President Donald Trump is privately asking allies whether he should fire White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, according to explosive new reporting from Politico Playbook — a potential shake-up at the very top of the West Wing less than three weeks before the November 3 midterm elections. The Susie Wiles report, built on four sources with direct knowledge of the conversations, describes a president soliciting views on his chief of staff’s performance and openly discussing who could replace her.
Susie Wiles is not just any staffer. She is the first woman ever to serve as White House chief of staff and Trump’s longest-serving person in the role — the co-chair of his 2024 campaign who was widely credited with running the most disciplined Trump operation to date. That the president is now, in the words of one senior elected Republican who received one of those calls, raising “the first honest questions about Susie” signals genuine turmoil inside a White House heading into the most consequential midterms in years.
Trump himself has denied the Susie Wiles report, telling Politico that she has his “COMPLETE confidence.” But the detailed sourcing — including the names of five potential replacements the president has floated — has set Washington buzzing about whether the most powerful woman in the administration is about to fall.
- What Politico Reported About Susie Wiles
- “Burned a Lot of People”: Why Wiles Is Under Fire
- The Replacement Shortlist: Miller, Levine, Witkoff, Pulte, McCarthy
- “Complete Confidence”: Trump’s Denial
- Wiles’ Tenure: From Campaign Co-Chair to Cancer Battle
- The Florida Godmother: Four Decades That Built Wiles
- The Hot Seat: Why Trump’s Chiefs Never Last
- Why It Matters: 19 Days to the Midterms
- What’s Next
What Politico Reported About Susie Wiles
According to Politico Playbook, Trump has been calling friends and allies to ask whether it is time to replace Susie Wiles, with those calls only increasing as the midterm elections creep closer. Four inside sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Playbook that the president has been “soliciting views” on both Wiles’ performance and the people who could possibly replace her.
The reporting portrays a president who is not being discouraged from the idea. Trump has reportedly found no shortage of people encouraging him to push Wiles out — a remarkable situation for a chief of staff who was, until recently, considered untouchable.
The Susie Wiles story broke on the morning of October 15, 2026, and was quickly picked up across Washington media, with outlets from Fox affiliates to political newsletters racing to match and expand on Playbook’s sourcing.
“Burned a Lot of People”: Why Wiles Is Under Fire
So why would Trump turn on the woman credited with his political resurrection? According to the Playbook report, one GOP operative told the president that Susie Wiles has “burned a lot of people” inside the administration — a sign that internal rivalries have been building for months.
Playbook also reported that Trump has bristled at recent headlines about longtime advisers profiting from foreign consulting work, including top Wiles allies James Blair and Chris LaCivita. The chief of staff’s own daughter, Katie Wiles, was reported to be representing Republika Srpska, the pro-Russian semi-autonomous Bosnian Serb territory — work Trump was not previously aware of, and which rivals of Susie Wiles made sure reached the president’s desk.
“Susie has this whole cadre of people that have been found to have been monetizing his ecosystem pretty dramatically,” a senior outside adviser told Playbook. Whether that perception is fair or the product of rival whisper campaigns, it has clearly reached the Oval Office.
The Replacement Shortlist: Miller, Levine, Witkoff, Pulte, McCarthy
The most striking detail in the Susie Wiles report is how far along the president’s thinking appears to be: Trump has floated specific names as potential replacements, according to people close to him.
The shortlist, as reported by Playbook, includes Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller — an elevation from within — and New York Yankees president Randy Levine as an outside-the-building option. Also under consideration: longtime Trump friend and negotiator Steve Witkoff, federal housing official Bill Pulte, and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
The McCarthy mention is particularly telling. Allies of the former speaker have been arguing to Trump that McCarthy, who had a working relationship with Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, could help the president handle a hostile Democratic Congress — a sign the White House may already be gaming out a midterm loss. With Election Day 19 days away, that kind of contingency thinking speaks volumes.
Personnel drama is nothing new in Trump world — the first term burned through four chiefs of staff — but a change this close to the midterms would be extraordinary. Read StateLineDaily’s coverage of Kimberly Guilfoyle’s ouster as ambassador to Greece here for the latest on the administration’s personnel turmoil.
“Complete Confidence”: Trump’s Denial
Trump did not let the Susie Wiles report stand unanswered. In a statement to Politico, the president said Wiles “has my COMPLETE confidence” — and used the occasion to attack the outlet, accusing it of not caring about “facts, integrity, or honest journalism.”
Denials like this are standard practice and prove little either way; Trump has issued full-confidence statements about officials shortly before removing them in the past. What matters is whether the private calls described by Playbook’s four sources continue — and whether any of the floated replacements start making moves.
