Trump Admin rocked by Susie Wiles' comments in Vanity Fair article

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1:26heard some of it, but I'm going to walk you through how the number one person in Trump's White House, the chief of staff, Susie Wiles, has basically torched the place rhetorically with brutal assessments. Again, Trump's number one aide. So she sees a lot. She's in the special meetings, the off the records, classified. And what she describes inside this Trump White House is a complete rebuke on so many issues. She says Donald Trump has a, quote, alcoholic's personality. She also hits the president's policies on tariffs, immigration, and something that Trump has tried to have both ways and denied.

2:04She admits they are unlawfully prosecuting rivals. I'll get into how that works, but that's the headline. That alone would be a big deal. She might have just doomed more than one case that Trump is trying to bring. So there's the ethics of this. Do people uphold the constitution? And then there's the competence of this. If your job is to advance the president's agenda, well, through these comments to Vanity Fair, she has compromised his agenda, ignited a firestorm. She's the ultimate insider. She's close to Trump. I can tell you during the campaign, when we would reach out to the campaign managers, she shared the duty basically with one other person as kind of the top.

2:41And you couldn't hardly ever get comments from her. No interviews. Trump has shouted her out. so uh susie trump do you know susie trump sometimes referred to as susie while susie trump she's the great chief of staff but the chief of staff and she's a fantastic where's susie susie come on susie look at susie susie's the greatest that's a rare shout out from trump to a staff-level individual. Returning the favor here, Wiles says that he, Trump, is like her father, an alcoholic. Quote, Trump has an alcoholic's personality. He operates with a view there's nothing he can't do. Nothing. Zero. Nothing.

3:27Now, Wiles is not actually saying that Trump, who famously doesn't drink at all, is some kind of alcoholic, but that he has an alcoholic's personality, which is striking coming from her working with him all day and night for all these times that this is how she views him and how she deals with him. She contrasts J.D. Vance with Rubio, who says has some principles, while Vance went from opposing Trump to supporting him for what she characterizes as rank, self-interested opportunism. Again, Trump's top aide, still employed by him, by the way. Quote, Vance's conversion came when he was running for the Senate, I think his conversion was a little bit more political.

4:06She says Vance has been a conspiracy theorist for a decade, not exactly praised for someone who is a heartbeat from the presidency. She labels the leader of Project 2025, who now runs OMB, as a right-wing absolute zealot. And as Freelon Musk, who, unlike, say, Vance, has had more of a falling out with the administration, she says he's an avowed ketamine user, an odd, odd duck, as I think geniuses are. You know, it's not helpful, but he's his own person. Discussing some of the policies that the Trump administration advanced through Musk, for example, like going after USAID, foreign aid, she says she was initially aghast.

4:46And she says she told Musk, you can't just lock people out of their offices. No rational person could think the USAID process was a good one. Nobody. That is, again, quite the condemnation. One difference there is she may be putting the blame at someone who's no longer in the administration. But she goes on in this absolute bonkers Vanity Fair interview on the economy. There was a huge disagreement over whether tariffs were a good idea, some predicting disaster. She asked Vance to pump the brakes, but Trump went forward. Again, Vanity Fair writing, Wiles believed a middle ground on tariffs would ultimately succeed.

5:19She said it's been more painful than I expected. Again, these are the quotes of Trump's top aide, and they are quite different from the usual defenses we hear, and they are more credible attacks on the administration, its policies, and some of its top members. Why and how this came out, why she talks like this, we'll get into in conversation. But I want to go to the enemies list here, because more than anything else, which might just be politically embarrassing, Wiles has taken action through these words tonight. She has given evidence and confirmation of an unlawful prosecution on the enemies list charges, which means what she says, because she's a government official, is now probably court evidence and could doom some of the cases you see on your screen.

6:03As for the Trump revenge plots, she says, I don't think he's on a revenge tour. In some cases, it may look like retribution, and there may be an element of that from time to time. Who would blame him? Not me. So that's sort of her warm up. And if that's all she said, OK, debatable. Then when Vanity Fair asks about New York Attorney General Letitia James, who the DOJ has now thrice failed to indict. She says, well, that might be the one retribution. That is a confession. That is potentially admissible in court. You have a top White House official admitting it's retribution. Case you're keeping score.

