December 17, 2025 • 13 mins
In this episode, Jon Decker breaks down recent comments from Suzy Wiles, White House Chief of Staff, as she offers rare insight into President Trump’s leadership style and decision-making inside the administration. Decker explores key policy areas including foreign policy priorities, healthcare challenges, and the state of the U.S. economy, while addressing ongoing political controversies and media narratives.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the White House Briefing Room for Wednesday, December seventeenth.
I'm John Decker. A firestorm in Washington as White House
Chief of Staff Susie Wiles speaks candidly to Vanity Fair
about the President. The President set to deliver a nationally
televised address from the White House, Congress fails to extend
(00:25):
expiring Obamacare subsidies, some warning signs for the US economy,
and the President ratchets up the pressure on Venezuela. But
we begin this Wednesday with Susie Wiles, the White House
chief of Staff. President Trump's chief of Staff, Susie Wiles
rarely speaks on the record. She prefers to stay out
(00:48):
of the spotlight and has been credited by the President's
allies with minimizing the drama at the White House and
helping President Trump quickly enact his agenda. But in a
series of eleven interviews for Vanity Fair magazine over the
past year with author Chris Whipple, she spoke candidly and
(01:08):
on the record about how she wields power inside the
White House, and she also offered reflections on the President's
policies and the staff that she manages. It's those on
the record reflections that have gotten a lot of attention
in Washington, DC. In that article posted online, Susie Wiles
(01:30):
provided blunt assessments of the president's top aids, their motivations,
their shortcomings, and their successes. And she said that the president,
who doesn't drink, operates with what she called an alcoholics personality.
She called Elon Musk an odd duck. And she said
(01:51):
that Vice President JD. Vance has been what she called
a conspiracy theorist for a decade. The article itself provide
a lot of surprises and a lot of eyebrows were
raised because Susie Wiles she never talks, but she spoke
to the author of this article. She said that she
(02:11):
had a loose agreement, as she called it, with the
President that he would end his score settling before the
first ninety days of the administration were over. But President
Trump has continued to push his administration to take action
against those he believes have slighted him, including publicly calling
(02:31):
for the criminal investigation of critics like former Federal Bureau
of Investigation Director James Comy and New York Attorney General
Letitia James. As Susie Wiles told Vanity Fair, I don't
think he's on a retribution tour. In some cases it
may look like retribution, and there may be an element
(02:51):
of that from time to time. Who would blame him,
she said, not me. Wiles also spoke about ongoing efforts
to try to end the war in Ukraine. She said
that the president believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin won't
be satisfied with getting part of Ukraine. She said in
that article, Donald Trump thinks he wants the whole country.
(03:15):
Wiles was also asked about the Trump administration strategy in
Venezuela and its lethal boat strike campaign, which has killed
more than ninety people. She said that President Trump believes
that Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro heads a powerful drug cartel.
As Susie Wiles told Vanity Fair, he wants to keep
(03:36):
on blowing up boats until Meduro cries uncle, and people
way smarter than me on that say that he will.
Susie Wiles also spoke about the administration's handling of the
investigative files about deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Wiles said
that Attorney General Pambondi, in her words, completely whiffed on
(03:59):
understanding that the key constituency in the Trump coalition cared
about releasing the files. Wiles also weighed in on President
Trump's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. She said, they were, you know,
sort of young single whatever. I know, it's a pass
a word, but sort of young single playboys together. Now,
(04:20):
President Trump was in his forties and his fifties at
the time that he socialized with Jeffrey Epstein, and it's
also important to remember that being mentioned in those files
is not an indication of any wrongdoing. The president has
alleged that former President Bill Clinton visited Epstein's private Caribbean
island more than two dozen times, but Susie Wiles told
(04:45):
Vanity Fair there is no evidence of those visits. She
went on to say that the President, in her words,
was wrong about that. Now, on Tuesday, White House Press
Secretary Caroline Levitt addressed reporters in the driveway at the
White House and criticize the Vanity Fair reporter Chris Whipple
and the story that was just published.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
This is, unfortunately another example of disingenuous reporting where you
have a reporter who took the Chief of Staff's words
wildly out of context, did not include the context those
conversations were had within. And then further, I think the
most egregious part of this article was the bias of
omission that was clearly present. And we see a lot
(05:28):
of this when dealing with the media every day. You
will leave out important context, leave out comments in facts.
You know, many people in this building spoke with that
reporter in those comments were never included in the story,
probably because it didn't push this false narrative of chaos
and confusion that the reporter was clearly trying to push.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Caroline Levitt also said that Wiles has the full support
of the President and the entire White House staff.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
What I'll say about our chief of staff, as you've
seen from not just myself but also the entire cabinet,
in a groundswell of support from people on Capitol Hill
who don't even work in this building, about how incredible
Susie Wiles has been to President Trump, and he's been
able to accomplish so much because of his leadership and
his tenacity, but also because of Chief of Staff Wiles's
(06:18):
leadership in her ability to effectuate his agenda.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
As for Wiles, she put out a post on social
media after this piece was published, she called it a
disingenuously framed hit piece. She said significant context was disregarded,
and much of what I and others said about the
team and the President was left out of the story.
