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By Jason Lemon
Deputy News Director
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Donald Trump's Chief of Staff Susie Wiles revealed in a new interview how the president reacted when he learned that convicted child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell had been transferred to a minimum-security prison after a meeting with Department of Justice (DOJ) officials.
Wiles, speaking with Vanity Fair, said that Trump was not aware of the transfer before it was announced, and that it made him upset. “The president was ticked,” the White House chief of staff said. “The president was mighty unhappy. I don’t know why they moved her. Neither does the president.”
Maxwell was a longtime friend and close associate of the late convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a disgraced financier who was formerly close with Trump as well as many other high profile politicians, academics and business leaders.
Read More on Politics
Wiles criticized the in-depth Vanity Fair report on Tuesday morning after it published, describing it on X as "a disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the finest President, White House staff, and Cabinet in history."
Why It Matters
Trump and his administration have faced significant bipartisan backlash for their handling of the Epstein files, which the president promised to release in full during his campaign. Instead of moving to release the files, the administration has fought the bipartisan push for transparency.
Maxwell's transfer to a minimum-security prison in Bryan, Texas days after meeting with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump's former personal attorney, was criticized over the summer—with critics questioning whether Trump may consider pardoning the Epstein associate. Much of the overall criticism has also centered on Trump's former personal ties to Epstein and Maxwell, as they routinely associated together decades ago. The president has consistently maintained that he cut ties with Epstein many years prior entering politics.
No evidence has emerged to show that Trump was implicated in Epstein's or Maxwell's crimes.
What to Know
Wiles said that the idea to conduct a new DOJ interview with Maxwell came from Blanche.
The White House official's accounting of the events aligns with what Trump said publicly back in August. At the time, he was asked about it by a reporter. "Were you aware of—did you personally approve the prison transfer for Ghislaine Maxwell that your Justice Department—?" the journalist asked Trump, before she was cut off.
"I didn't know about it at all, nope, I read about it just like you did," the president responded.
Notably, Wiles also told Vanity Fair that Trump's claims former President Bill Clinton had visited Epstein's infamous private island were not supported by evidence. "There is no evidence," she said, adding that "the president was wrong about that," after she was pressed on anything incriminating about Clinton in the Epstein files.
Noting that she'd read the Epstein files, Wiles said that Trump's name is in them but that they don't show him "doing anything awful."
Maxwell met with Blanche one-on-one and answered hours of questions over the summer related to the investigation of Epstein, who in 2019 died by suicide in his prison cell while awaiting trial. The convicted sex trafficker is lobbying to have her sentence overturned on appeal. Trump previously said that while he hadn't thought about pardoning her, he has "the power to do so."
"I didn't talk to [Blanche] about it, but I will tell you that whatever he asked would be totally appropriate," Trump told reporters in August. He also praised the deputy attorney general, saying he is a "very highly thought of person" and "respected by everybody."
"And it's not an uncommon thing to do that and I think he probably wants to make sure that people who should not be involved, or aren't involved, are not hurt by something that would be very, very unfortunate, very unfair to a lot of people," the president added.
Trump went on to reiterate that he believes Blanche is "highly respected" and that "anything he talked about with her or the fact that he did that—not unusual, number one, and most importantly, is something that would be totally aboveboard."
Wiles also appeared to take issue with Attorney General Pam Bondi's overall handling of the Epstein files in her comments to Vanity Fair. “First, she gave them binders full of nothingness. And then she said that the witness list, or the client list, was on her desk. There is no client list, and it sure as hell wasn’t on her desk," she said.
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Key Takeaways from Vanity Fair's Article
Wiles repeatedly met with the filmmaker and author Chris Whipple from January, and gave her commentary on the events in which she was either a key player or central observer at the White House. Some of those comments were included in the Vanity Fair article that published this week.
Wiles, who cited her childhood experience with an alcoholic father, said that "high-functioning alcoholics or alcoholics in general, their personalities are exaggerated when they drink" and that Trump has "an alcoholic’s personality." She said he "operates [with] a view that there’s nothing he can’t do. Nothing, zero, nothing.” The president, however, is known to be sober and does not drink alcohol.
Wiles additionally gave insight into a split over tariffs inside the White House. Tariffs are a cornerstone of Trump's economic and national security policies, a tool of American power that can weaken rivals by choking access to advanced U.S. technology and protect domestic firms from unfair global competition.
Critics say they have punished allies, deprived U.S. firms of key materials, caused uncertainty for businesses and investors, and blow back as higher inflation for domestic consumers. “There was a huge disagreement over whether [tariffs were] a good idea [...] it’s been more painful than I expected," Wiles told Vanity Fair.
She also discussed Trump's controversial renovation of the White House, demolishing its East Wing to construct a grand new ballroom that he says is a much-needed entertaining space for state events—and paid for by private donors, not the taxpayer. Critics accuse him of an act of vandalism without the proper consent.
"I think you’ll have to judge it by its totality because you only know a little bit of what he’s planning," Wiles said of the work—and she would not answer whether Trump has more renovations in the pipeline: "I’m not telling.”
What People Are Saying
White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles on X in response to the Vanity Fair report: "Significant context was disregarded and much of what I, and others, said about the team and the President was left out of the story. I assume, after reading it, that this was done to paint an overwhelmingly chaotic and negative narrative about the President and our team."
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on X in response to the Vanity Fair report: "Chief of Staff Susie Wiles has helped President Trump achieve the most successful first 11 months in office of any President in American history. President Trump has no greater or more loyal advisor than Susie. The entire Administration is grateful for her steady leadership and united fully behind her."
Podcaster and prominent Trump critic Tim Miller on X in response to the Vanity Fair report: "The White House Chief of Staff is still not sure how Ghislaine Maxwell got transferred to Club Fed. Is it possible a fairy did it?"
What Happens Next
More documents and images related to Epstein have been released in recent weeks. After a major bipartisan vote in Congress passed last month, the DOJ is required to release all their files related to the late sex offender by Friday.
Update, 12/16/25 at 11:17 a.m.: Additional information and comments were added.
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