
"I assume, after reading it, that this was done to paint an overwhelmingly chaotic and negative narrative about the President and our team."
Some Cabinet officials and other aides rushed to her defence, but Wiles notably has not denied any details or quotes.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the "entire Administration is grateful for her steady leadership and united fully behind her".
As for the president himself, Trump tells the New York Post he has not read the piece but when asked if he retained confidence in her, said: "Oh, she's fantastic".
