‘De-facto leader’ of the Trump campaign tipped to be a power broker

“Wiles and Trump are loyal to each other because, after DeSantis, Trump brought Susie back from the political dead,” a source told The Hill in 2022.

Key to her appeal, reports claim, was that, unlike other members of Trump’s entourage who sought to scrape from him, Ms. Wiles did not seek to gain political capital in return.

When she first accepted the job of managing Trump’s campaign in the run-up to the 2022 midterms, she asked only that her travel expenses be covered, reports suggest.

“She is focused solely on doing what she can for my father,” Donald Trump Jr previously said of Mrs Wiles. “It’s not about making money, it’s not about getting press, it’s not about getting credit, it’s about doing everything she can to fight for my father.”

Described variously as “the most powerful Republican you don’t know” and “the most feared” political operative in America, Mrs. Wiles is reportedly one of the few people respected enough by the president to listen when she is disagree with him.

The bear pit of politics

Taking over the mantle of Trump’s chief of staff would be no mean feat. Of her four predecessors, all of whom were men, one was fired via Twitter, two are now outspoken opponents of the president-elect, and the last, Mark Meadows, is still being pursued on charges of trying to overturn the 2020 election.

But Ms. Wiles is no stranger to the male-dominated bear pit of Republican politics.

Born and raised in New Jersey, Ms Wiles is the daughter of the late NFL star and broadcaster Pat Summerall. The campaign manager first cut her teeth in politics as a planner in Ronald Regan’s successful 1980 campaign.

She went on to develop a reputation for winning in Florida as chief of staff to Jacksonville Mayor John Delaney in the 1990s, as well as to Florida Congresswoman Tillie Fowler.

“I’ve rarely met anyone with her instincts for policy and politics and where they intersect,” Mr Delaney said earlier. “She knows what to magnify that will resonate with the public.”

As a young aide in the Reagan administration, she experienced her first scandal when her boss Raymond Donovan was investigated for alleged ties to the Florida mob.

Her reputation came under further scrutiny amid allegations that the former president had shown her secret documents for which he had been indicted.

There is also speculation surrounding her daughter, Caroline Wiles. The younger Wiles was hired by the White House as deputy assistant to the president and director of planning, despite the Washington Post noting that, with her incomplete degree, she had an “unusual background” for the overall role.

Broad coalition

Having served as executive director of Trump’s Save America PAC since March 2021, Susie Wiles has united a broad coalition of Republicans under the Trump banner to lead him to victory. “She has to interact with people who think (the election was stolen) and people who don’t,” political strategist Michael Caputo told CNN.

Her skills as a dealmaker suggest her willingness to compromise with various factions in her party to bring about change.

“I come from a very traditional background,” she once told Politico. “In my early career, things like manners mattered, and there was an expected level of decorum. And so I understand that the GOP today is different. There are changes we have to live with to get the things done that we’re trying to do.”

Those who worry about what another Trump term will look like can take solace in the fact that Ms. Wiles is widely seen as a moderating influence on her boss’s more capricious tendencies.

“Her power with Trump is based on her ability to present him with a wide range of options,” a source previously told The Hill. “Because Trump is impulsive, Wiles makes sure Trump has heard the full range of options, pros and cons. She makes sure he has all the information.

“When he does that, Trump makes good decisions. When he doesn’t, that’s when bad decisions are made.”

Former Florida congressman Carlos Curbelo sums up the sentiment among many Republicans: “If Donald Trump is going to be president, I want Susie Wiles involved.”