(06:42):
She continued on her post, I assume after reading it
that this was done to paint an overwhelmingly chaotic and
negative narrative about the president and our team. As for
President Trump, he defended his chief of staff in an
exclusive interview with The New York Post, saying she was
right to tell Vanity Fair he has that alcoholics personality.
(07:07):
He also said he has confidence in Wiles to continue
in her role. The President in that interview with The
New York Post said, 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 have
(07:27):
a very possessive personality. Now, the President was asked in
that New York Post interview if he still has full
confidence in Wiles, and the President responded, she's fantastic. The
President also said in that phone interview that he thought
that the interviewer Chris Whipple may have deceived Wiles regarding
his focus. Now, there's no indication that Chris Whipple, the
(07:50):
author of this two part piece in Vanity Fair, deceived
Susie Wiles or anybody else that cooperated with this article.
In fact, there was full cooperation. Chris Whipple spoke to
Susie Wiles eleven times in eleven months, and there was
cooperation as far as a photoshoot was done at the
(08:12):
White House as well. There is no indication that anything
that the author wrote in that piece was inaccurate, and
if it was, there was no pushback on that from
the White House. As for the President, he did not
address the Vanity Fair profile on his truth Social account
as of Tuesday evening. Instead, he announced he was going
(08:35):
to give a rare address from the White House in
prime time to tout his administration's record. The President wrote
on truth Social, my fellow Americans, I will be giving
an address to the nation tomorrow night, live from the
White House at nine pm Eastern time. I look forward
to seeing you then. It's been a great year for
(08:56):
our country and the best is yet to come. The
President did not provide any further details on that address,
but Caroline Levitt spoke a little bit about what we
could expect on Wednesday night.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
It's going to be a really good speech. I was
just in the Oval Office with the President discussing it.
He's going to talk a lot about the accomplishments over
the past eleven months, all that he's done to bring
our country back to greatness, and all he continues to
plan to do to continue delivering for the American people
over the next three years.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Another big news on Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune
said that Congress will not be able to extend federal
health insurance subsidies before leaving for the holidays. That ends
any hope for a last minute deal, and it means
that if there is a fix, it would have to
be in the new year. House Republicans, meanwhile, are still
(09:48):
expected to pass a Republican healthcare bill on Wednesday, but
that bill does not include any ACA extensions for the
Health Savings Account that are favored by many Republicans. So
what this means is that those extended Obamacare subsidies are
(10:08):
going away at the end of this year. They're going
away on December thirty first, and the expiration of those
subsidies at the end of this year will drive up
insurance costs for an estimated twenty four million Americans who
rely on them to reduce the price tag of coverage
under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. In
(10:31):
economic news, on Tuesday, some warning signs for the US
economy as the unemployment rate hit its highest level in
four years. The long awaited jobs report by the Labor
Department was delayed because of the federal government shutdown, but
on Tuesday a picture emerged of a labor market that
(10:52):
is slowing down. Job gains of sixty four thousand in
November exceeded Wall Street's expectationations, but those gains were offset
by the loss of one hundred and five thousand jobs
in October. The US economy has now lost jobs in
three out of the past six months, but Kevin Hassett,
(11:14):
the president's top economic advisor, on Tuesday, described a thriving
US economy. Meanwhile, the November unemployment rate rose to four
point six percent from four point four percent in September,
and the unemployment rate now is at its highest level
in more than four years. Minority workers hit especially hard.
(11:37):
The African American unemployment rate is now eight point three percent.
And the President's push to bring manufacturing jobs back to
America is not yet taking shape. The manufacturing sector lost
five thousand more jobs in November, and it's the third
month in a row of job declines four factory workers. Finally,
(12:00):
on Tuesday, more focus on Venezuela, the President, writing on
Truth Social for the theft of our assets and many
other reasons, including terrorism, drug smuggling, and human trafficking. The
Venezuelan regime has been designated a foreign terrorist organization, and
the President wrote, therefore, today I am ordering a total
(12:24):
and complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers going into
and out of Venezuela. The President's comments on Truth Social
on Tuesday night came a week after the US seized
a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, and
it certainly ratchets up the power on Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro.
(12:48):
As for the President's schedule for Wednesday, the President has
two items on his schedule. The President and the First
Lady will participate at one fifteen pm in Dover, Delaware
in a dignified Transfer ceremony for those service members who
were killed recently in Syria, and at nine pm the
(13:10):
President will deliver that address to the nation from the
Diplomatic Reception Room. That's the White House briefing Room for Wednesday,
December seventeenth. I'm John Decker. Have a good one.
