President Trump's Chief of Staff Wiles
DeSANTIS WHO HAD WILES BANISHED FROM RPOF AND TRUMP CAMPAIGN IN 2019 IS NOW TRUMP'S CHIEF OF STAFF
The lamb duck Florida Governor DeSantis
Wiles with Trump
Another pollical bone head decision by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in 2019 became apparent when President elect Donald Trump appointed his defacto manager of his 2024 victorious campaign, Susie Wiles as his White House chief of staff.
President Trump’s Chief of Staff Wiles is the same person, who DeSantis ran Wiles out of the Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) in 2019 and attempted to banish Florida’s most savvy political operative from the Trump campaign in 2020.
Wiles with her two daughters and former President Ronal Reagan
The political brain-dead DeSantis, who ran off Wiles in 2019 now observes Wiles being described in planning Trump’s landslide win,” by Tim Alberta of The Atlantic in this manner>
LaCivita and Wiles
“[Susie] Wiles and [Chris] LaCivita are two of America’s most feared political operatives.
"Wiles is the person most responsible for Florida—not long ago the nation’s premier electoral prize — falling off the battleground map, having spearheaded campaigns that so dramatically improved the Republican Party’s performance among nonwhite voters that Democrats are now surrendering the state .....
Together, as the architects of Trump’s campaign, they represent a threat unlike anything Democrats encountered during the 2016 or 2020. campaigns."
TRUMP’S CHIEF OF STAFF WHO DeSANTIS RAN OFF IN 2019 IS NOW TRUMP’S CHIEF OF STAFF
President Trump’s Chief of Staff Wiles and a fixture in Florida politics for decades before helping both Trump and DeSantis with winning campaigns is the same person, who DeSantis ran out of the Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) in 2019.
The lame duck Governor of Florida DeSantis, who made a fool out himself in taking on Trump for President of the United States is the same brain-dead politician who attempted to banish Florida’s most savvy political operative Susie Wiles from the Trump campaign in 2020.
Wiles, who Santis ran off Wiles in 2019 is now described as being by respected political operatives as,
“Over the years Wiles — a soft-spoken grandmother but sharp political operator — has gained the trust and respect of Trump and his family, and the loyalty of his other aides. Wiles has proven she knows how to navigate the President elect Trump whims and mercurial personality."
On the Trump campaign it was unanimous that they felt Wiles would be a perfect fit. Prominent MAGA voices publicly endorsed her for the job, including Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.).
DeSANTIS TURNED ON THOSE WHO ELECTED HIM GOVERNOR
Despite Wiles being credited with saving DeSantis’ struggling 2018 campaign for governor, when he was a low-profile congressman, DeSantis prompted the Trump team to fire Wiless ahead of Trump’s 2020 campaign.
It made no difference to DeSantis that Wiles is a savvy operator, a capable manager, a spotter and cultivator of up-and-coming talent, a maker and keeper of relationships with reporters, and a sly, subtle shaper of stories that help frame the political currents that can determine the difference between a win and a loss.
TENSIONS BETWEEN DeSANTIS AND WILES BEGAH IN 2019
Gruters
Problems between DeSantis and Wiles began back in 2019 after DeSantis believed that Trump loyalists, who were Florida Chairman of the Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) Florida State Senator Joe Gruters and Wiles were staffing the RPOF with political operatives.
Wiles and Gruters saw no problem with that decision since Wiles had been brought into a DeSantis’ orbit just a month before Election Day 2018 to revive what many Republicans viewed as a mistake-prone campaign limping through the final months of the race against Democrat Andrew Gillum, as DeSantis eked out a win following a recount.
Wiles was also given high praises by political observers by taking command of a disastrous faltering Trump campaign being run out of Sarasota and led by Gruters in 2016. Wiles moved the HQ to Orlando where she engineered a Trump victory in Florida.
The break between DeSantis and Wiles began to surface in April of 2019, as Republicans were preparing for a Trump trip to Orlando to launch his 2020 presidential reelection campaign.
Casey and Governor Ron DeSantis
About a dozen state party staffers, some of whom recently had been dispatched from Washington, had gathered at RPOF headquarters in Tallahassee, where they met with Governor DeSantis Chief of Staff Shane Strum and the Florida’s first lady, Casey DeSantis, who has become a powerful force in the DeSantis administration.
These tensions between DeSantis and Wiles grew after these two most important political advisers in DeSantis’ orbit — Strum and DeSantis wife, Casey DeSantis — went to the Florida FROP headquarters in Tallahassee in April of 2019 to check it out.
Strum and Casey DeSantis quizzed attendees about their backgrounds and where they came from. There was a sense that the two were trying to find out who was aligned with Wiles and Team Trump, and who was with DeSantis
“They were kind of looking for operatives placed by Susie,” said a veteran Republican consultant. “There has been some heartburn over the fact the party was staffed with some operatives who were all Susie Wiles people loyal to Trump.”
What they found and had problem with was that the Florida Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) was being staffed what they called “Susie People.”
They also had problems with Gruters, who worked with Wiles in Trump and DeSantis campaigns were hiring "Susie People and had replaced political operative George Riley as RPOF Executive Director with a Gruters operative from the Sarasota REC, Jennifer Locetta.
