Elon Musk an ‘odd, odd duck’ and JD Vance a ‘conspiracy theorist for a decade’: Susie Wiles

From criticizing Attorney General Pam Bondi as a “blooper” in the Jeffrey Epstein case to saying that no reasonable person could believe Elon Musk did a good job dismantling USAID, Wiles revealed her own thoughts about her boss and the work of his aggressive administration. The ratings are even more pronounced because Wells, before now, has kept a low profile.

Wiles dismissed Vanity Fair’s work as a “hit piece,” and a number of Cabinet officials and other aides rushed to her defense. But Wells in particular did not deny any details or quotes.

Here are some takeaways from Wells’ interview:

Wells defends Trump while comparing him to an alcoholic

Wiles described Trump as a sharp figure who thinks broadly, but who is often disinterested in the details of process and policy.

She assessed Trump as having an alcoholic personality, even though the president does not drink alcohol. But the personality trait is something she learns from her father, famous sportscaster Pat Summerall.

“High-functioning alcoholics, or alcoholics in general, have exaggerated personalities when they drink. So I’m somewhat of an expert on big personalities,” she said.

“I’m not a helpful person,” Wiles said. “…I try to be deliberate about what I get involved in. I guess time will tell if I’m effective or not.”

Trump’s retaliation campaign has taken longer than Wells initially wanted

Wiles emphasized Trump’s cruelty and his determination to exact revenge on those he considered his political enemies, especially those who prosecuted him.

“We have a loose agreement that the scores will be settled before the first 90 days are up,” Wiles said early in Trump’s second administration, telling Vanity Fair that she had already tried to curb Trump’s tendency to retaliate.

But in August 2025, that changed. She added, “I don’t think he’s on a revenge tour,” considering that Trump has a different principle: “I don’t want what happened to me to happen to someone else.”

However, she said, “There may be an element of that from time to time” and Trump “will do that… when there is an opportunity.”

“Who will blame him?” I asked rhetorically. “Not me.”

Asked about New York Attorney General Letitia James’ prosecution for mortgage fraud, Wiles replied: “Well, that might be the only punishment.”

In the Epstein case, Pam Bondi is on fire and Trump was ‘wrong’ about Bill Clinton

In some of her most striking comments, Wiles said Attorney General Pam Bondi “whined” about the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case, particularly trying to manage public expectations by suggesting that the Justice Department had a client list waiting to be released only for the department to later say it didn’t exist.

Wells also said Trump promoted false narratives that former President Bill Clinton frequented Epstein’s notorious island. There is “no evidence” that those visits occurred, according to Wells, and no findings incriminating Clinton at all.

“The president was wrong about that,” Wells said.

Wells cares about Trump’s inner circle, and he has ideas

Wells often sits off to the side in the Oval Office, out of view of the camera. But she’s paying attention.

Vice President J.D. Vance has been “a conspiracy theorist for a decade,” she said, and his conversion to MAGA — where he once compared Trump to Adolf Hitler — was “a kind of politics.”

She said that Elon Musk exceeded the efforts of the Ministry of government Efficiency. She described him as a “complete solo act…a weird, weird duck” and a “known ketamine user”. (Musk admitted to using the dissociative drug.) She recalled having to explain to him that “you can’t just keep people out of their offices,” and said his rejection of USAID made her “terrified at first.”

“Because I think that anyone who cares about government and has taken an interest in USAID believes, as I did, that they are doing a very good job,” she said, adding that “no reasonable person could think that the USAID process was a good process. No one.”

It describes Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as “Crooked Bobby” and White House Budget Director Russell Vaught as “the ultimate right-wing fanatic.”

But in her praise of Kennedy, Wiles made clear her embrace of the administration’s hardliners: “He goes too far — and some might say too much. But I say that in order to get back to the middle, you have to push things too far.”

Wells says Trump’s tariffs are “more painful” than expected

Few events have undermined Trump’s standing more than his April 2 announcement of “Liberation Day” tariffs, in which he announced import taxes ranging from 10% to 99% on most of the world’s countries. Trump’s move sparked fears of a recession and a delay in imposing his broader tariff strategy, leading to volatile negotiations and new threats of tariffs.

Wells described the April proposal as “a lot of thinking out loud” and said there were internal disagreements about it among Trump aides. She said she asked his aides to “work out what he’s actually thinking” and asked Vance to ask Trump “not to talk about tariffs today” until his team was “fully united.”

Trump continued on his own.

Wales said she believed a compromise on tariffs would be successful. But she concluded, “It was more painful than I expected.”

Wells admits immigration mistakes

When a federal judge rebuked the administration for deporting Maryland resident Kelmar Abrego Garcia, Trump publicly defended the approach even though the administration told the court it was a mistake. Wells didn’t mince words, telling Vanity Fair at the time: “We have to look more seriously at our deportation process.”

When the administration deported two American citizen mothers and their children, including one who had cancer, Wiles was more blunt: “I don’t know, maybe it’s an overzealous Border Patrol agent. I can’t understand how I made that mistake, but someone made that mistake.”

Trump appears more skeptical of Putin’s intentions than he reflects in public

After nearly four years of fighting, Trump made clear that Russian President Vladimir Putin could be persuaded to end the war in Ukraine if Kiev agreed to cede Ukrainian territory in the eastern Donbas region, and if Western powers offered economic incentives that would bring Russia back into the global economic order.

“I actually think President Putin wants to see the end of it,” Trump told reporters on Monday.

But Wells expressed to Vanity Fair his deep doubts about Putin.

“Experts think that if he can get the rest of Donetsk, he will be happy,” Wiles said in August, referring to the region that is a key part of Donbas.

“Donald Trump thinks he wants the whole country,” Wiles told her interviewer.

For Trump, the boat strikes are aimed at removing Nicolas Maduro from power

Wells said in November that Trump “wants to keep blowing up boats until Maduro cries.”

Trump has repeatedly said that “Maduro’s days are numbered” as the United States intensifies its deadly attacks on ships in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific. The administration claims that the targets are drug smuggling gangs.

However, Trump and administration officials have stopped short of saying they want to overthrow the Maduro regime. They insist that the strikes, which have killed at least 95 people in 25 known incidents since September, are a strategy to stop the flow of fentanyl and other illicit drugs into the United States.

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Associated Press reporters Aamer Madhani and Josh Boak contributed from Washington.