Susie Wiles, first female White House chief of staff, to leave role
US President Donald Trump hosts a lunch with the Kennedy Center Board members as chief of staff Susie Wiles looks on at the White House in Washington, DC, on March 16, 2026. US President Donald Trump's chief of staff Susie Wiles has been diagnosed wi
Susie Wiles, the GOP insider who made history when President Donald Trump appointed her in 2024 as the first female White House chief of staff, is being reassigned to a different role, President Donald Trump announced on his Truth Social.
Big picture view:
Trump said on his Truth Social platform Friday that she will be moving over to the Trump Political Operation.
Current Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller will take over the role starting Monday, Trump said.
President Trump via Truth Social
"Susie Wiles, who has done an outstanding job, will be moving over to the Trump Political Operation," Trump wrote.
Trump has called Wiles "an integral part" of his 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns.
What they're saying:
Speaking to reporters outside the White House on Friday afternoon, Trump said he "just wanted to make a change."
"I think Susie's done a very good job, great job. But I just wanted to make it. Stephen's been great, and we've got to make — we gotta make moves," he said, "Sometimes in life you have to make moves."
He said Miller has been with him from the beginning and "gets it," calling him a very good manager.
Wiles herself posted on X that Friday was her last day as White House chief of staff.
"Serving President Trump in the White House has been the honor of a lifetime," she wrote. "I’m so proud to have been a part of what we’ve accomplished together from securing our border and cutting taxes to strengthening our economy and putting America First. More than anything, I’m grateful for the extraordinary people I’ve had the privilege of working alongside. While my role may be changing, my commitment to the President and the mission never will."
The backstory:
Wiles has been a longtime ally of the president, first throwing her support behind him in 2015 when she became the Trump campaign’s co-chairwoman in Florida.
"As a card-carrying member of the G.O.P. establishment, many thought my full-throated endorsement of the Trump candidacy was ill-advised — even crazy," Wiles said during a New York Times interview in 2016.
In his 2024 victory speech, he dubbed her the "Ice Maiden" for her hard-nosed approach to handling business. Trump credited her for helping him achieve "one of the greatest political victories in American history," when he named her to the chief of staff role.
"Susie is tough, smart, innovative, and is universally admired and respected. Susie will continue to work tirelessly to Make America Great Again. It is a well deserved honor to have Susie as the first-ever female Chief of Staff in United States history. I have no doubt that she will make our country proud," he said.
In March, she revealed she had been diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer. Trump said she would continue serving as chief of staff even as she fought the illness.
By September, she announced that pathology results after surgery and chemotherapy indicated that she was cancer-free.
"Cancer tried to make my world smaller. I was determined not to let it," she said on X. "I am incredibly grateful to be cancer-free, and even more grateful for President Trump, my family, friends, colleagues, medical team and faith that carried me through the hardest days."
The daughter of the late NFL broadcaster Pat Summerall, her first job in politics was as an assistant to Jack Kemp, an old teammate of her father’s on the New York Giants.
She would go on to work for President Ronald Reagan as a scheduler for his 1980 presidential campaign and later in the White House.
In the 1990s, she left the nation’s capital and came to Florida, where she served as chief of staff for Jacksonville Mayor John Delaney and then as a district director for Rep. Tillie Fowler in northeast Florida.
She was also credited with helping Rick Scott become governor of Florida in 2010 and Ron DeSantis become governor in 2018.
Federal disclosures filed before Trump named her chief of staff showed she was a lobbyist for the tobacco company Swisher International while running the Trump campaign. Federal disclosures stated she worked to influence Congress on "FDA regulations."
WIles is the co-chair for the Florida and Washington, D.C., offices of the lobbying firm Mercury Public Affairs, whose clients include AirBnB, AT&T, eBay, Pfizer, Tesla, and the Embassy of Qatar. But she was not a registered lobbyist for any of those clients.
But amid troubling GOP polling numbers leading up to the midterm election, members of Trump’s inner circle were blaming one another, Reuters reported, pointing to friction between Wiles and longtime Trump aide James Blair, who runs Trump’s super PAC MAGA Inc.
Trump has faulted Blair’s handling of campaign funds, questioning why spending failed to improve polling numbers, but some White House officials and allies questioned Wiles’ oversight of the political operation.
Trump defended Wiles as recently as Oct. 16, insisting she would stay in her job.
"Susie is here, and she’s going to be here for a long time," the president said.
The Source: Information for this story came from the Associated Press, Truth Social, X and previous FOX News reporting. This story was reported from Orlando.