Welcome to the White House Briefing Room for Wednesday, December seventeenth.
I'm John Decker. A firestorm in Washington as White House
Chief of Staff Susie Wiles speaks candidly to Vanity Fair
about the President. The President set to deliver a nationally
televised address from the White House, Congress fails to extend
(00:25):
expiring Obamacare subsidies, some warning signs for the US economy,
and the President ratchets up the pressure on Venezuela. But
we begin this Wednesday with Susie Wiles, the White House
chief of Staff. President Trump's chief of Staff, Susie Wiles
rarely speaks on the record. She prefers to stay out
(00:48):
of the spotlight and has been credited by the President's
allies with minimizing the drama at the White House and
helping President Trump quickly enact his agenda. But in a
series of eleven interviews for Vanity Fair magazine over the
past year with author Chris Whipple, she spoke candidly and
(01:08):
on the record about how she wields power inside the
White House, and she also offered reflections on the President's
policies and the staff that she manages. It's those on
the record reflections that have gotten a lot of attention
in Washington, DC. In that article posted online, Susie Wiles
(01:30):
provided blunt assessments of the president's top aids, their motivations,
their shortcomings, and their successes. And she said that the president,
who doesn't drink, operates with what she called an alcoholics personality.
She called Elon Musk an odd duck. And she said
(01:51):
that Vice President JD. Vance has been what she called
a conspiracy theorist for a decade. The article itself provide
a lot of surprises and a lot of eyebrows were
raised because Susie Wiles she never talks, but she spoke
to the author of this article. She said that she
(02:11):
had a loose agreement, as she called it, with the
President that he would end his score settling before the
first ninety days of the administration were over. But President
Trump has continued to push his administration to take action
against those he believes have slighted him, including publicly calling
(02:31):
for the criminal investigation of critics like former Federal Bureau
of Investigation Director James Comy and New York Attorney General
Letitia James. As Susie Wiles told Vanity Fair, I don't
think he's on a retribution tour. In some cases it
may look like retribution, and there may be an element
(02:51):
of that from time to time. Who would blame him,
she said, not me. Wiles also spoke about ongoing efforts
to try to end the war in Ukraine. She said
that the president believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin won't
be satisfied with getting part of Ukraine. She said in
that article, Donald Trump thinks he wants the whole country.
(03:15):
Wiles was also asked about the Trump administration strategy in
Venezuela and its lethal boat strike campaign, which has killed
more than ninety people. She said that President Trump believes
that Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro heads a powerful drug cartel.
As Susie Wiles told Vanity Fair, he wants to keep
(03:36):
on blowing up boats until Meduro cries uncle, and people
way smarter than me on that say that he will.
Susie Wiles also spoke about the administration's handling of the
investigative files about deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Wiles said
that Attorney General Pambondi, in her words, completely whiffed on
(03:59):
understanding that the key constituency in the Trump coalition cared
about releasing the files. Wiles also weighed in on President
Trump's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. She said, they were, you know,
sort of young single whatever. I know, it's a pass
a word, but sort of young single playboys together. Now,
(04:20):
President Trump was in his forties and his fifties at
the time that he socialized with Jeffrey Epstein, and it's
also important to remember that being mentioned in those files
is not an indication of any wrongdoing. The president has
alleged that former President Bill Clinton visited Epstein's private Caribbean
island more than two dozen times, but Susie Wiles told
(04:45):
Vanity Fair there is no evidence of those visits. She
went on to say that the President, in her words,
was wrong about that. Now, on Tuesday, White House Press
Secretary Caroline Levitt addressed reporters in the driveway at the
White House and criticize the Vanity Fair reporter Chris Whipple
and the story that was just published.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
This is, unfortunately another example of disingenuous reporting where you
have a reporter who took the Chief of Staff's words
wildly out of context, did not include the context those
conversations were had within. And then further, I think the
most egregious part of this article was the bias of
omission that was clearly present. And we see a lot
(05:28):
of this when dealing with the media every day. You
will leave out important context, leave out comments in facts.
You know, many people in this building spoke with that
reporter in those comments were never included in the story,
probably because it didn't push this false narrative of chaos
and confusion that the reporter was clearly trying to push.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Caroline Levitt also said that Wiles has the full support
of the President and the entire White House staff.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
What I'll say about our chief of staff, as you've
seen from not just myself but also the entire cabinet,
in a groundswell of support from people on Capitol Hill
who don't even work in this building, about how incredible
Susie Wiles has been to President Trump, and he's been
able to accomplish so much because of his leadership and
his tenacity, but also because of Chief of Staff Wiles's
(06:18):
leadership in her ability to effectuate his agenda.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
As for Wiles, she put out a post on social
media after this piece was published, she called it a
disingenuously framed hit piece. She said significant context was disregarded,
and much of what I and others said about the
team and the President was left out of the story.
