Vanity Fair author Chris Whipple is defending his explosive profile of Susie Wiles amid the White House chief of staff’s attempt to discredit the piece—despite her prior enthusiasm.
Whipple told The Daily Beast Podcast that his story, which included revealing comments about Donald Trump and other administration figures like Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President JD Vance, and Attorney General Pam Bondi, didn’t reflect “four-dimensional chess” on her part. Rather, the 11-interview session with Wiles, 68, over as many months was because she just “wanted to talk.”
“My instinct about this, having covered a few White Houses, is that with this White House and with Susie, it’s never four-dimensional chess, ever. I think Michael Wolff would agree with me, probably. It’s never even three-dimensional chess. It’s not even chess. It might be checkers,” Whipple told host Joanna Coles. “I just don’t think they’re that clever about it, or calculating.”
Whipple, whose works include a 2017 book about White House chiefs of staff and one about last year’s presidential election, said Wiles felt open to talking to him because of his reputation for being “even-handed, on both sides of the aisle.”
“When the subject of Vanity Fair came up, that this would become a piece for Vanity Fair, I can tell you she was all in,” Whipple emphasized. “She was enthusiastic about it, and here we are.”
Wiles is now claiming that Whipple’s article was a hit piece with a lot of context missing. Whipple disagrees, likening Wiles’ complaint to a “non-denial denial.”
“It’s interesting that the White House has not disputed a single fact in the piece because we’re on absolutely solid ground,” he explained. “Everything in that piece—everything Susie said—was on the record and on tape, by the way. So look, I understand that, you know, they’ve made a statement. It speaks for itself. But the Vanity Fair piece is absolutely solid, and all of her comments were on the record.”
Whipple, for instance, produced a tape of Wiles talking about Elon Musk “microdosing” after she denied doing so.
After publication of the story, Trump told the New York Post that he stands by Wiles continuing as chief of staff. The president also supported her description of him as having an “alcoholic’s personality.”
“No, she meant that I’m — you see, I don’t drink alcohol. So everybody knows that — but I’ve often said that if I did, I’d have a very good chance of being an alcoholic. I have said that many times about myself, I do. It’s a very possessive personality,” Trump told the paper.
Trump also criticized the story and Whipple himself.
“I didn’t read it, but I don’t read Vanity Fair — but she’s done a fantastic job,” he said of Wiles. “I think from what I hear, the facts were wrong, and it was a very misguided interviewer, purposely misguided.”
Whipple responded by welcoming any potential legal challenge that the litigious president—who just this week sued the BBC for $10 billion—may bring.
“I can’t read Donald Trump’s mind. I’m not going to try to psychoanalyze him. But you know, he doesn’t shrink from a good fight either,” Whipple said.
“I say bring it. Let’s have the fight, if he wants, over the facts here,” he continued. “The facts are incontestable and the interviews are what they are, and Susie said what she said.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.
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