‘SOME SERIOUS FUN’

MAGA Powerbroker’s Nepo Baby Busted Sucking Up to Putin Ally

A photo that Susie Wiles’ gun-toting daughter posted in an Instagram story has raised eyebrows.

White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles’ daughter has been pictured at a Bosnian gun range beside an ally of Vladimir Putin.

Katie Wiles traveled to the semi-autonomous region of Republika Srpska, where she met with interior minister Željko Budimir, according to an image shared by conservative Albanian American activist Evi Kokalari and verified by CBS News.

The image, in which Wiles holds a rifle, appears to be a screenshot of one of Wiles’ Instagram Stories. Wiles captioned it “mostly work + some serious fun!” and added the Republika Srpska handle. Kokalari claimed the picture was taken in August.

In December 2025, Putin awarded Budimir the Pushkin Medal for strengthening ties between Serbs and Russians. The two had previously met at the Kremlin that April.

Republika Srpska is led by 67-year-old Milorad Dodik, the region’s former president. Though removed from office last year for failing to adhere to Bosnia’s 1995 peace accords, Dodik retains considerable influence. He has formed a close connection to Vladimir Putin, and, according to foreign agent registration (FARA) filings seen by CBS, paid U.S.-based lobbying firms to rub elbows with Trump associates.

Two top outside advisers to Trump, Chris LaCivita and James Blair, visited Bosnia and Herzegovina last week to help Dodik’s party campaign, the New York Times reported.

PLEASE EXPLAIN!

Trump Humiliates MAGA Aides Busted Helping Pro-Putin Regime

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Katie Wiles is a partner at Washington, D.C.-based political lobbying firm Continental Strategy, which earlier this year registered to lobby for the region she visited. A spokesperson told CBS that Wiles spent two days in Republika Srpska in mid-August “with a U.S.-based company who was invited to do a feasibility study in the region.”

“Wiles provides strategic communications support to this U.S. company and has done so for over two years,” the spokesperson added. “Wiles has not spoken with any United States Government official regarding Srpska.”

The company’s name is unclear. Continental Strategies did not immediately respond to CBS or the Daily Beast when asked.

Katie Wiles’ bio on the firm’s site appears to have been taken down.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.

A White House official told CBS that Susie Wiles, 69, “does not discuss work matters with her daughters.” Wiles’ other daughter, Caroline, is also a consultant. Caroline worked on Trump’s 2016 campaign and transition team, and was aiming to land a role in the White House until she reportedly failed an FBI background check, causing her to find another job in the Trump administration.

Despite the White House’s claim that Susie and Katie Wiles don’t disclose their work to each other, they have interacted with similar types of people from the Balkans.

Last month, according to CBS, Susie Wiles met with Dodik ally Željka Cvijanović, a former president of Republika Srpska and a current member of the three-person presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Katie Wiles did not set it up, a White House official told the network. Instead, it was Alejandro Garcia, who is also a partner at Continental Strategies.

The firm’s spokesperson told CBS that Garcia, a former deputy political director for Trump’s 2024 campaign, attended election day in Bosnia—Oct. 4—“but no other member of the team was present.”

“Garcia is the sole person who has interacted with the United States government regarding Srpska, and his contacts have all been meticulously tracked to be reported in accordance with FARA requirements,” the spokesperson said.

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Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s decision to lift sanctions against Dodik has drawn scrutiny. House Democrats say the administration did so to help AAFS Infrastructure & Energy, a U.S.-incorporated company run by Joseph Flynn, the brother of Trump ally Michael Flynn, and Jesse Binnall, a former personal attorney to Trump. After the sanctions were removed, Dodik’s party, which had opposed the company’s proposed gas pipeline in the region, changed course and passed legislation clearing the way for the over $1.5 billion project.

A White House official told CBS that the administration lifted sanctions to prevent regional instability.

“This is yet another example of President Trump’s pragmatic, farseeing foreign policy that has prevented disasters on perennial issues that his predecessors so often stumbled into,” they said.

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