There is an irony in the messenger here: Politico was one of the outlets at the center of the White House’s recent press ban fight. Read StateLineDaily’s full coverage of the federal judge’s ruling blocking the White House ban on Politico, CNN and MS NOW here.
Wiles’ Tenure: From Campaign Co-Chair to Cancer Battle
To understand the stakes of the Susie Wiles report, it helps to remember how central she has been. As co-chair of Trump’s 2024 campaign alongside Chris LaCivita, Wiles ran what even critics called the most professional Trump campaign ever — and was rewarded with the chief of staff job days after the election, making history as the first woman to hold it.
Her tenure has also been marked by a personal battle: earlier this year Wiles announced a cancer diagnosis, and in September she said she was cancer-free after six months of treatment. Through it all, she remained at her post — which makes the timing of the current speculation, weeks after her recovery announcement, all the more striking.
The Florida Godmother: Four Decades That Built Wiles
What most breaking-news coverage of the Susie Wiles report misses is how deep her roots run — and why losing her would cost Trump more than a chief of staff. Wiles is the daughter of NFL player and sportscaster Pat Summerall, and her political career stretches back to the 1970s, when she worked in the Washington office of New York Rep. Jack Kemp, followed by stints on Ronald Reagan’s campaign and in his White House as a scheduler, the Associated Press reported when she was appointed.
She then spent decades mastering rough-and-tumble Florida politics: advising two Jacksonville mayors, getting businessman Rick Scott elected governor in 2010, briefly managing Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman’s 2012 presidential bid, and running Trump’s 2016 effort in Florida — the win that helped clinch him the White House. In 2018 she got Ron DeSantis elected governor of Florida, but the two later developed a rift that led DeSantis to urge Trump’s 2020 campaign to cut ties with her.
Here is the part rivals fear most: Wiles went on to lead Trump’s 2024 primary campaign against DeSantis — and trounced the Florida governor, with Trump aides gleefully using insider knowledge many suspected had come from Wiles’ own years inside DeSantis’ operation, according to the AP. She knows where the bodies are buried in Trump’s world because she buried some of them herself. That institutional memory is precisely what makes the current speculation so dangerous for the president: there is no ready-made replacement for four decades of relationships.
The Hot Seat: Why Trump’s Chiefs Never Last
There is a data point that puts the Susie Wiles report in perspective: four people served as chief of staff during Trump’s first term — Reince Priebus, John Kelly, Mick Mulvaney (in an acting capacity) and Mark Meadows — and, as the Associated Press noted, Trump “has a history of resenting anyone who tries to impose order on his chaotic management style.”
Wiles broke that pattern. She has already lasted longer than any of them — the “ice maiden” who imposed the discipline of the 2024 campaign on the West Wing and survived. That is what makes this week’s speculation a genuine inflection point rather than routine Trump churn: the president is not cycling through another failed manager, but considering discarding the one chief of staff who actually tamed the building. If even Wiles is expendable 19 days before the midterms, it tells every Republican candidate that no one in Trump’s orbit is safe — and every Democrat that the chaos narrative writes itself.
Why It Matters: 19 Days to the Midterms
Chiefs of staff are traditionally not changed in the final stretch of a midterm campaign — the job is about execution, and a new chief needs months to learn the building. That Trump is even entertaining the question with 19 days to go suggests either deep dissatisfaction or a president already looking past November.
The midterms will decide control of Congress, and with it whether Trump’s final two years are defined by legislation or by investigations and impeachment fights. See StateLineDaily’s guide to why the 2026 midterms matter more than ever for what’s at stake in races across the country.
A White House consumed by internal knife fights is the last thing Republican candidates want in the closing weeks — and the first thing Democrats will use against them.
What’s Next
Will Trump actually fire Susie Wiles? The denial says no, but the detailed shortlist says the idea is real. Watch whether the private calls continue and whether any of the five floated names — Miller, Levine, Witkoff, Pulte or McCarthy — start visibly positioning themselves.
Could Wiles leave on her own? Some in Washington have long assumed she would depart after the midterms regardless. A dignified exit framed as mission accomplished remains possible — and would let both sides save face.
What does this mean for the midterms? A divided, distracted White House 19 days out is a gift to Democrats, who need a net gain of four Senate seats and are counting on chaos narratives. Expect the Wiles story to feature in closing arguments on both sides.
Additional Details
Description: Politico Playbook reports Donald Trump is privately asking allies whether to fire White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles — the first woman in the role and his longest-serving chief — less than three weeks before the 2026 midterms. Trump denies the report, saying Wiles has his “COMPLETE confidence,” but has floated Stephen Miller, Randy Levine, Steve Witkoff, Bill Pulte and Kevin McCarthy as possible replacements, according to four sources. Plus: Wiles’ four-decade Florida power-building career and why Trump’s chiefs never last.
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