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A close associate of Donald Trump humorously remarked that the Vanity Fair photoshoot accompanying a controversial profile on Susie Wiles might lead to their dismissal.
The profile on Wiles sparked significant attention due to her uncharacteristically frank remarks about Trump, Vice President JD Vance, former ‘First Buddy’ Elon Musk, and other key figures in the administration.
In response, both Trump and Vance have come forward to defend Wiles, nicknamed the ‘Ice Maiden,’ asserting that her comments were misinterpreted and taken out of context.
During the high-profile magazine photoshoot, a White House staff member, speaking on condition of anonymity, made a light-hearted yet foreboding prediction amidst the cheerful atmosphere.
“We’re all going to get fired for this,” the unnamed official quipped.
Vance, however, immediately cracked back: ‘Except for me. I have 100 percent job security.’
The vice president was full of barbs as photographer Christopher Anderson profiled the group, cracking one at the expense of Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
‘I’ll give you $100 for every person you make look really s***ty compared to me. And $1,000 if it’s Marco.’
Vance, Rubio, Wiles, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Deputy Chiefs of Staff James Blair and Dan Scavino, and Homeland Security Adviser Stephen Miller participated in the shoot.
JD Vance (pictured) cut the tension after a member of Donald Trump’s inner circle openly joked that the Vanity Fair photoshoot accompanying the disaster profile of Susie Wiles would get them fired
Wiles (pictured) took heat for criticizing the president, Vice President JD Vance, former ‘First Buddy’ Elon Musk and other members of the administration, though Trump and Vance have since defended the ‘Ice Maiden’
At one point, Vance asked: ‘Is this the part where you say we’re all evil?’
Wiles, 68, speaking with Vanity Fair over the course of the last year, likened Trump to her own late alcoholic father and legendary sportscaster Pat Summerall, noting the president has ‘an alcoholic’s personality.’
The president ‘operates [with] a view that there’s nothing he can’t do. Nothing, zero, nothing,’ Wiles told journalist Chris Whipple.
Notably, Trump does not drink and has spoken about losing his older brother, Fred, to addiction and alcoholism.
The chief of staff also dished on Vice President JD Vance, noting his late MAGA conversion and early critiques of Trump.
The VP, she added, has also been ‘a conspiracy theorist for a decade.’
Office of Management and Budget chief Russell Vought, a chief planner for Project 2025, she likened to ‘a right-wing absolute zealot.’
Pressed on former DOGE leader Elon Musk’s late-night social media ranting about Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong, the 68-year-old candidly shot back: ‘I think that’s when he’s micro-dosing.’
At one point, Vance even joked that he’d give away money if the photographer made Marcio Rubio (pictured left) ‘look s****y’ in the photos
Wiles has had the White House staff on defense all Tuesday over her comments, made over 11 different interviews with journalist Chris Whipple
She admitted she had no proof, but the mercurial entrepreneur and father of over a dozen children has admitted to Ketamine use.
‘He is a complete solo actor,’ she said of Musk.
‘He’s an avowed ketamine [user]. And he sleeps in a sleeping bag in the EOB [Executive Office Building] in the daytime. And he’s an odd, odd duck, as I think geniuses are. You know, it’s not helpful, but he is his own person,’ she told Vanity Fair.
She also mocked Attorney General Pam Bondi for handing out nothingburger Epstein folders to conservative influencers.
‘First she gave them binders full of nothingness. And then she said that the witness list, or the client list, was on her desk. There is no client list, and it sure as hell wasn’t on her desk,’ Wiles told Whipple.
The chief of staff also confirmed that Trump’s name pops up in the files and downplays any dirt the Department of Justice has on serial pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s relationship with former Democratic president Bill Clinton.
‘There is no evidence,’ that Clinton visited Epstein’s island, Wiles said. ‘The President was wrong about that.’
Wiles, along with the president, vice president and Leavitt, have led the charge to hit back at the magazine.
Wiles said she had no proof, but that former ‘First Buddy’ Elon Musk (pictured) has admitted to Ketamine use
She also mocked Attorney General Pam Bondi for handing out nothingburger Epstein folders to conservative influencers
Trump told The New York Post he knew what Wiles was trying to say.
