Trump’s new chief of staff demanded control over ‘clown car’ before taking job: report
Donald Trump’s first major staff pick as president-elect – tapping his campaign manager to be the next White House chief of staff – apparently came with certain conditions before accepting the high-level job.
Trump announced earlier in the day that Susie Wiles would join the administration as the first-ever female chief of staff in U.S. history. But before agreeing to the role, Wiles expressed to Trump concerns over who he would make himself available to in the Oval Office, CNN reported.
“The clown car can’t come into the White House at will,” a source told the network. “And he agrees with her.”
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The report comes against the backdrop of well-known struggles from Trump’s past chiefs of staff with reigning in a revolving door “of informal advisers, family members, friends and other interlopers from getting inside the White House to meet with him,” CNN reported. The network added that Trump is often influenced to act on issues by whoever he spoke to last about it.
"If Susie Wiles can 'keep the clown car people out of the Oval Office' she will be an absolute hero," Tom Giovanetti, president of The Institute for Policy Innovation, wrote on X.
Notably, Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff during his first term, retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, vocally opposed his former boss's return to the White House, calling Trump a “fascist” and expressing fears that he would “govern like a dictator.”