WASHINGTON (AP) — Susie Wiles, President Donald Trump's low-key but influential chief of staff, criticized Attorney General Pam Bondi's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case and offered an unvarnished view of her boss and his inner circle in a series of observations published Tuesday in Vanity Fair that quickly sent shockwaves through Washington and sent the White House into damage control mode.

The surprising remarks by Wiles, the first woman to hold her position. current, include a description of the president as someone with “an alcoholic personality” and Vice President JD Vance as a “conspiratorial” calculator. The remarks by Wiles, who rarely makes public statements given the nature of his work in the White House, raised questions about whether he might be leaving his post.

Wiles responded after the article was published, calling it a “malicious attack” that lacked context, while White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that “the entire administration is grateful to her continued leadership and fully supports her.”

As for Trump, the president told the New York Post that he had not read the article. When asked if he still trusted Wiles, he responded: “Oh, she's fantastic.”

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Trump also agreed that he has the personality of an alcoholic, describing himself as someone with “a very possessive personality.”

A senior White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in exchange for providing an inside look at the situation, dismissed the idea that Wiles might leave his position over the publication, saying that if they were affected by negative news coverage, “none of us would work here.”

Wiles' candor was so unusual that Rahm Emanuel, who served as chief of staff to former President Barack Obama, said the first time he He read the comments and thought it was a parody. He added that he couldn't remember a chief of staff who had given such a candid interview, at least "not while you're in office."

Emanuel said the job often involves making public statements that promote the president's agenda, but not sharing personal opinions about “everything and everyone” in the White House.

His advice to Wiles: “Next time there's a meal, bring someone over to try it first.”

The “Ice Lady” candor

The interviews with Vanity Fair were themselves uncharacteristic of Wiles, who built his reputation. as someone who brought order to the president's chaotic style and shied away from the spotlight to such a degree that during Trump's 2024 election night party, she repeatedly refused the microphone as Trump tried to persuade her to address the crowd.

“Susie likes to stay in the background a little bit,” said Trump, who has repeatedly called her the “ice lady.”

Most members of his Cabinet, as well as current and former White House officials, They released statements praising Wiles and attacking news media they called dishonest.

But neither Wiles nor the government members who came to his defense on Tuesday disputed any details of the publication, including areas in which it acknowledged errors and appeared to contradict the government's official justification for attacking ships allegedly smuggling drugs off the coast of Venezuela.

Although the government has said the campaign is aimed at curbing drug smuggling bound for the United States, Wiles appeared to confirm that it is part of an effort to overthrow Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. saying that Trump “wants to keep blowing up ships until Maduro surrenders.”

Wiles counterattacks, but does not deny

After publication, Wiles dismissed it as a “malicious and misleading attack on me and the best president, White House staff and cabinet in history.”

“Important context was missed, and much of what I, and others, said about the team and the president was omitted from the story,” he wrote in a social media post. “I assume, after reading it, that this was done to present an overwhelmingly chaotic and negative narrative about the president and our team.”

In an interview with the New York Post, Trump said she was not offended by Wiles' statements, including her description of him as someone with “an alcoholic personality” that she recognizes from her father, the famous sportscaster Pat Summerall.

The president, who is teetotal and had a brother who struggled with alcoholism, said: "I've said it many times about myself. I'm lucky not to be a drinker. If I were, I might very well be one, because I've said it: what's the word? Non-possessive, a possessive, addictive personality. Oh, I've said it many times, many times before."

Meanwhile, Vance noted Tuesday from an event in Pennsylvania that he had not read the Vanity Fair article. However, he defended Wiles and joked: "I only believe in conspiracy theories that are true." giving fewer interviews to mainstream media.”

Chief of Staff Criticizes Attorney General

Throughout the series of interviews, Wiles described the president behind the scenes much as he presents himself in public: an intense figure who thinks broadly but often doesn't worry about the details of process and policy. However, she added that she has not been as angry or temperamental as she often lets on, even as she asserted her ruthlessness and determination to go after those she considers her political enemies.

Wiles said that much of her job is channeling Trump's energy, his whims and his desired political outcomes, including managing his desire for revenge against his political opponents, anyone he blames for his 2020 election loss and those who filed lawsuits against him after his first election. term.

About Epstein, Wiles told the magazine that he underestimated the scandal surrounding the disgraced financier, but was harshly critical of Bondi's handling of the case and public expectations.

Wiles criticized Bondi's handling of the case, dating back to earlier in the year when he distributed binders to a group of influencers that included no new information about Epstein. That prompted Trump's base of supporters to renew their calls for the documents to be released.

“I think she didn't realize at all that this was a very specific group that cared about the issue,” Wiles said of Bondi. "First he gave them folders full of nothing. And then he said the witness list, or the client list, was on his desk. There is no client list, and it certainly wasn't on his desk."

Bondi did not address the criticism in his statement supporting Wiles.

At one point, he claimed that the tariffs Trump ordered had been more damaging than expected. She acknowledged some errors in the president's large-scale deportation program and suggested that her campaign of retaliation against those she perceives as her political enemies has gone beyond what she originally wanted.

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Barrow reported from Atlanta.

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This story was translated from English by an AP editor with the help of a generative artificial intelligence tool.