Today in Politics, Bulletin 272. 12/16/25

… An explosive article in Vanity Fair profiling WH Chief of Staff Susie Wiles has the WH in full circle-the-wagons mode since her quotes about things behind the scenes didn’t exactly paint a pretty picture of some of the people she works with. Despite submitting to 11 interviews and being quoted extensively throughout the article, Wiles lashed out - labeling the whole thing “fake news.” She didn’t deny her quotes were accurate, though.

Here are some key parts from the article:

… She described Russ Vought, architect of Project 2025 and head of OMB as “a right-wing absolute zealot.”

… When asked about one of Elon Musk’s crazy posts on social media, Wiles responded: “I think that’s when he’s microdosing. The challenge with Elon is keeping up with him. He’s an avowed ketamine user. And he sleeps in a sleeping bag in the Executive Office Building in the daytime. And he’s an odd, odd duck, as I think geniuses are. You know, it’s not helpful, but he is his own person.”

… On Musk eliminating USAID: “I was initially aghast. Because I think anybody that pays attention to govt and has ever paid attention to USAID believed, as I did, that they do very good work. When Elon said, ‘We’re doing this,’ he was already into it. And that’s probably because he knew it would be horrifying to others. But he decided that it was a better approach to shut it down, fire everybody, shut them out, and then go rebuild. Not the way I would do it.”

… She said there still is deep division in the WH economic team about tariffs: “There was a huge disagreement over whether they were a good idea. I said, ‘This is where we’re going to end up. So figure out how you can work into what he’s already thinking.’ Well, they couldn’t get there.” She said the tariffs have “been more painful than I expected.”

… On AG Pam Bondi giving Epstein binders to right-wing influencers: “I think she completely whiffed on appreciating that that was the very targeted group that cared about this. First she gave them binders full of nothingness. And then she said that the witness list, or the client list, was on her desk. There is no client list, and it sure as hell wasn’t on her desk.”

… “The people that really appreciated what a big deal this is are Kash and Dan Bongino. Because they lived in that world. And VP Vance, who’s been a conspiracy theorist for a decade.”

… Wiles claimed that neither she nor Trump had anything to do with Ghislaine Maxwell getting transferred to a Club Fed after she cooperated with Dep. AG Todd Blanche: “The president was ticked. The president was mighty unhappy. I don’t know why they moved her. Neither does the president.”

… She revealed that Trump’s Venezuela policy isn’t really about drugs: “He wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle. And people way smarter than me on that say that he will.”

… Wiles was asked about Vance and Rubio being harsh critics of Trump in 2016, then completely reversing themselves: “Marco was not the sort of person that would violate his principles. He just won’t. And so he had to get there.” But she said Vance has more cynical motivations: “His conversion came when he was running for the Senate. And I think his conversion was a little bit more, sort of political.”

… On Trump falling asleep in meetings: “He’s not asleep. He’s got his eyes closed and his head leaned back.”

… On Trump verbally abusing female reports, and specifically his ‘Quiet Piggy!’ comment, she blamed the victims: “He’s a counterpuncher. And increasingly, in our society, the punchers are women.”

… Wiles then responded to the article by making her first social media post in over a year. Her last post was before the 2024 election: “The article published early this morning is a disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the finest President, WH staff, and Cabinet in history. Significant context was disregarded and much of what I, and others, said about the team and the President was left out of the story. I assume, after reading it, that this was done to paint an overwhelmingly chaotic and negative narrative about the President and our team.”

… Every single member of the Cabinet then made social media posts simultaneously supporting Wiles and attacking the reporter and the media generally for committing the crime of printing her words. This is most of them to give you an idea of the propaganda damage control operation they launched as they tried to put out the fire.

… JD Vance was asked about it today. Q - “Susie Wiles referred to you as a ‘conspiracy theorist’ and your transformation into a Trump supporter as ‘an act of political expediency.’ Your response? Vance: Sometimes I am in conspiracy theorist, but I only believe in the conspiracy theories that are true. If any of us have learned a lesson from that Vanity Fair article, I hope it’s that we should be giving fewer interviews to mainstream media outlets.”

… It’s the media’s fault.

… Karoline Leavitt jumped on Fox to try and calm down the cult: “This was unfortunately another attempt at fake news by a reporter who was acting disingenuously and really did take the chief’s words out of context but I think most importantly, the bias of omission was ever present throughout this story. The reporter omitted all of the positive things we said about the President.”