6:42Retribution is exactly the kind of evidence that defense counsel needs to get the case tossed. As for James Comey, she says, I mean, people could think it does look vindictive. I can't tell you why you shouldn't think that. I don't think he wakes up thinking about retribution, but when there's an opportunity, he will go for it. This is meaningfully negative for the DOJ case and plan against Comey. If she meant to hurt her own side, okay. If she didn't, that's why some people maybe aren't as good at interviews. Weill says she has a loose agreement with Trump that the score settling will end before the first 90 days are over.

7:22That was a planned deadline that he didn't meet because she admits the score settling continues. This is evidence of what is called selective prosecution, which A, can get the case tossed, B, can get other people in trouble depending on how judges view it. Weill says today the article is a disingenuously framed hit piece on me with significant context disregarded. Notice what she does not say, and which makes her admittedly a little different than some around Trump. She doesn't deny saying these things. She doesn't say the whole thing is made up. Because she did say these things, apparently, and there is good record of that.

8:01And some of these things will have repercussions long beyond the headache that many Trump aides and the president himself are likely nursing tonight. We have a Trump White House veteran turned critic, Sarah Matthews, on this very story when we're back in 90 seconds.

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9:23But I say Odoo is all of it. Fertilizer magic beanstalk building blocks for business. Yeah, Odoo, exactly what every business needs. Sign up at odoo.com. That's O-D-O-O dot com. Trump White House rocked from the inside, and we have a special guest on this banana story. Sarah Matthews is a former Trump White House veteran and spokesperson for Home of the Brave. There you could see her on the job watching what was likely a press briefing. And while they got their work cut out for them tonight, your reaction when you read this interview? It was honestly refreshing to see because Susie Wiles gave a honestly brutal assessment of the Trump administration.

10:05She admitted that the tariffs have been more painful than she thought they would be, something that obviously the Trump administration has been vehemently defending these tariffs and saying that they're good economic policy. She admitted she was aghast when it came to the handling of Elon Musk dismantling USAID, that they should be more careful with their deportations, and cited an example of when the United States deported a U.S. citizen who was four years old and battling cancer. And then obviously her assessment of some of these cabinet officials across the board, her admitting that Attorney General Pam Bondi whiffed on the Epstein files and the handling of that, calling Elon Musk an odd duck and an avid ketamine user.

10:53I mean, this is not something that you would typically hear from a current sitting chief of staff in the White House. This is something that would usually come out in a memoir. Yeah, memoir. I'll let you finish. I'm going to leave these quotes on the screen for folks coming home. There's a lot going on. These are all quotes here from the number one official in Trump's White House. Alcoholic personality for the president. J.D. Vance, a conspiracy theorist, which means, in her view, that he doesn't deal in facts or is trustworthy. I mean, that's what that means. And the attacks on Musk, as you mentioned.

11:25Do you have a view of how this came out? Is this one of those situations where it's not a live TV interview? There's not an audience of a thousand. at some ballroom in D.C., and so she kind of got her momentum going, or what do you think happened here? Yeah, she can't write these off as political gaffes. She sat down with this reporter 11 times, and so even though the White House defense is saying that these quotes are taken out of context, they're not saying that the quotes aren't accurate. Obviously, this reporter has all of these interviews on tape and could dispute that, and he has said as much, but the context really doesn't matter when you're looking at the things that she said.

12:04I don't know what the context would be that Elon Musk, who she let dismantle USAID and will potentially lead to the millions of deaths across the globe because of us withholding this aid, that he's an avid ketamine user. I don't know what the context, what more context you need there. And so I just think that they're going to try to say that this is taken out of context. But the thing is, it's that she was a willing participant for these interviews, that many of senior officials also participated in a glamorous photo shoot for Vanity Fair for this article. And if I had to guess, I think that she says in the article that she only saw herself staying on the job for six months.

12:45The first interview that she did with this reporter was prior to Trump's inauguration. So I think she agreed to be part of this, thinking that she would have already left the White House. But obviously she's still on the job. And so I think initially she agreed, though, because she wanted to set herself up for her legacy to be viewed as the adult in the room during Trump 2.0. But now that she's still serving in this capacity and these quotes are coming to light, it does not make her look great. Really interesting. And again, you've been on the insides here reminding people that sometimes there are arrangements where people say, oh, they're going to be this political or loyal for this amount of time.