(06:42):
She continued on her post, I assume after reading it
that this was done to paint an overwhelmingly chaotic and
negative narrative about the president and our team. As for
President Trump, he defended his chief of staff in an
exclusive interview with The New York Post, saying she was
right to tell Vanity Fair he has that alcoholics personality.
(07:07):
He also said he has confidence in Wiles to continue
in her role. The President in that interview with The
New York Post said, 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 have
(07:27):
a very possessive personality. Now, the President was asked in
that New York Post interview if he still has full
confidence in Wiles, and the President responded, she's fantastic. The
President also said in that phone interview that he thought
that the interviewer Chris Whipple may have deceived Wiles regarding
his focus. Now, there's no indication that Chris Whipple, the
(07:50):
author of this two part piece in Vanity Fair, deceived
Susie Wiles or anybody else that cooperated with this article.
In fact, there was full cooperation. Chris Whipple spoke to
Susie Wiles eleven times in eleven months, and there was
cooperation as far as a photoshoot was done at the
(08:12):
White House as well. There is no indication that anything
that the author wrote in that piece was inaccurate, and
if it was, there was no pushback on that from
the White House. As for the President, he did not
address the Vanity Fair profile on his truth Social account
as of Tuesday evening. Instead, he announced he was going
(08:35):
to give a rare address from the White House in
prime time to tout his administration's record. The President wrote
on truth Social, my fellow Americans, I will be giving
an address to the nation tomorrow night, live from the
White House at nine pm Eastern time. I look forward
to seeing you then. It's been a great year for
(08:56):
our country and the best is yet to come. The
President did not provide any further details on that address,
but Caroline Levitt spoke a little bit about what we
could expect on Wednesday night.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
It's going to be a really good speech. I was
just in the Oval Office with the President discussing it.
He's going to talk a lot about the accomplishments over
the past eleven months, all that he's done to bring
our country back to greatness, and all he continues to
plan to do to continue delivering for the American people
over the next three years.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Another big news on Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune
said that Congress will not be able to extend federal
health insurance subsidies before leaving for the holidays. That ends
any hope for a last minute deal, and it means
that if there is a fix, it would have to
be in the new year. House Republicans, meanwhile, are still
(09:48):
expected to pass a Republican healthcare bill on Wednesday, but
that bill does not include any ACA extensions for the
Health Savings Account that are favored by many Republicans. So
what this means is that those extended Obamacare subsidies are
(10:08):
going away at the end of this year. They're going
away on December thirty first, and the expiration of those
subsidies at the end of this year will drive up
insurance costs for an estimated twenty four million Americans who
rely on them to reduce the price tag of coverage
under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. In
(10:31):
economic news, on Tuesday, some warning signs for the US
economy as the unemployment rate hit its highest level in
four years. The long awaited jobs report by the Labor
Department was delayed because of the federal government shutdown, but
on Tuesday a picture emerged of a labor market that
(10:52):
is slowing down. Job gains of sixty four thousand in
November exceeded Wall Street's expectationations, but those gains were offset
by the loss of one hundred and five thousand jobs
in October. The US economy has now lost jobs in
three out of the past six months, but Kevin Hassett,
(11:14):
the president's top economic advisor, on Tuesday, described a thriving
US economy. Meanwhile, the November unemployment rate rose to four
point six percent from four point four percent in September,
and the unemployment rate now is at its highest level
in more than four years. Minority workers hit especially hard.
(11:37):
The African American unemployment rate is now eight point three percent.
And the President's push to bring manufacturing jobs back to
America is not yet taking shape. The manufacturing sector lost
five thousand more jobs in November, and it's the third
month in a row of job declines four factory workers. Finally,
(12:00):
on Tuesday, more focus on Venezuela, the President, writing on
Truth Social for the theft of our assets and many
other reasons, including terrorism, drug smuggling, and human trafficking. The
Venezuelan regime has been designated a foreign terrorist organization, and
the President wrote, therefore, today I am ordering a total
(12:24):
and complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers going into
and out of Venezuela. The President's comments on Truth Social
on Tuesday night came a week after the US seized
a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, and
it certainly ratchets up the power on Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro.
(12:48):
As for the President's schedule for Wednesday, the President has
two items on his schedule. The President and the First
Lady will participate at one fifteen pm in Dover, Delaware
in a dignified Transfer ceremony for those service members who
were killed recently in Syria, and at nine pm the
(13:10):
President will deliver that address to the nation from the
Diplomatic Reception Room. That's the White House briefing Room for Wednesday,
December seventeenth. I'm John Decker. Have a good one.
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