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Susie Wiles is seen with Donald Trump and co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita as the former president meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at Trump Tower in New York City on September 27. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP via CNN Newsource)
By Steve Contorno, CNN
(CNN) — Donald Trump announced on Thursday that his campaign manager, Susie Wiles, will be named his White House chief of staff.
“Susie Wiles just helped me achieve one of the greatest political victories in American history, and was an integral part of both my 2016 and 2020 successful campaigns,” the president-elect said in a statement.
“Susie is tough, smart, innovative, and is universally admired and respected. Susie will continue to work tirelessly to Make America Great Again. It is a well-deserved honor to have Susie as the first-ever female Chief of Staff in United States history. I have no doubt that she will make our country proud,” Trump added.
CNN reported earlier Thursday that Wiles was considered the front-runner for the job but had some reservations about the role and had expressed to Trump certain conditions before she accepted, a source said. At the top of the list was more control over who can reach the president in the Oval Office.
“The clown car can’t come into the White House at will,” the source said. “And he agrees with her.”
During Trump’s first term, his chiefs of staff struggled to prevent a roving cast of informal advisers, family members, friends and other interlopers from getting inside the White House to meet with him. Trump is often influenced on an issue by whoever he speaks to last, a fact that is well-known within his circle and one that made life difficult on his top aides.
Wiles was widely credited for running what was seen as Trump’s most sophisticated and disciplined campaign, which included keeping many of the fringe voices in his orbit at bay.
For most of the campaign, she was in charge of the flight manifest for Trump’s private plane – a thankless job that required her to shut down access to the former president when he wouldn’t tell someone “no” himself. At times, she also had to confront Trump about keeping certain people at arm’s length – though, her inability to prevent far-right provocateur Laura Loomer from joining the former president at a debate and a 9/11 memorial service created significant blowback for her boss.
Brooke Rollins, who was also under consideration for chief of staff and had some big names aligning with her, stood down from vying from the role Wednesday after it became clear that seeking it would amount to a serious power struggle with Wiles and that the role was Wiles’ for the taking, according to a person familiar.
Rollins, who served in Trump’s first term, now runs the America First Policy Institute and is still expected to have a role in the second Trump administration.
The chief of staff post — the second-most-important office in the West Wing — is one of the few remaining jobs in the federal government to have never been held by a woman. Kamala Harris was the first woman to be vice president. And many other senior positions in the government have been helmed by women, including almost all of the Cabinet posts, top judicial seats and House leadership roles. But no woman has ever assumed the top Pentagon position, nor has one served on the joint chiefs of staff or as the chief justice of the Supreme Court.
The daughter of the late NFL broadcaster Pat Summerall and a seasoned political operative from Florida, Wiles is one of the longest-serving advisers in Trump’s orbit. After helping him win Florida in 2020, she served as his de facto chief of staff during his post-presidency and then led his campaign for the entirety of the race – a rare feat in Trump world.
On election night, Trump credited Wiles during his victory speech, though she declined to address the crowd gathered at the Palm Beach Convention Center, instead turning the microphone over to co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita.
Her willingness to stay in the background has endeared her to Trump and to his allies, several of whom have already endorsed her publicly for the job.
“Susie Wiles ran Trump’s best campaign of the three, and it wasn’t particularly close,” Turning Point USA CEO Charlie Kirk wrote on X. “She’s disciplined, she’s smart, and she doesn’t seek the limelight. She would make an incredible Chief of Staff. The president, and America, would be well served with Susie in that key role.”
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins and Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.
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