Donald Trump’s White House gatekeeper Susie Wiles says being on the road with the president is a “killer” because of his sleep habits.
Trump’s chief of staff, 68, offered a glimpse into the 79-year-old president’s daily routine in a rare interview on The Mom View podcast Monday.
Repeating the well-worn MAGA claim that Trump works “24/7″ and “never sleeps,” Wiles complained that his sleep habits become even more off-kilter when traveling.
“When we travel, it’s a killer, because normal people do need to get sleep, but he doesn’t,” she said.
Wiles said her day starts at 7:45 a.m. with a security briefing and that she usually has most of her work done by the time Trump shows up.
“My days are all the same: security briefing, senior staff meeting, and then an operations meeting,” said Wiles, whom Trump affectionately calls “Ice Maiden.”
“But he sort of does phone calls and sometimes call [sic] in radio and all that stuff in the morning, and he’ll come in mid-morning, so by the time he gets in, I better have done everything I needed to do for the day.”
Wiles, whom Trump has dubbed “the most powerful woman in the world,” said that from there “it’s a very long day— meetings and some spontaneous conversations.”
“He usually finishes around eight, nine, maybe earlier, seven, if he has a dinner, which he’s busy most nights, and we stay there until he goes,” she told hosts Debbie Kraulidis and Kimberly Fletcher, who lead the pro-Trump organization Moms for America.
However unusual the elderly president’s sleep habits may be, he does need his slumber, as Monday’s televised roundtable event made clear.
Trump appeared to fall asleep in the White House’s Cabinet Room on Monday, marking the second time in less than a week he has nodded off during an official event.
The embarrassing gaffe comes as questions have mounted about his mental and physical fitness.
A New York Times investigation found that Trump begins official events later than in his first term, with most now starting after midday, compared to the 10.30 a.m. starts during his first presidency.
He has also scaled back his official appearances by 39 percent during the first ten months of his second term.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called the Times’ report a “fake news story” and tried to prove the 79-year-old’s packed work schedule, only to reveal that he rarely works before 10:30 a.m.
The White House released “non-public official logs” detailing Trump’s daily routine over ten days in November to the New York Post, which reported that West Wing meetings began between 10:12 a.m. and 11 a.m.
Despite the president’s apparent fatigue, however, Wiles said Monday that she would be “putting him on the campaign trail” to help Republicans in the 2026 midterms.
Wiles argued the GOP’s heavy losses in nationwide contests last month reflect “what happens when he’s not on the ballot and not active.”
“I haven’t quite broken it to him yet, but he’s going to campaign like it’s 2024 again,” she said.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