13:22And a government of job has all kinds of limits. But then they're planning ahead with the publishing cycle, et cetera, and that she may have kind of outmaneuvered herself if she thought she was going to be in the clear. They certainly don't read like things that you'd say about your current boss at any job, let alone the White House. I also want to ask you about some of the substance that that gives us a little window into how these people may approach their jobs. As you know, in the first term, there were many people around Trump, including General Kelly, who said they agreed with a lot of the agenda, but they wanted to help him be a better version of himself or a better version of these goals.

14:00and people can debate that, you know, till the cows come home. But there's evidence of folks trying to do that on foreign policy, on economic policy, even in how he dealt with Mueller initially. Second term, we all know is a different story. What did you think of her description, which isn't as controversial, sounds true, that the first term people were trying to do that and they got rid of those people in this term. She views her role as only distilling Trump. Like her view is just getting Trump to be anything he wants to be through government. which, of course, leaves out what most White Houses have, which is smart people with experience saying to the president, well, this might not be legal or here's another way to do it.

14:40And does that explain both why this term is more unrestrained, but also in many ways less less effective? Yeah, as you noted, Chief of Staff John Kelly in the first administration, he saw himself as the guardrails, that he was trying to curb Trump of his worst instincts and prevent any unlawful activity. whereas Susie Wiles admits herself that she almost sees herself as his enabler, that she is there to facilitate his agenda and she'll pick and choose her battles of when she pushes back on. She talks about an example where she was surprised that he wanted to pardon all 1 ,500 January 6 rioters, but at the end of the day, that she let it happen, that this was something he wanted and that he wanted to see all these folks pardoned, even the ones who committed violent acts and she couldn't win that battle.

15:30And so she just chose to go along with it. And I think that that is good that it sounds like she does push back on him occasionally, but obviously at the end of the day, she sees herself as just there to carry out his agenda, even if it's at the detriment of the American people. Yeah, it's interesting you say that she is a bit of his enabler, given that she describes him as an alcoholic personality and the hangover is felt by a heck of a lot more people than just him when you have this much power. Sarah Matthews, thanks for being here. We have insiders now previewing this Epstein Files deadline.

16:06Three days out. Gretchen Carlson is here. That should be interesting. But next, we're going to turn to one of these special reports that we have been working on. We think it's important. It is about fighting Trump censorship and billionaires. And it's next.

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17:40President Trump and his corporate allies are pushing hard to control more media. The Ellisons, Trump allies, now trying to buy CNN and its parent company in that hostile bid. They already bought CBS, which led to 60 Minutes Leader resigning over meddling in journalism and newsroom changes that came later. CBS also settling a thin Trump lawsuit to appease the White House. They ended Colbert's show. Critics see the pattern you see here limiting people who stand up. Now, that company did say that the Colbert decision was financial. Other outlets, though, as you see, have been settling Trump suits left and right.

18:19Some like Facebook curbing fact checking itself. Others are fighting. Kimmel and his supporters beat Trump's FCC. While newspapers like The Times are fighting back when Trump sues. So when we hear about standing up or speaking truth to power, it matters right now. and it can clearly also have consequences for the people willing to do it. We know that America faces big challenges on civil rights and political violence. It helps when we face them with independence and courage rather than normalizing them. Ebro Darden is known to many for doing exactly that with his voice and his radio show with Laura Stiles and Peter Rosenberg in New York and through their interviews with politicians, he has spoken as an advocate for working people, forgotten neighborhoods, challenged right-wing extremism, and also problems he saw with D.C.

19:14Democrats. I mention this now because there's news on this tonight. But for context, consider that in the year after the January 6th insurrection, when some were saying, let's just move on, or that was just an aberration and not who we are as Americans, I want to show you Ebro's corrective declaration.

19:38American exceptionalism. We're the best. We're the greatest. Even right now, people who saw January 6th will fix their lips and say, this is not who we are. What are you talking about? We just saw it on television. It's clearly who we are. What are you saying? Donald Trump wins presidency. This is not who we are. Did you go to the rallies? Did you see what was happening on TV? It's clearly a part of who we are. Police kill black men in streets. This is not who we are. It's been who we are since inception, since day one. Why do we keep acting like we're not this? Because we're programmed to think that we're better than we actually are.

