https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/07/5-things-you-need-to-know-about-susie-wiles-00188391
Susie Wiles is about to be the most powerful woman in Washington. But many people in this town are just learning who she is.
A veteran of Florida politics, Wiles rose from Donald Trump’s 2016 Florida campaign director to senior adviser to his 2024 bid. She’s credited with running a disciplined, professionalized campaign operation that helped Trump secure a sweeping Electoral College victory and probably a popular vote win as well.
Wiles’ selection is unsurprising. She’s earned the respect and ear of the former president, and has demonstrated an ability to help control Trump’s impulses — to the extent that’s possible — in a way few others have. In a statement, Trump said Wiles is “tough, smart, innovative, and is universally admired and respected.”
But she’s still a Washington outsider with little experience in government — which could be a challenge as she takes on one of the most demanding and complex governing staff jobs anywhere. Wiles, 67, rarely speaks publicly — at Trump’s victory speech early Wednesday, she almost seemed to recoil at the candidate’s invitation to say a few words — believing that an understated, behind-the-scenes presence can be effective.
Here’s five things to know about Wiles:
Her experience is in running campaigns — not the government
Wiles was a fixture in Florida politics for decades before helping both Trump and Ron DeSantis with winning campaigns.
She is credited with saving DeSantis’ struggling 2018 campaign for governor, when he was a low-profile congressman. Wiles later split with DeSantis, prompting the Florida governor to convince the Trump team to fire her ahead of his 2020 campaign.
Wiles didn’t let the slight go. She used her up-close knowledge of DeSantis to dismantle him when he ran against Trump in the GOP presidential primary this year. Wiles rarely posts on social media, but she did just that the day DeSantis ended his presidential bid, writing “Bye, bye” in a now-deleted post on X.
Before Trump, Wiles worked on local and national campaigns for decades. She’s worked in private-sector lobbying, both for Ballard Partners and Mercury. Early in her career, she served as chief of staff to the mayor of Jacksonville, and she held low-level roles working for members of Congress and at the Department of Labor.
She’s worked for a spectrum of Republicans, from Mitt Romney to Rick Scott
In addition to working for Rep. Jack Kemp (N.Y.), Wiles was a scheduler for former President Ronald Reagan and worked in Reagan’s Labor Department.
Since then, she has worked for Republicans across the ideological spectrum. She was deputy director of operations for the vice presidential campaign for the Bush-Quayle ticket in 1988, and Wiles was co-chair of Romney’s Florida advisory council during his 2012 presidential bid.
She also ran Scott’s 2010 campaign for Florida governor and briefly managed former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman’s 2012 presidential campaign.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, once Trump’s chief rival for the GOP presidential nomination, called Wiles a “great choice” for chief of staff.
When she joined Trump’s 2016 bid for the White House as co-chairwoman of Florida, Wiles encountered skepticism from some fellow Republican operatives. But she explained to the Tampa Bay Times at the time that she felt none of the other Republicans running for the White House represented the kind of change she felt Washington needed.
“I said, ‘I don’t want this to continue.’ I think it seriously will damage our republic and who among that group can really have the fortitude to shift what I’ve seen happening over all these years?” Wiles said.
Wiles also learned early on to brush aside some of Trump’s more boorish traits and inflammatory rhetoric.
“I will tell you this: The Donald Trump that I have come to know does not behave that way, and the lens that I look at him through, I don’t see any of that. I see strengths, I see smarts, I see a work ethic that is unparalleled,” she told the Tampa Bay Times in 2016. “I blanch sometimes. But, again, it’s not the Donald Trump that I have come to know.”
She turned Trump’s dysfunctional political universe into something organized
Trump’s 2016 campaign, his White House and his losing 2020 campaign had something in common: They were a dysfunctional mess, characterized by excessive infighting, backstabbing, leaking and a cast of controversial characters who generated headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Then Wiles entered the picture. After Trump hit a political low in 2021 — having lost not just reelection, but the support of some Republicans after the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol — he hired Wiles to oversee his comeback.
Since then, Trump’s third bid for office has been described by campaign pros on both sides of the aisle as a particularly professional operation, despite Trump’s own tendencies to embrace chaos. And Wiles has even had success reining in Trump, stepping in at times to get him back on message or to see why some of his decisions could be tremendous political liabilities. She has encouraged Trump to tone down his rhetoric about losing the 2020 election and to urge his supporters to vote by mail.
Wiles “just has a master ability to manage multiple things of significance simultaneously,” Chris LaCivita, who served as co-campaign manager with Wiles, said in an interview Thursday, “which makes her, from a management standpoint, the perfect pick.”
LaCivita added that “organization matters … because if you don’t pay attention to the small things, the big things will slip by.”
She is a longtime lobbyist
She lobbied for the tobacco company Swisher International while running the Trump campaign.
Wiles is a leader of the lobbying giant Mercury, whose clients include SpaceX, AT&T, and the Embassy of Qatar (although Wiles is not registered to lobby for any of these clients).
Wiles, who has been with Trump’s most recent campaign since 2022, lobbied Congress on “FDA regulations” between 2023 and the beginning of 2024. Mercury was paid $120,000 for its work for Swisher during that time, according to public disclosures. Mercury ended its relationship with Swisher earlier this year.
In a statement, Mercury CEO Kieran Mahoney congratulated Wiles on her selection, saying “This is great news for the country. Susie has been a valued colleague. We are all proud of her and wish her the best.”
She is the daughter of legendary sportscaster Pat Summerall
Wiles grew up in New Jersey and is one of Summerall’s three children. Her first job in politics was as an assistant to the late Kemp, who was one of Summerall’s teammates during his playing career with the New York Giants.
Summerall, an alcoholic, credited Wiles with his decision to get sober and into the Betty Ford Clinic for treatment. In his memoir, he wrote, “I hadn’t been there much for my kids, but Susan’s letter made it clear that I’d hurt them even in my absence.”
When he died in Dallas in 2013, Wiles described her father as “an extraordinary man and a wonderful father.”
One of Wiles’ colleagues also noted she’s related to Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, the U.S. naval officer who headed an expedition to Japan in the 1850s credited with breaking down the country’s isolationism and opening up trade and diplomatic relations with the West.
