The first-ever woman appointed for the position, Susie Wiles is slated to become President-elect Donald Trump's chief of staff come January – though there are some things you should know about this career globalist.
Wiles is currently a co-chair at Mercury Public Affairs, a lobbying firm that represents high-level clients from the tobacco, junk food, insurance and coal industries. She also ran public relations campaigns for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, a project supported by billionaire eugenicist Bill Gates, as well as Gilead Sciences, Pfizer and a host of other multinational corporations, many of them drug-related.
"Susie Wiles just helped me achieve one of the greatest political victories in American history, and was an integral part of both my 2016 and 2020 successful campaigns," Trump said in a statement after choosing Wiles as his chief of staff.
"Susie is tough, smart, innovative, and is universally admired and respected. Susie will continue to work tirelessly to Make America Great Again."
Trump refilling the swamp once again
Before joining Team Trump, Wiles was busy lobbying Congress on behalf of Swisher International, a tobacco company. Wiles' job involves pushing Congress on "FDA regulations" that will benefit Swisher financially.
According to Sludge, Wiles has not filed a termination report for her work with Swisher, though she has not reported actually lobbying for the company since the first quarter of 2024 when Mercury paid her $30,000 in fees.
Wiles first joined Mercury in February 2022 around the time that Russia invaded Ukraine. Prior to working for Mercury, Wiles lobbied for Ballard Partners, a firm founded by Trump ally and campaign bundler Brian Ballard.
"There she worked as a lobbyist for coal company Alliance Resource Partners, insurance company Bankers Financial Corporation, General Motors, marketing company Zeta Global, transportation company Origin Logistics, and more companies," Sludge reports.
For all his talk about "drain the swamp," Trump sure is doing a great job of packing his second-term cabinet with even more of it. Despite running on a populist image and platform, Trump seems to be setting up more of an old boss, meet the new boss type of situation.
In 2021 right before leaving office, Trump reversed his own executive order that would have barred his appointees from any lobbying-related activities at their respective agencies for five years. He was apparently greasing the skids for the likes of Wiles, who can continue lobbying for private industry while also receiving paychecks from U.S. taxpayers for her work as Trump's chief of staff.
The revolving door between the public and private sector that Trump promised to abolish appears stronger than ever with this appointment of Wiles. Trump's "Make America Healthy Again" campaign seems to be nothing more than a cover since Mercy, where Wiles still works, maintains lobbying contracts with several high-profile junk-food companies including Kellogg's, Kraft-Heinz, Nestlé SA, and more.
"Wiles maintained her position with Mercury Public Affairs throughout the course of the Trump campaign, and still held the position as of yesterday," reported Sludge on Nov. 7, 2024.
"Some of Mercury's other clients ... include Gilead Sciences, Pfizer, Tesla, Uber, Kaiser Permanent, AT&T, NBC Universal, Gavi: The Vaccine Alliance, and the entire nation of Qatar. It's registered federal lobbying clients include ConAgra, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Archer Daniels Midland, Exxon Mobil, Alibab, Emergent BioSolutions, and dozens more."