… Punchbowl: Sen. Mark Kelly and Pete Hegseth got into a heated argument during the classified briefing this morning on the boat strikes. Kelly, who was sitting in front row, asked about the operations and Hegseth responded by referencing lawful vs. unlawful orders. (DoD is investigating Kelly over the video he did with other Dems). Kelly interrupted Hegseth as he was going after him for the video, noting his question had nothing to do with that.”

…The Hill: “The Pentagon is escalating its preliminary review into Kelly over his participation in a video where he and other Democrats told US service members to disobey ‘illegal orders.’ Hegseth’s office, along with the DOD’s Office of General Counsel, are ‘escalating’ the review to an ‘official Command Investigation.’ Kelly, who retired from the Navy with the rank of captain, is under investigation for ‘serious allegations of misconduct’.”

… Kelly: “It wasn’t enough for Trump to say I should be hanged. It wasn’t enough for Hegseth to threaten me with a court martial. Now they are threatening everything I fought and served for across 25 years in the US Navy - all because I repeated something every service member is taught.”

… Reuters: “Pete Hegseth says he has no plans to release the full top secret unedited video of the Sept. 2 strike against the suspected drug vessel.”

… As he was walking into a briefing for members of Congress on the strikes, Hegseth said this to reporters: “Of course we’re not going to release a top secret full unedited of that to the general public.”

… He then ran away without taking any questions as they chased after him yelling them out while he ignored them.

… Despite the fact that a clean bill to extend ACA subsidies would pass the House with several Republicans in swing districts joining with Dems, Mike Johnson is determined to block that bill from coming to the floor. NBC: “It’s official - Johnson says he won’t call a vote to extend enhanced subsidies under the ACA, effectively guaranteeing they will expire at the end of this month. That means higher insurance premiums will go into effect for millions of Americans who get coverage through Obamacare next year.”

… Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY): “I am pissed for the American people. This is absolute bullshit, and it’s absurd. Everybody has a responsibility to serve their district, to serve their constituents. You know what’s funny? Three-quarters of people on Obamacare are in states Trump won. So maybe, just maybe, everybody should look at this and say, ‘How do we actually fix the health care system?’”

… Rep. James McGovern (D-MA) noted in a committee hearing today that 88% of new ACA subsidy recipients in recent years are in states that Trump won. Now they are all about to see their health insurance premiums spike in 15 days thanks to Republicans.

… Johnson was asked why he failed to get this done: Q - “You guys were out for 2 months during the shutdown. Why has it taken until the end of the year to start addressing these healthcare bills? And what is your message to those who are going to see their premiums rise? Johnson: We have been working steadily producing ideas trying to address this.”

… Q: “Mike Lawler said it was ‘political malpractice’ to not allow a vote on the ACA subsidy extension. What’s your reaction? Johnson: We looked for a way to try to allow for that pressure release valve, and it just was not to be.”

… Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) to CNN: “It’s a failure of leadership.”

… Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA), who is running for Senate, on Fox: Q - “The ACA has never been more popular than it is today. Republicans are losing on this messaging. How do you talk to Americans who say the Republicans don’t have a plan? Carter: You explain it by explaining it’s not working. When the govt has to subsidize a program, that means it’s not working.”

… Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) was asked if Republicans were going to put out a healthcare plan of their own: “We’re treading water. I wouldn’t bet we’re gonna get something done. We’ll see how we do in January.”

… House Maj Whip Steve Scalise was asked on CNBC what a GOP healthcare plan might look like if they ever come up with one: “Car insurance or your homeowners insurance - you turn on the TV, there are commercials with lizards and all kinds of other animals that are selling you options to get lower insurance. You don’t really have that in health insurance. So we want to open up the marketplace - we’re gonna give people options.”

… Sounds legit. Can’t wait.

Reminder that there is no Bulletin on Wednesday because I do my podcast Uncovered where we do a deep dive into the top stories of the week, and then Ask the Editor where I answer 5 of your questions. The questions last week were the best so far overall, and 394,000 people watched the video. If you have a question for tomorrow or would like me to talk more about something, post it in the replies to this Bulletin.

If you missed yesterday’s Bulletin, you can find it here.

… The US labor market lost another 41,000 jobs over Oct-Nov. The unemployment rate is now up to 4.6% - the highest it has been in 4 years.

… CNBC host: “It looks like these like 60,000, 50,000 jobs growth numbers are just kind of the new normal, and that’s a pretty interesting fact. When you look just a year ago, you were seeing 200,000 private sector job growth. That’s pretty striking.”

… I wonder what happened?

… Economist Heather Long: “The economy is about people. We talk about %, but keep this in mind: There are nearly 1 million more unemployed people now than in January. The US would have LOST JOBS in the past 6 months if it weren’t for