White House chief of staff Susie Wiles expects all of President Trump’s Cabinet secretaries will stay in their posts through the first year of Trump’s second term, she said in a rare interview this week marking Trump’s first 100 days in office.
“They’re all spectacular performers, spectacular professionals. It’s a diverse group, and it’s — some of them are very atypical, so you’re never quite sure — but they have been spectacular, and they like each other,” Wiles told the New York Post. “They like what they’re doing; they’re committed.”
“It is part of the secret sauce of this administration,” she added.
Trump’s first term saw two major Cabinet shake-ups before he hit the one-year mark in 2018 — a departure from his predecessors who did not replace any Cabinet members during the first year they were in office, according to analysis from the nonpartisan Brookings Institution. For Trump, the shifts were also notable because both came amid a wave of reports of infighting and distrust in the upstart administration.
Trump’s first Homeland Security secretary, John Kelly, was moved to the chief of staff role in July 2017, after Trump fired his first chief, Reince Priebus; and Health Secretary Tom Price resigned in September 2017 amid scrutiny over his travel expenses.
Multiple members of Trump’s current Cabinet have faced backlash, in particular Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Hegseth has come under scrutiny from Democrats and Republicans following a spate of top aide firings and fallout from reports that he used the private messaging app Signal to discuss sensitive military plans about a March airstrike on Houthis in Yemen.
Trump has repeatedly defended Hegseth, and the White House denied a report last month that the president was considering a new Pentagon leader.
Wiles did not specifically address Hegseth’s controversies during the interview, the Post reported, but said there has been less infighting in Trump’s second term because the administration carefully selected people for their roles.
“I also think the team is really good and understands the nature of what it means to be a team member,” she added.
Wiles, a veteran political consultant from Florida, was Trump’s 2024 campaign co-chair and can be considered media shy compared to some of Trump’s more camera-friendly top aides.
“Susie likes to stay sort of in the back. Let me tell you — the ice baby. We call her the ice baby,” Trump said after he was declared the winner of the 2024 election.
In an interview with Axios before Trump’s January inauguration, Wiles previewed a more clamped-down administration compared to Trump’s often tumultuous early start in 2018.
“I don’t welcome people who want to work solo or be a star,” she said. “My team and I will not tolerate backbiting, second-guessing inappropriately, or drama.”
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