He told the paper: ‘No, she meant that I’m – you see, I don’t drink alcohol. So everybody knows that – but I’ve often said that if I did, I’d have a very good chance of being an alcoholic. I have said that many times about myself, I do. It’s a very possessive personality.’
‘I’ve said that many times myself. I’m fortunate I’m not a drinker,’ Trump told the Post. ‘If I did, I could very well, because I’ve said that – what’s the word? Not possessive – possessive and addictive type personality. Oh, I’ve said it many times, many times before.’
Trump didn’t respond to other portions of the two-part Vanity Fair series because he hadn’t seen it.
‘I didn’t read it, but I don’t read Vanity Fair – but she’s done a fantastic job,’ the President said of Wiles. ‘I think from what I hear, the facts were wrong, and it was a very misguided interviewer, purposely misguided.’
Karoline Leavitt used a similar line when she quickly addressed the controversy Tuesday afternoon on the White House driveway.
‘This is, unfortunately, another example of disingenuous reporting, where you have a reporter who took the chief of staff’s words wildly out of context, did not include the context those conversations were had within and then further, I think the most egregious part of this article was the bias of omission that was clearly present,’ the White House press secretary said.
She told reporters encircling her, ‘You will leave out important context, leave out comments and facts.’
The president defended Wiles in an interview later Tuesday
‘Many people in this building spoke with that reporter and those comments were never included in the story, probably because it didn’t push the false narrative of chaos and confusion that the reporter was clearly trying to push,’ Leavitt continued.
She headed back inside as journalists yelled and asked if she wanted Whipple to release the tapes of the interviews he conducted.
Vance gave a long-winded explanation of about conspiracy theories while speaking in Pennsylvania Tuesday – shortly after President Donald Trump also backed Wiles amid fallout over the piece.
‘Sometimes I am a conspiracy theorist, but I only believe in the conspiracy theories that are true,’ he claimed.
‘Susie and I have joked in private and in public about that for a long time.’
Vance then turned the question on its head by citing a ‘conspiracy theory’ about about President Biden’s health.
‘You know, I believed in this crazy conspiracy theory that the media and the government were covering up the fact that Joe Biden was clearly unable to do the job,’ he quipped.
He also joked that he was considered a conspiracy theorist for thinking ‘it was stupid to mask three-year-olds at the height of the COVID pandemic, that we should actually let them develop some language skills.’
Karoline Leavitt blasted Christopher Whipple, who interviewed Wiles and other administration figures for Vanity Fair
Vance said a conspiracy theory is ‘just something that was true six months before the media admitted it.’
He then turned serious, calling Wiles ‘the best White House chief of staff’ Trump could ask for and saying the piece was not reflective of the person he knew.
‘I’ve never seen Susie Wiles say something to the president and then go and counteract him. Or subvert his will behind the scenes. And that’s what you want in a staffer. Because as much as I love Susie, the American people didn’t elect any staffer. They elected the president of the United States,’ he said.
Vance noted that he does have ‘disagreements’ with Wiles but that they agree ‘on much more’ than they disagree.
In a frantic damage-control statement, Wiles wrote on X: ‘The article published early this morning is 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 added: ‘I assume, after reading it, that this was done to paint an overwhelmingly chaotic and negative narrative about the President and our team.’
The odds of Wiles leaving the administration skyrocketed after the report was published.
JD Vance is the latest White House official to defend Susie Wiles over her disaster Vanity Fair piece that referred to the vice president as a ‘conspiracy theorist for a decade’
On Tuesday morning, the odds that Wiles would be the first to leave the Trump Cabinet were at 4 percent; currently, the odds are 18 percent, according to Kalshi.
She’s the third most likely to leave the admin early, only behind Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, 20 percent, and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, 28 percent.
Whipple responded to the White House’s claims in an interview with CNN Tuesday night, saying that ‘everything is on tape.’
‘Everything in the article was on the record. I recorded every interview,’ Whipple said.
He also denied claims that anyone was taken ‘out of context’ as Leavitt claimed.
‘Everything was scrupulously in context. There isn’t a single fact or a single assertion that they’ve challenged in the piece. It really reminds me of the Watergate days when Ben Bradlee talked about non-denial denial. So this is the ultimate non-denial denial.’
