It is the behind-the-scenes battle for power that has the White House on tenterhooks.
The Ice Queen vs. The Hot Mess.
With Melania Trump largely absent from the president’s inner circle, Susie Wiles has been the matriarch of the West Wing, known by her admiring colleagues as the “Trump whisperer” for her ability to contain his worst impulses.
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As the first woman White House chief–of–staff, she has quietly reined in the warring factions within Trump 2.0 with a quiet discipline that has become her hallmark.
But it could only hold together for so long.
Struggling to prevent leaks and blunders from overshadowing her boss’s agenda, Wiles got a break earlier this week when Trump agreed to finally distance himself from Elon Musk and his around-the-clock social media posts.
Then in walked Laura Loomer.
Wiles had been among those suggesting the president should keep the conspiracy theorist and “investigative journalist” at arm’s length after she accompanied him on several trips in 2023.
But now she’s back. If “moderate Republican” Wiles was the whisperer, Loomer was the MAGA wrecking ball.
With her granny demeanor and smock frocks, 67-year-old Wiles had the calm authority of her sportscaster father Pat Summerall, who announced 16 Super Bowls, more than anybody else on network television, and kept the more effusive John Madden in check. His was a voice the nation trusted. The same went for his daughter amid the mayhem of the Trump revolution.
Wiles is old school. She paid her dues, learning her political ropes as a scheduler for President Ronald Reagan, working on the Bush-Quayle ticket in 1988, and on election campaigns for Jack Kemp, Mitt Romney, and Ron DeSantis before ascending to become Trump’s 2024 election campaign co-manager.
But sources in the administration suggest that Donald Trump is tuning out Wiles’ voice of reason. The going is getting tough for the president, and he is looking for a little diversion. She is among the very few able to give him bad news. But right now, he doesn’t want to hear it.
Perfect timing for Loomer, 31, in her Hervé Léger bandage dresses and MAGA evangelism, to sweep into the limelight.
She was first introduced to Trump by his closest aide, Natalie Harp, 34, known by Trump staffers as the “human printer”, and she has become one of the president’s most outspoken advocates, even if she wasn’t always welcome in the White House.
Loomer has been described as a 9/11 “truther”—once sharing a video on X saying, “9/11 was an Inside Job!”—and was even reprimanded by Marjorie Taylor Greene after she posted a message saying that if Kamala Harris won the election, “the White House will smell like curry & White House speeches will be facilitated via a call center.” Greene called the post “extremely racist.”
Wiles stays hidden; she doesn’t join the exodus to Mar-a-Lago every weekend. She’s about as visible to the public at the White House as Melania.
Loomer is the opposite. She handcuffed herself to a Twitter office after she was banned from the platform and jumped over Nancy Pelosi’s fence as a protest against the then speaker’s immigration views.
The self-styled journalist has a history in politics, making two unsuccessful Florida congressional runs, but she is better known for her inflammatory remarks. She has called herself a “proud Islamophobe” and yet she still traveled on Trump’s plane, and he considered her for a campaign role before being warned off because of her wilder conspiracy theories.
Her weekly Rumble show is called “Loomer Unleashed.” And that’s what Trump’s inner circle–and Wiles, in particular–are scared of.
As different as the two women may be, there are some similarities in the tale of the tape.
They can both hold a grudge.
- Loomer didn’t see the joke when Bill Maher suggested that she was having an adulterous fling with Trump and sued him for defamation.
- Wiles was furious when DeSantis got Trump to fire her before the 2020 election campaign after she ran the Florida governor’s successful 2018 campaign and then called it the “biggest mistake” of her career. When DeSantis ran against Trump in the presidential primary, she got revenge by dismantling his bid and posting on X (now deleted) a single word when he quit. “Bye, bye.”
They aren’t Elon Musk’s biggest fans.
- Wiles was reportedly driven to distraction by Musk’s relentless, undisciplined tweets and his eccentric behavior while understanding his usefulness, especially during the campaign.
- Loomer publicly sparred with Musk over his support for skilled migration visas she believes breach the “America First” MAGA philosophy, but has since praised him.
They get stuff done.
- Wiles got Trump elected. Doesn’t get much bigger than that.
- Loomer got Trump to withdraw Hunter Biden’s Secret Service protection after getting photos of him with his family. And she didn’t waste any time after being allowed back into the Oval Office, persuading the president to fire six National Security Council officials after presenting him with a list of people she said were disloyal.
“With Melania absent, both women see themselves as important female support for the president, but they can’t work together,” said one Washington insider. “At the moment, Susie is not looking so invincible, and Loomer has moved right back into the president’s orbit. But this fight is very far from over.”
Wily Wiles vs. Loony Loomer.
The winner will have Trump’s ear… and be the most powerful woman in the country.
