Susie Wells, Trump’s chief of staff, criticizes Bondi’s handling of the Epstein files in an interview with Vanity Fair

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s easy-going but poignant chief of staff, Susie Wiles, criticized Attorney General Pam Bondi’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case, offering a candid view of her boss and those in his orbit in a series of remarks published Tuesday in Vanity Fair. The magazine’s two-part profile on Wiles immediately sent shock waves through Washington as the West Wing was sent in for damage control.

The first woman ever to hold her current position, Wiles responded to what she called a “hit piece” that lacked context. But neither she nor any of the other West Wing officials who defended her disputed any details in the profile — a wide-ranging narrative that included Wiles’ assessments of the hard-drinking Trump as an “alcoholic character,” Vice President J.D. Vance as a “conspiracy theorist” and Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. as a “crooked Bobby.”

Regarding Epstein, Wiles told the magazine that she downplayed the scandal involving the disgraced financier, but was highly critical of how Bondi handled the case and public expectations. She said at one point that Trump’s tariffs were more painful than expected. She acknowledged some mistakes in Trump’s mass deportation program and suggested that the president’s retaliation campaign against his perceived political enemies had gone further than she initially intended.

But Wells, who ran Trump’s 2024 comeback campaign, has broadly defended the president’s aggressive agenda for his second term, including asserting that Trump wants to keep bombing alleged drug boats in the waters off the coast of Venezuela until that country’s leader, Nicolas Maduro, “cries.”

Wells backed down, but without any denial

After the comments were published, Wiles disparaged them as “a deceptively framed hit piece about me and the best president, White House staff, and Cabinet in history.”

“Important context was ignored, and much of what I and others said about the team and the president was left out,” she wrote in a social media post. “I assume, after reading it, that this was done to paint a chaotic and largely negative narrative about the president and our team.”

Read more: New photos from Epstein’s personal collection show Trump, Clinton and much more

Wells did not deny the comments attributed to her.

Press Secretary Carolyn Leavitt also defended Wiles, writing on X that “President Trump has no greater or more loyal advisor than Susie. The entire administration is grateful for her steady leadership and fully united behind her.”

White House budget official Russell Vought also added his praise, posting on social media that Trump’s West Wing over two presidencies “has never worked as well or been more get-got-oriented.”

In her interviews, Wiles praised Foote as an “absolute right-wing bigot.”

The Chief of Staff criticizes the Attorney General

Trump appointed Wells after she ran his 2024 campaign. She is known for avoiding the spotlight, so it is rare for her to speak as extensively and publicly as she did about the president to the magazine, which published its lengthy interview with her — and other members of the White House and Cabinet. Wells has been speaking to Vanity Fair since Trump took office last January.

When asked about Epstein, Wiles said she did not follow the public focus on “whether all these important rich men went to that bad island and did unforgivable things to little girls.”

She said she had read the Epstein dossier and that Trump “is not in the dossier doing anything terrible.” He and Epstein were friends before they fell out.

The Justice Department faces a deadline on Friday to release everything it has on Epstein after Trump, who objected to the release, signed legislation requiring the papers to be made public.

Wells criticized Bondi’s handling of the case, distributing binders earlier in the year to a group of social media influencers that did not include any new information about Epstein. This led to more calls from Trump’s base to release the files.

“I think she just kind of complained in her appreciation that this was a very targeted group that cared about this,” Wiles said of Bondi. “First she gave them folders full of nothingness. Then she said the witness list, or client list, was on her desk. There was no client list, and it certainly wasn’t on her desk.”

An inside look at the president with the “personality of an alcoholic”

During the series of interviews, Wells described the president as much behind the scenes as he presents himself publicly: a powerful figure who thinks in broad terms but is often oblivious to the details of process and policy. But she added that he was not as angry or temperamental as is often reported, even as she emphasized his ruthlessness and determination to take revenge on those he considered his political enemies.

She said Trump has an “alcoholic personality,” even though the president does not drink alcohol. But the personality trait is something she learns from her father, famous sportscaster Pat Summerall.

“High-functioning alcoholics or alcoholics in general, their personalities are exaggerated when they drink. And so I’m kind of an expert on big personalities,” she said, adding that Trump has “a view that there’s nothing he can’t do. Nothing, zero, nothing.”

Regarding Venezuela, Wells said Trump wants to maintain pressure on Maduro.

Read more: Never-before-seen photos of Epstein’s private island have been released

“He wants to keep blowing up boats until Maduro cries. And people smarter than me say he will do it.” However, her comment appeared to contradict the administration’s position that the strikes were intended to stop drugs and save American lives, not regime change.

She said the administration is “pretty sure we know who we’re blowing up.”

The continuing strikes and mounting death toll have drawn scrutiny from Congress, which has pushed back and opened investigations.

Wells says Trump’s retaliation has a purpose

Wiles described much of her job as channeling Trump’s energy, whims and desired policy outcomes, including managing his desire for revenge against his political rivals, anyone who blames him for his 2020 electoral defeat, and those who filed criminal cases against him after his first term.

“We have a loose agreement that the scores will be settled before the first 90 days are up,” Wiles said early in her administration, telling Vanity Fair that she was already trying to curb Trump’s tendency to retaliate.

Later in 2025, it declined. “I don’t think he’s on a revenge tour,” she said, saying he was acting on a different principle: “I don’t want what happened to me to happen to someone else.” Therefore people who have done bad things should get out of government. In some cases, it may seem like revenge. There may be an element of that from time to time. Who will blame him? Not me.”

Asked about New York Attorney General Letitia James’ prosecution for mortgage fraud, Wiles replied: “Well, that might be the only punishment.”

Barrow reported from Atlanta.