LONG KNIVES

Power Struggle Erupts in Trump’s ‘Wild, Wild West’ Wing

Ambitious Trump aides are aggressively plotting to replace Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.

A vicious internal power struggle has erupted inside the White House, where chaotic factional infighting and presidential meltdowns have turned the West Wing into what one Trump ally called “the new Wild Wild West.”

The brewing civil war reached a crescendo on Thursday morning when Donald Trump’s favorite aide, 35-year-old Natalie Harp, handed the 80-year-old president a printed copy of a bombshell Politico Playbook report detailing how he has been making secret calls to close allies asking who should replace his chief of staff, Susie Wiles.

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The printed briefing sparked a total meltdown as Trump “blew up” over the coverage, sending a panicking White House into overdrive as Wiles and her allies frantically burned up phones around town in an effort to project stability.

The chaos comes as White House aides, who had previously kept clashes muted, brace for widespread midterm election losses and massive internal upheaval, according to the Washington Post.

Believing that Wiles might step down or be ousted after next month’s elections, an ambitious pack of Trump aides—including Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, top housing official Bill Pulte, and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin—have begun openly angling to swipe her job.

The jockeying kicked off in earnest after Trump unilaterally reached out to Katie Zacharia about joining the administration as White House press secretary without consulting Wiles, severely undermining her authority.

Meanwhile, Pulte has been attempting to charm the president by lugging literal poster boards onto Marine One, Air Force One, and golf courses—displaying ideas about Federal Reserve interest rates, Kennedy Center renovations, and fan-art of Trump—to the point that the president complained the posters are taking over the White House.

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Compounding the panic is an anxious president who has been complaining to outside advisers that no one is vociferously defending him on television just 18 days before the midterms.

Trump has also been venting about his chief political strategists, James Blair and Chris LaCivita, both close Wiles allies.

Wiles found her position severely compromised after Blair and LaCivita headed to Republika Srpska—the Serb-run territory in Bosnia—to advise its pro-Russian leadership. The overseas consulting gig enraged Trump, who routinely bristles at aides monetizing their access to him, prompting the president to shoot off a scathing Truth Social post warning that he would fire the pair if their work posed a conflict of interest.

The optics turned even uglier for the chief of staff when a photograph surfaced of her daughter, Katie Wiles, visiting the enclave on behalf of Continental Strategy, a lobbying firm where the younger Wiles is a partner.

Former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, a fierce Wiles rival, has reportedly been whispering in Trump’s ear while supporting Pulte’s bid for chief of staff, though Lewandowski insisted to the Post that he has “never spoken with the president about Bill Pulte being the chief of staff.”

Internal Republican polling shows candidate support cratering nationwide after voters expressed disgust with the GOP’s economic platform. Republicans now privately expect to lose the House of Representatives and face a 50-50 tossup to retain the Senate.

Wiles’ detractors are already sharpening their knives. As one Wiles ally acknowledged, a Republican electoral blowout next month will almost certainly serve as the ultimate wedge ambitious rivals use to slide directly into her office.

The White House has been contacted for comment.

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