SHE looks like a shy, suburban tannie and she likes to hide behind mirror sunglasses, but Susie Wiles may be the strongest guarantee that the White House, with the impulsive Donald Trump in it, will not go completely off the rails.
Trump appointed Susan Summerall Wiles (67) as his chief of staff. In America, the presidential chief of staff is the manager of the White House and controls access to the president, directs day-to-day operations and plays a key role in policymaking and its implementation.
Wiles, who will be America's first female presidential chief of staff when Trump officially becomes president in January, managed his election campaign and is now being credited for much of his success.
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Formidable record
She has a formidable record as a strategist and manager of election campaigns that began in 1980 in the era of Ronald Reagan – her husband, Lanny Wiles, was Reagan's right-hand man. In 2010, she saw to it that an unknown businessman, Rick Scott, became the governor of Florida. In 2015/16 she was in charge of Trump's election campaign in Florida, which he won against Hillary Clinton. For a time, she was also Gov. Ron DeSantis' campaign manager, who described her as the best political operator in the country.
Wiles has long been nicknamed Ice Baby because of her ability to remain calm in a ferocious environment. Trump called her “Ice Maiden" with her appointment last week and thanked her for helping him “to achieve one of the greatest political victories in American history". He called her “tough, smart, innovative, universally admired and respected ... Susie will continue to work tirelessly to Make America Great Again.”
Wiles is known for avoiding the cameras and microphones; she is the extreme example of a “back room operator" and almost never appears in newspaper photos or on television screens. When Trump wanted her to address the crowd during his victory speech, she simply passed the microphone to her assistant.
A different culture
In a recent profile in Politico, under the headline, “The most feared and least known political operative in Amerika” she said: “In my early career things like manners mattered and there was an expected level of decorum."
But today with Trump, there is a very different culture in the Republican Party, also known as the Grand Old Party or GOP. “And so I get it that the GOP of today is different. There are changes we must live with in order to get done the things we're trying to do," she says.
Wiles has a good relationship with the media, even with formerly anti-Trump journalists. There are many rumours that she had leaked nasty stories about some enemies of Trump to certain journalists.
According to several reports, Wiles set strict conditions for her appointment to Trump. She claimed more authority than her predecessors in the position, especially that she alone would control access to the Oval Office. During his first term, a whole host of informal advisers, including friends and family, had access to Trump's office and there was a suspicion that he accepted the position of the last person to serve him with advice.
As a source put it to CNN: “[Now] the clown car can’t come into the White House at will.”
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