DeSANTIS HAD WILES BANISHED FROM TRUMP CAMPAIGN AND BALLARD LOBBYING GROUP IN 2019
What then essentially occurred was that Locetta and Wiles were sent packing to Washington D.C. by DeSantis. Wiles also was pressured at the time to part ways with Ballard Partners, a top lobbying firm led by Brian Ballard, who used to lobby for Trump and is a top fundraiser in Florida and nationwide.
Soon after the April meeting, around the time of Trump’s kickoff in Orlando, DeSantis said he wouldn’t be “that involved” in the Trump presidential campaign.
What developed was that Strum and first lady Casey DeSantis, consolidate power and elbowed others out of the governor’s orbit at party headquarters. Strum and Casey DeSantis worked to install the governor’s allies in the Florida RPOF.
Peter O’Rourke’s was hired as Executive Director of the RPOF, as DeSantis put his stamp on the RPOF and wrested control from Wiles loyalists of Trump.
It did matter the Governor DeSantis, Casey DeSantis and Strum that Wiles, Gruters, and the state’s Republican infrastructure were first and foremost Trump loyalists.
Gruters helped Trump win Florida twice and before 2016 had named him the Republican Party of Sarasota County’s statesman of the year three times.
Gruters remained, being he was a Florida State Senator and with his ties to Trump, but as to Wiles, it did not matter to DeSantis that, "Susie Wiles is one of the most effective, if not the most effective, political operative in Florida on the Republican side," said Republican strategist and former Florida congressional candidate Ford O'Connell.
The split between DeSantis widened early in the 2020 Presidential Trump campaign. DeSantis reportedly urged Trump to fire Wiles from the Trump campaign over a "leak of internal correspondence showing how the new governor, Ron DeSantis appeared to be selling access to special interests on golfing trips."
DeSantis personally made it clear he wanted Wiles out, according to two senior Republicans familiar with discussions between DeSantis and the Trump campaign.
Around the time of Trump’s 2020 kickoff in Orlando, DeSantis said he wouldn’t be “that involved” in the Trump presidential campaign.
On 9/10/19, Republican campaign finance guru Nancy Watkins sent a letter to the state’s Division of Elections that her husband, Robert Watkins, was replacing Wiles as chair of the Governor’s political fundraising committee, Friends of Ron DeSantis.
DESPITE DeSANTIS OBJECTIONS WILES BACK ON-BOARD TRUMP FLORIDA CAMPAIGN
With Trump trailing in the polls in Florida in 2020, his campaign announced on Twitter that Wiles was back in the Trump campaign, despite DeSantis disapproved of the move.
"The moment something goes wrong in Florida, Trump won’t give a fuck about what Ron DeSantis thinks,” said one Trump advisor.
“Trump made DeSantis and if he objects to Susie coming back, he’ll be told to shut the fuck up and mind his own business.” As Florida Politics also reported though, the knives may well have been out for Wiles even before the Times published its story.
DeSANTIS/WILES ISSUES CONTINIED AS DeSANTIS BREAKS WITH TRUMP
DeSantis, who was eyeing a potential presidential bid for 2024, reportedly "made a direct plea" to the former president to cancel his upcoming campaign-style rally in Sarasota on 7/10/21.
One operative told the media sources that "because Ron DeSantis doesn't want the Trump rally, Wiles is going to make sure it happens," this source said. The Trump rally was not attended by DeSantis, but was attended by over 20,000 Trump supporters.
AS DeSANTIS PRESENDENTIAL CAMPAIGN GOES OF THE RAILS AND WILES BECOMES TRUMP’S CHIEF OF STAFF--WILES WRITES “BY, BY” TO DeSANTIS
When DeSantis’s presidential campaign went off the rails in 2024, Wiles who rarely posts on social media, but she did just that the day, writing “Bye, bye” to DeSantis in a now-deleted post on X.
No doubt Wiles used her up-close knowledge of DeSantis to dismantle him when he ran against Trump in the GOP presidential primary this year.
Now today the lame duck Governor DeSantis hangs out with his political hacks in Tallahassee, as Wiles sits in the White House as the is Chief of Staff to the most powerful world leader, President Donald Trump.
By the way, if DeSantis supporters believe DeSantis will find his way back into the Trump inner circle, think again. If the Trump team recently stated that Nikki Haley and Mike Pompeo will not be part of the Trump inner circle in that Haley ran against Trump and Pompeo took his time endorsing Trump, where does that leave DeSantis, who also spent $millions running against Trump?
Jon Susce
The Sarasota Phoenix team is the last guardian in Sarasota of the vital fourth estate. While the rest of local, mainstream media outlets have been overtaken by profit driven directives, the Sarasota Phoenix is the only local media outlet laying bare for all to see how Sarasota local government is operating like a Latin American Junta.
"As usual, Jon Susce offers great insight found nowhere else in Suncoast and State Republican politics." Kevin Wright of the Manatee Republican Liberty Caucus.
"Jon uncovers local corruption you will read about nowhere else. Vital and important information." Dan Lobeck President of Control Growth Now.
"Jon is easily the very best investigative reporter to ever work this market." Don Schilke a Director for Sarasota Alliance for Fair Elections
"Jon searches for the truth of the mater. He holds everyone accountable for their misleading actions or not. To God be the glory for what he is doing." Valeria Buchand President of Newtown Nation.