The Executive Cabinet of Unforced Errors has struck again, adding to the ever-growing list of instances where Donald Trump’s roster of chronic ball-droppers have had to defend each other’s incompetence.
In February, Pam Bondi told MAGA that the Epstein client list was sitting on her desk ready for her to review — she later infuriated Trump’s base when her DOJ claimed that the list never existed.
In March, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, Secretary of War Crimes Pete Hegseth, VP JD Vance and other cabinet members texted classified war plans to a journalist.
Pam Bondi’s DOJ filed a memo to the court admitting the flimsiness of its case against New York City’s congestion pricing system. His cabinet made Trump present laughably incoherent tariff schedules to the media and ballooned krill prices by placing tariffs on penguin-inhabited islands near Antarctica.
And who could forget that the FBI allegedly recorded now-border czar Tom Homan taking bribes in a restaurant takeout bag but the Trump administration decided he was worth keeping around anyway? You know, because they really care about upholding our laws.
There are many more mistakes that the Cabinet sees as features instead of bugs — the trade and tariff war, constructed by Trump’s trade counselor Peter Navarro, not least among them.
Now it has been revealed that Trump’s Chief of Staff Susie Wiles agreed to speak on the record with Vanity Fair author Chris Whipple 11 times, over the course of which she insulted both the president and many cabinet members, and confirmed many of the vices that have been attributed to this administration.
Wiles expressed disagreement with many of Trump’s policies including tariffs, the Jan. 6 pardons, the dismantling of USAID and Trump’s handling of deportations. She admitted that Trump’s boat bombings in the Caribbean were less about stopping the drug trade and saving American lives than deposing Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro.
She complained that Bondi “completely whiffed” on her handling of the Epstein files, stated that Trump has an “alcoholic’s personality,” called Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought a “right-wing absolute zealot” and claimed that JD Vance is a conspiracy theorist and that his shift from a Trump hater to a Trump lover was for “political” reasons.
Wiles had 11 separate opportunities to reconsider venting to the reporter. By all accounts, Wiles is a loyal servant to the president, working tirelessly to facilitate his every whim. I’d like to ask that our readers put themselves in her shoes. What sort of catastrophic brain injury would you have to suffer to spend the first year of your beloved prince’s second term transmitting your grievances with your own administration to a member of the media?
Each time that a member of Trump’s cabinet self-inflicts harm like this, both the president and the rest of the cabinet come out to express solidarity with the dunce. This time is a bit different, given that they are defending their comrade’s insults toward them.
Trump embraced his “alcoholic personality” label. Bondi stated on Twitter, “My dear friend [Susie Wiles] fights every day to advance President Trump’s agenda — and she does so with grace, loyalty and historic effectiveness. Any attempt to divide this administration will fail.” Russ Vought defended Wiles, stating that she “is always an ally in helping me deliver for the president. And this hit piece will not slow us down.” Wiles herself described the article as a “disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the finest President, White House staff, and Cabinet in history” and suggested that important context was left out.
Context breathes new meaning into words and it is often unfairly omitted. But what context would make having an alcoholic’s personality more flattering? If you’ve ever lived with an alcoholic, you’ll know exactly what she meant. They act like belligerent infants who need you to carry them to their bed while they fight and insult you the entire way. Apparently she has had a lot of practice that she can now apply professionally.
What words would you place around describing Russell Vought as a “right-wing absolute zealot” to make it seem less like she’s suggesting that he is an irrational ideologue? We were already aware of his insane zealotry given his contributions to the White Christian nationalist Project 2025.
What context would soften her apparent stance that JD Vance’s support for Trump was politically motivated? We are all well aware that Vance used to call Trump “America’s Hitler” and an “idiot” and “unfit for our nation’s highest office.”
During the interviews, Wiles was asked if she had attempted to discourage the president from weaponizing the DOJ and embarking on a tour of vengeance. “We have a loose agreement that the score-settling will end before the first 90 days are over,” she replied.
“A governing principle for him is, ‘I don’t want what happened to me to happen to somebody else.’ And so people that have done bad things need to get out of the government.”
At this point, it might look like Wiles is expressing that, while it may seem like retribution, Trump is merely making sure that bad actors are held accountable for their abuses.
Unfortunately for the administration, Wiles added some much-needed context after she was asked in a following interview about the political persecution of New York AG Letitia James. “Well, that might be the one retribution,” she stated, admitting that Trump is indeed weaponizing the DOJ to punish his enemies whether or not there was any genuine wrongdoing.
We have plenty of context to understand all of Wiles’ statements.
Rafael Perez is a columnist for the Southern California News Group. He is a doctoral candidate in philosophy at the University of Rochester. You can reach him at rafaelperezocregister@gmail.com.
