Susie Wiles offered unflattering assessments of her colleagues to Vanity Fair. In return, they showered her with praise

By Steve Contorno, Kristen Holmes, Alayna Treene, CNN

(CNN) — Of all the blunt assessments White House chief of staff Susie Wiles shared with Vanity Fair over the past year, perhaps her sharpest words were aimed at Attorney General Pam Bondi.

In remarks the magazine published Tuesday, Wiles said that Bondi “completely whiffed” in her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case files — an issue that has animated many of President Donald Trump’s most ardent supporters and generated months of political headaches for the White House.

Bondi, however, quickly stood by her “dear friend” and fellow Floridian, joining others in publicly closing ranks and instead directing criticism at the messenger.

“Any attempt to divide this administration will fail,” Bondi wrote on social media, referring to the Vanity Fair article.

Her response mirrored the outpouring of support for Wiles from Trump’s top aides, Cabinet officials and some of his staunchest online protecters in the hours after the story sent Washington abuzz. The full-throated defense of the nation’s first female chief of staff masked a stunned White House inner circle left aghast by what some saw as a significant blunder from a typically low-profile leader many entrusted to clean up messes, not make them.

Even Trump himself downplayed the at-times unflattering assessments, including Wiles describing him as having an “alcoholic’s personality.” He not only brushed off the characterization but embraced it.

“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,” he told the New York Post. “I have said that many times about myself, I do. It’s a very possessive personality,” Trump said.

The public display of loyalty from Trump and his inner circle — in part, a coordinated counterattack meant to limit the fallout, one aide told CNN — stood in sharp contrast to the internal feuds, staff turnover and public infighting that defined much of the president’s first term.

By this point in 2017, Trump had replaced his chief of staff, pushed out his top political adviser, seen his press secretary resign — and watched a new communications director last just 10 days — while grappling with the fallout of his national security adviser and health and human services secretary leaving amid scandal. Trump is now set to finish his first year back in Washington with his senior team and Cabinet largely intact from the day he was sworn in to office.

The episode is also illustrative of Wiles’ unique influence and power inside Trump’s orbit. Referred to by the president as the “Ice Maiden” and even “Susie Trump,” Wiles has earned near-universal loyalty across the White House and Trump’s political operation. It’s a distinction she cemented during the years after Trump left office, when Wiles remained by his side through his political exile and then guided his political comeback as the co-campaign manager to his third presidential bid.

Several officials and people close to Trump acknowledged that anyone else may have faced consequences for similar remarks. However, there are few people in the president’s inner circle whom he trusts more, and even fewer who seek as little attention and credit.

“Susie Wiles is by far the most effective and trustworthy Chief of Staff that my father has ever had,” the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., wrote Tuesday on X.

Wiles called the article a “disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the finest President, White House staff, and Cabinet in history.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also attacked Vanity Fair, arguing there was a “bias of omission” by excluding the positive things Wiles and others said.

Privately, however, some White House aides and advisers expressed unease at the unvarnished views Wiles shared with a reporter. One Trump ally told CNN that the article appeared in “every group chat,” adding “everyone is shocked and confused.”

Over the course of 11 interviews with historian and author Chris Whipple, Wiles spoke with unusual frankness about Trump, Vice President JD Vance and billionaire Elon Musk and at times pulled back the veil back on imperative policy decisions.

The level of candor was striking, particularly from an aide long regarded within Trump world as disciplined, discrete and highly strategic.

The interview prompted widespread speculation with one central question: Why would she do this?

For many in the West Wing, the belief remained that their disciplined chief of staff could not have misstepped to such a degree. Aides and advisers scrambled to figure out whether this interview revealed something deeper, though few convincing hypotheses stuck.

Sources told CNN that a few officials were hesitant about participating in a splashy Vanity Fair piece. However, Wiles has regularly operated under the assumption it’s better to be in control of the narrative than to just be the subject.

Some of the people she criticized were the quickest to rally around her.

Vance, for example, brushed off Wiles’ contention that the vice president was “a conspiracy theorist for a decade” and that his conversion from Trump critic to vocal supporter was “political.”

“I only believe in the conspiracy theories that are true,” Vance quipped during an event in Pennsylvania.

Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, whom Wiles described as “a right-wing absolute zealot,” also praised her on social media, calling her “an exceptional chief of staff.”

One notable silence came from Musk, a former top Trump ally. Wiles criticized the tech billionaire’s approach to dismantling the US Agency for International Development during his time leading Department of Government Efficiency, and the magazine quoted her calling Musk an “avowed ketamine” user. Musk posted two dozen times on X after the story published but as of 8 p.m. had not mentioned Wiles.

To many, the quick display of support from most others was not surprising, some officials said.

“Susie is not necessarily feared, but she commands a level of respect, and at times a level of intimidation, because of the power she wields,” one official said.

And, according to Trump, she remains in good standing.

He told the New York Post: “Oh, she’s fantastic.”

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins contributed to this report.

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