WASHINGTON — White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles told The Post in a rare interview Tuesday that President Trump’s first 100 days had been a smashing success — but there is more to do.
“Well, like in school, you get grades for different things, so for productivity, I’d give us an A+,” said Wiles, 67, citing Trump’s 142 executive orders signed since his swearing-in Jan. 20, his successful crackdown on illegal immigration, and his work on securing foreign investment in the US and trade deals with America’s biggest economic partners.
By contrast, Wiles gave the Trump White House an “incomplete” on their efforts to reverse the worst outcomes wrought by their predecessors.
“Where I would say there was not just sort of great, amazing success is perhaps our underestimation of the size and scope of the government that Joe Biden left us,” she said.
“The economy, the war between Russia and Ukraine, the budget, the taxes writ large, which I consider to be different than the budget, the sort of institutional resistance to even recognizing that we’ve been ripped off by foreign nations that require us to do tariffs.
“Within the system, there’s not even the ability, in many cases, to recognize that the patient was very sick and dying a slow death and needed some, you know, some serious and quick resuscitation.”
Wiles, the first-ever female White House chief of staff, was instrumental in getting the administration ready to hit the ground running in the West Wing.
The co-chair of Trump’s 2024 campaign recruited a loyal staff, many coming from the trail and pledging to be faithful to the president’s agenda and avoid chaos in the second administration.
Wiles, nicknamed the “ice maiden” by Trump, said that she has never seen her role as being a gatekeeper for the president — a core historical function of her position — and that she wants him to have access to the people that matter.
“I want him to have more inputs, not less, more information, not less, more people talking to him, not fewer. So I don’t really think that’s gatekeeping, per se. That’s the way he works best, and that’s what he wants,” she said.
“I view my responsibility as making sure he gets unvarnished information and complete truth. And however many people it takes to get there, and whoever they are — of course, within reason — we actually encourage it.”
While most modern presidents have set 100 days as the benchmark for early success Wiles argued a better metric will be how the administration does in the next six months.
‘If peace is not achieved… it can’t be achieved’
When discussing the White House’s goals for Trump’s first months, Wiles said that while Trump hopes to quickly settle the Russia-Ukraine war, it simply may not be achievable.
“The president has devoted 100 days and his very top people to Russia and Ukraine, and if peace is not achieved, it will be because it can’t be achieved. It just cannot,” she said.
“I don’t know whether that will be the case or not. I mean, it may well be that we can make some headway in the next couple of weeks, but nobody would have tried it but Donald Trump. Nobody would have gotten these people to the table but Donald Trump. And if they want to continue to kill people, while it’s abhorrent, you know, he can’t stop that.”
She also said that she wasn’t surprised at all when Trump dramatically announced at a Feb. 4 press conference that the US would take over the war-torn Gaza Strip.
“Somebody else said I looked surprised. But no, he’d been talking about it,” Wiles said.
“I was not surprised at all. And he believes it ought to be a freedom zone, a peace zone, and that the only people that can accomplish that is us. And so he meant that, still means it.”
Trump the trade deal ‘closer’
Trump has been heavily involved in trade talks with nations hoping to avoid his “reciprocal” tariffs set to take effect in July, but his role is primarily to be the “closer,” Wiles said.
“He’s been extremely hands on. He’s taken a call with virtually every leader of every country… there’s sort of 15 countries that really matter in all of this,” she said of her boss.
“He has either talked to or met with all of them. The team is actively engaged with all of them right now,
“And he’s a closer. So I think, I think what will happen is [Commerce Secretary] Howard [Lutnick], [Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent], [US Trade Representative] Jamieson [Greer], whomever will get a deal and then he’ll close it.”
Wiles added that “they’re very close on a couple of countries” — speaking after Lutnick claimed Tuesday afternoon that a deal was “done, done, done” with an unidentified nation.
‘You never get all that you want’ in legislation
Trump said Tuesday afternoon while leaving the White House for a 100-day rally in Michigan that his next 100 days would focus on getting Congress to pass a sweeping series of campaign promises — including ending taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security benefits.
“The next period of time, I think, my biggest focus will be on Congress, the deal that we’re working on,” Trump said on the White House lawn. “That would be the biggest bill in the history of our country in terms of tax cuts and regulation cuts, and other things.”
Wiles offered a candid assessment of the path forward, which will require Trump to maintain unity among the slim Republican majorities in the House and Senate.
“I think we can get there. The president laid out to the speaker [Mike Johnson] and to the leader [John Thune] his firm priorities. Those things are his priorities. But you know, maybe you won’t go to the mat to them — things that are important, but not in the top tier, and then those things that he would oppose,” Wiles said.
“The Hill is very clear on what he thinks. And you never get all that you want. You go into it that way. But I think we have a great working relationship with both houses, and I think we’ll get most of the things that he campaigned on — in sort of order of importance to him, and that will be done without any cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, or any senior benefits.”
No Cabinet changes coming
Wiles also said that she expects that Trump will keep all of his cabinet secretaries through the first year of his term — including those who have taken some heat.
“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,” she said.
“They like what they’re doing. They’re committed. It is part of the secret sauce of this administration.”
Wiles did not specifically address controversies involving Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who recently fired or demoted five close staffers, ostensibly over leaks.
‘Zero tolerance’
Asked about the administration’s relationship with the press, Wiles said that she doesn’t think that White House journalists fear crossing the president or the possibility that their credentials will be revoked.
“Only one person in the whole 400 or however many credentialed press have been removed [from the pool], one. So if there’s a fear factor, I feel that it’s unfounded, because 1/400th of the press corps isn’t a reason to be fearful,” she said.
“And I think, I think at some level, while there are many views about the president’s agenda and what we’re doing and what he ran on, maybe they don’t all agree with that, but I think they appreciate the transparency and the availability, particularly coming off of the Biden administration,” Wiles said.
“They like the ability to be able to ask the president [questions]. He doesn’t have really much of a press gatekeeper either. He’s available — people call him on a cellphone. So I think at some level, that’s appreciated by members of the media.”
In another major change from Trump’s first term, West Wing in-fighting has been substantially reduced, which Wiles credits to careful picking of staffers.
“We have zero tolerance for leaks. It doesn’t mean there aren’t any, but we have zero tolerance for it. And we take serious precautions to prevent it where it’s important,” she said.
“Some things don’t matter if they leak. I think we’re transparent, so transparent that they’re not that many things to leak about. You know, if you try to keep everything the secret, then anything that gets out is a leak. We’re the reverse of that. I also think the team is really good and understands the nature of what it means to be a team member.”
Wiles said many of the staff have known each other for years and that “we picked the staff with deliberateness to make sure we didn’t have you know people who were trying to become a star or necessarily make a name for themselves, but we’re really here for the president’s mission.”
“We don’t have arguing and fighting,” she said. “We don’t have as many leaks. It’s much more cohesive.”
Near the close of The Post interview, Wiles volunteered that Trump is enjoying his second stint in Washington.
“The president is having fun,” she said. “Yeah, everything is reported to be so deadly serious and described as such a pressure cooker. And you know, that’s true, but the president is enjoying being president, being able to fulfill the commitments he made to the voters, making new friends and meeting new people, at the same time enjoying being back in the White House, back in Washington.”
