Trump's chief of staff gives rare interview: Here are 5 things we learned

U.S. President Donald Trump's chief of staff Susie Wiles, widely regarded in Washington as the quiet power behind the throne, spoke candidly about some of the administration's shortcomings and delivered a frank assessment of the people around the president in a rare, wide-ranging series of interviews published Tuesday by Vanity Fair.

Speaking to writer Chris Whipple, Wiles sounded off on Elon Musk’s drug use, seemed to question Vice-President JD Vance’s conversion to the Trump camp, said the president’s tariffs have been "more painful than expected," suggested Trump is not done with his assault on Venezuelan boats and said some of the legal action he's taken against his foes could be seen as a form of "retribution."

In a post on X, her first in more than a year, Wiles called the article a "disingenuously framed hit piece."

"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 wrote.

Trump, meanwhile, has since said Wiles said nothing he hasn't already said about himself publicly. 

Wiles has "done a fantastic job," he told the New York Post, while calling Whipple "a very misguided interviewer, purposely misguided."

Here are five notable things that came from Wiles’s 11 interviews.

Wiles is known as something of a Trump whisperer but conceded he's an imposing figure who's hard to wrangle at times. She said Trump, who does not drink, has an "alcoholic's personality."

"High-functioning alcoholics or alcoholics in general, their personalities are exaggerated when they drink," Wiles, the daughter of a hard-drinking former professional football player, told Whipple.

"And so I'm a little bit of an expert in big personalities," she said, and Trump "operates with a view that there's nothing he can't do. Nothing, zero, nothing."

She said her leadership style is effectively letting Trump be Trump, while steering him in what she thinks is the right direction, when necessary. "I'm not an enabler. I'm also not a bitch. I try to be thoughtful about what I even engage in. I guess time will tell whether I've been effective."

While largely deferential to Trump, Wiles made some eyebrow-raising remarks about other officials.

She seemed to question the initial sincerity of Vance's transformation from a never-Trumper to the avowed acolyte he is now — an about-face that happened as he was trying to win a Senate seat in Trump-friendly Ohio.

"I think his conversion was a little bit more, sort of political," she said, contrasting Vance's change of heart with that of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who she said is "not the sort of person that would violate his principles."