Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the preparations, personnel decisions and policy deliberations of Donald Trump’s transition. POLITICO Pro subscribers receive a version of this newsletter first. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Eli | Email Lauren| Email Lisa | Email Megan The chief of staff pick is in. SUSIE WILES, who orchestrated DONALD TRUMP’s improbable political comeback alongside CHRIS LaCIVITA, will serve as his White House chief of staff. Ahead of the announcement, it seemed like most of the GOP was coalescing around “Ice Baby” or “Ice Maiden” (as Trump affectionately calls her) for the job. Former Speaker KEVIN McCARTHY, who remains in touch with Trump, recently advocated for Wiles on the “Guy Benson Show,” saying she would be a “great chief of staff and should do the job.” CHARLIE KIRK, the influential conservative podcaster and Turning Point USA founder who campaigned extensively for Trump, agreed in a post on X: “Susie Wiles ran Trump’s best campaign of the three. ... She’s disciplined, she’s smart, and she doesn’t seek the limelight. She would make an incredible chief of staff.” He was quickly backed up by Rep. ANNA PAULINA LUNA of Florida, where Wiles rose through the ranks as an operative. “Susie is the only one who can do it,” said one Trump adviser who was granted anonymity to speak candidly. “Susie is the one that everyone respects.” There was only one other name being floated for chief of staff: BROOKE ROLLINS , who runs America First Policy Institute. She was one of the speakers on stage at the infamous Madison Square Garden rally, and she played a key role in the first Trump White House as director of the Domestic Policy Council. Chief of staff is one of the most important staffing decisions that a president makes. The chief of staff typically controls access to the president, helps to set the administration’s priorities and is viewed as a partner to the president, responsible for telling him the hard truths among a sea of staff eager to please the boss. Who the president selects to fill the role can say a lot about him and how he intends to run his administration. Author CHRIS WHIPPLE — who wrote “The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency” — said the chief of staff pick is the difference between success and failure for every administration. “History shows you cannot govern effectively without empowering a White House chief of staff as first among equals to execute your agenda,” Whipple said. There are many reasons why Trump chose Wiles, who will be the first woman to hold the job. She largely eschews the spotlight — except for when she’s hitting back at MARK CUBAN for saying Trump doesn’t have “strong, intelligent women” around him. It’s a trait that has made her an effective operator and helped keep her in Trump’s good graces. (When Trump called her onstage to speak at his victory party, she politely declined. “Susie likes to stay in the background. She’s not in the background,” he said.) She is one of the few top officials to survive an entire Trump campaign and was part of the team that put together a far more professional operation for his third White House bid — even if the former president routinely broke through those guardrails, anyway. People close to Trump note that she agreed to help the former president back in March of 2021 when he was at a political low point, and he respects her opinion. Plus, she is the rare person in Trump’s world who is widely admired, trusted and respected by lawmakers and young staffers alike. But what is already the toughest job in Washington would be even more so, if Trump’s first term is any guide. As she no doubt knows, Trump is a punishing and exacting boss who cycled through chiefs of staff during his first term and routinely sought to disempower them. He fired his first one, REINCE PRIEBUS , after six months in a tweet from Air Force One while Priebus sat in an SUV on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews. JOHN KELLY — the former military general who replaced Priebus, attempted to limit access to the president and keep Trump more focused — also ran aground as the president tired of being more tightly managed. (And in the close of the race, Kelly warned Trump would rule like a dictator.) When Trump turned to NICK AYERS, then chief of staff to Vice President MIKE PENCE, to replace Kelly, the young Georgian wanted nothing to do with the gig. He wound up with MICK MULVANEY, who had the pleasure of running OMB while also serving as chief of staff. He lasted a year in the job, getting entangled in Trump’s attempts to extort a political favor from Ukraine by withholding defense aid that led to impeachment proceedings. MARK MEADOWS, who replaced Mulvaney, also wound up under investigation for his role in pressuring state election officials to help Trump overturn the 2020 election results. Wiles is no stranger to that, either. In February 2019, Trump fired Wiles as a top adviser in Florida after Gov. Ron DeSantis suspected she was responsible for leaking internal correspondence. Clearly, she's used to Trump’s demanding nature. But leading a campaign is one thing — running a White House is another. Megan Messerly contributed to this report. MESSAGE US — Are you REINCE PRIEBUS? We want to hear from you. And we’ll keep you anonymous! Email us at westwingtips@politico.com. Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe here!
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