20:18And we're going to have to come to terms with that if we're actually going to improve. And until we do, there won't be improvement. There's people who don't want to convict Donald Trump or any of his cronies because of the way it looks to the world. You know, we're not a banana republic. We don't, you know, jail our former politicians. We don't we don't do that here. We might want to start. We might want to start and fast. Otherwise, we'll just have more of this.

20:50This is who we are. Some truths are hard and they're not always well received. Ebro and his co-hosts knew that when they spoke out on their radio show, Ebro, in the morning. They've referenced that.

21:05This dialogue right here that we're having on a public radio station. Doesn't happen. Eight o 'clock in the morning in the biggest media market. No one's touching this. They are deathly afraid of touching this conversation. And 13 years in, that radio show was building a larger audience, began drawing more top politicians in the past few years than at its start, including a recent Andrew Cuomo interview as he was running against the Democratic nominee for New York mayor, which proved newsworthy, Ebro questioning Cuomo about his COVID record, harassment allegations, and his infamous late Trump endorsement, until Cuomo apparently hung up on the radio interview.

21:46And then in a total breach, the station's corporate parent pulled that interview offline. In journalism, that is blatant meddling in the independent work. And it may have been a sign. Because tonight, the news is that that parent company, Mediaco, has abruptly canceled the entire show, Ebro, in the morning. The move was abrupt. There's no public plan for a new morning show yet. And Ebro publicly saying they were facing corporate pressure over their free speech. that major media outlets are folding up because they're trying to renew deals and licenses. And he said they need my blank talking anti-Netanyahu, anti-government progressive blank out of the way.

22:32He speaks candidly, as you see. He said talking about politics on a corporate run media entity is always risky. Fact check. True. A lot of the time. Now, that company, Mediaco, did not respond to requests for comment, which is a contrast, by the way, to the Ellison's Paramount. When they were asked about the Colbert cancellation, they denied motives of censorship. This company isn't saying they're not publicly denying what Ebro says about that pressure and the Cuomo interview, etc. So far, this cancellation is news tonight because this is a loss for independent media and local media and diverse voices.

23:13And it fits these two interlocking corporate trends in our current MAGA era. Government censorship over here, and then billionaires also controlling more media while they consolidated over here. and that has obvious, basically sometimes unavoidable impact. It limits the reach of the very free speech that the Constitution is supposed to protect. This is bigger than right now or whether you agree with everything somebody said, it's their right to say it and have a free press. And in capitalism, the free press runs through these companies. We are witnessing the limiting of the number of people who can press the politicians for voters' benefit.

23:58And remember, it ain't supposed to just be TV hosts, let alone government-approved billionaire-owned stations. And this radio show that was just canceled, they did plenty of that. Hello, Secretary Clinton. Hi, how are you doing today? There has been a massive transfer of wealth from the middle class. We, the CBC, that introduced a package of bills yesterday that are about police accountability. We're advocating our communities. That's what I have faith in, is those hands knocking on doors, making phone calls, casting votes. Those are some of the candidates, many obviously now in office, who spoke on this show, Ibro, in the morning.

24:40And the hosts were out there, independent on politics and culture. Ebro also famously was an early critic of what he saw as Kanye West's emerging hate. He also confronted other artists about alleged battery against women. At a time where in the culture things can be just promotion, this was a place where people were really tested and debated. The other hosts, Laura Stiles and Peter Rosenberg, mixed culture with using that same platform to talk politics and civic life and have some hard conversations. I said, Kanye, the conversation's been open, bro. You're just not a part of it. And you're just chiming in right now because you got an album coming out.

25:26Are you having those conversations in your house about Black Lives Matter? You're talking about things you don't understand. And you're playing with things that people have died for. I keep saying I'm buying a Colin Kaepernick jersey. Because at least you can support him in that way. Because that's the only way I can support him. Congratulations, you played this out. Because you're dumbass, Kanye. and others like you have a tough time articulating your thoughts. And you need to shut up and sort to people who articulate thoughts well. There are people who study this, talk about this, have legislation on it.