The Susie Wiles Interview

One does not do eleven interviews that are recorded with Vanity Fair without knowing how it is going to go.

The takeaways from the Vanity Fair piece, for me, are straightforward.

First, this Administration craves mainstream media attention. It is a fact, if you talk to conservative media outlets, they grouse that the Trump Administration still prefers to leak to the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, etc., than to reliable friends in the conservative press.

Vanity Fair was a conscious and deliberate choice.

Second, the statements the press seized on were salacious, but the overall piece was informative and insightful and actually not a bad profile of the Administration. Most people will read the excerpts without reading the whole, but the whole was not bad and not a disaster either for Wiles or the Administration.

Third, the President himself came out and defended Wiles and agreed with her “alcoholic personality” comment about the President. He said he, too, had made similar remarks about himself.

Fourth, the Trump family and then lots of members of the Administration doubled down in defense of Susie Wiles, who they ar all very loyal to and respect.

And that gets to my last point. I actually interpret this article, here at the end of the first year of the Trump Administration, as part of a reset effort. Wiles is saying things the President cannot publicly say.

She is saying Homeland Security has not been good at its job and needs to handle deportations better. She is saying Pam Bondi is not good at her job and probably needs to consider calling it quits. She is saying lots of things the President would like to say to reset the Administration and deflate the egos of some of its members who have been riding high on their own supply.

What is as notable is who participated and who did not.

This whole thing, and the swift reaction to it, was by design. Again, you don’t do eleven recorded interviews with Vanity Fair and not know what you’re going to get. They knew exactly what they were going to get and are probably pleased with the results.

Internally, now a lot of members of the Trump team know better what the President actually thinks about them and how they are doing their jobs, and they can reset for the midterms.