Jacksonville’s amazing Susie Wiles is out of her job as chief of staff in the White House.
That leaves everyone who knows her wondering: has she lost her touch, or is she just another victim of Donald Trump’s savage temper?
I can’t tell you. I’ve known here 30+ years, and she is not answering my calls. That suggests she has goofed up but certainly isn’t proof.
She has been called “the Ice Maiden.” She can be cool, or very cold if you have displeased her –cold but also warm and witty. I wrote a story she didn’t like one time and got a bit of frostbite.
Wiles was born in Lake City, the daughter of professional football star Pat Summerall. After college, Wiles got into politics and worked for Jack Kemp, Ronald Reagan and Jacksonville’s Tillie Fowler.
She lived and worked in Jacksonville, as a high-ranking member of the administration for Mayor John Delaney and his successor John Peyton.
Wiles became known as the campaign manager par excellence when she steered Rick Scott into the governor’s mansion in Tallahassee in 2010.
Scott was damaged goods, beaten up by the liberal media because he had been head of Columbia HCA, a company fined for Medicare fraud. He was not charged with anything but Wilies still had to overcome the media blitzkrieg.
After that success, she headed Trump’s campaign in Florida in 2016 and won that, too.
In his second term, after the term of President Befuddled, Trump made Wiles White House chief of staff.
As he tends to do, he lashed out at everyone around him when the midterm elections didn’t go well. The Daily Mirror reported that “Trump exploded at Susie Wiles and yelled until she left the room.”
Wiles resigned that night and was replaced by Stephen Miller.
The Mirror watered down its own story by quoting an anonymous source as saying Trump never would yell at Wiles. And she apparently was given an important job in Trump’s political operation, although that also is vague.
Other reports indicate that Wiles repeatedly called for increased spending on the midterm elections, but her warnings were ignored.
At nearly 70, having survived breast cancer and high level politics, it would not be surprising to hear Wiles announce retirement. If so, it would mark the end of an incredible career as a lobbyist and political consultant.
