By Ben Meiselas
Hi all, hope you’re Tuesday is off to a good start. I certainly know it’s not going well for Donald Trump, who had a very rough morning. And this time, the call was coming from inside the house.
In a meticulously reported, two-part Vanity Fair investigation based on 11 interviews with Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, the façade of unity inside the Trump operation cracked wide open. What emerged was not a flattering portrait of a disciplined administration, but a candid, deeply troubling assessment of a presidency defined by chaos, grievance, and recklessness.
Let me break down the biggest revelations from the article and catch you up on some of the latest news. Remember to like this post, share, and subscribe to support our work.
According to Vanity Fair, Wiles offered blunt characterizations of Trump and several of the most powerful figures in his orbit. She described Trump as having “an alcoholic’s personality,” a term long used in psychology to describe impulsivity, denial, and erratic behavior even in the absence of drinking. She said J.D. Vance had been a conspiracy theorist for years and suggested his transformation from Trump critic to loyalist was driven not by conviction but by political ambition during his Senate run. She referred to Elon Musk as an avowed ketamine user and an “odd duck” whose behavior often appeared irrational and left her aghast. Russell Vought, the architect of Project 2025 and now head of the Office of Management and Budget, was labeled a right-wing zealot. Attorney General Pam Bondi, Wiles said, “completely whiffed” when handling the Epstein files.
Those assessments from Trump’s chief of staff alone would be explosive. But the most consequential revelations concerned Jeffrey Epstein and Trump’s ongoing efforts to rewrite reality around his own conduct. Wiles told the author she had reviewed what she called “the Epstein file” and acknowledged that Trump appears in it. She stated plainly that Trump was on Epstein’s plane and on the flight manifest, describing the two men as young, single “playboys” who spent time together. While she downplayed the implications, her admission undercut years of Trump’s attempts to distance himself from Epstein while deflecting attention toward Bill Clinton.
On that point, Wiles was unambiguous. She said there is zero evidence Clinton ever went to Epstein’s island, directly contradicting Trump’s repeated public claims. In doing so, she implicitly confirmed what court records and investigative reporting have long shown: Trump’s strategy has been to muddy the waters with false accusations rather than confront the documented facts.
Wiles also addressed Trump’s increasingly brazen talk of a third term. She told Vanity Fair that Trump enjoys floating the idea because it drives people “crazy,” but she was categorical that the 22nd Amendment forecloses the possibility. She said Trump himself has acknowledged this reality privately, despite continuing to toy with the idea publicly. It reveals a president who understands the law but is willing to undermine constitutional norms for attention and leverage.
Perhaps most revealing was Wiles’s description of Trump’s foreign policy mindset. She recounted conversations in which Trump framed U.S. actions against boats near Venezuela not as drug interdiction, per Trump’s public claims, but as an explicit effort at regime change in Venezuela. According to Wiles, Trump wanted to “keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle.” The comment directly contradicts official administration statements.
After publication, Wiles attempted damage control, calling the article a hit piece and claiming she was taken out of context. That defense collapsed almost immediately. When The New York Times asked the Vanity Fair author about her denials, the response was simple: there are recordings. The statements were on tape. Oops.
This episode is revealing not because it exposes Trump’s critics, but because it exposes Trump’s collaborators. Wiles is not a whistleblower. She is a central figure who continues to execute the agenda she privately criticizes. Her candor, captured on the record, underscores a broader truth about this administration: many of the people closest to Trump understand exactly who he is and how dangerous his impulses can be, yet they continue to enable him.
All of this unfolded against a grim economic backdrop. New data show the United States has effectively entered a hiring recession. Nearly no jobs have been added since April. Unemployment has climbed to 4.6 percent, youth unemployment has reached 10.6 percent, and manufacturing jobs have declined for seven consecutive months. Electric bills are surging as data center expansion drives up utility costs, and farmers are again being pushed toward bailouts as trade chaos and tariffs take their toll.
Yet when asked to grade the economy, J.D. Vance gave it an “A++++,” echoing Trump’s recent assessment. The disconnect between rhetoric and reality could not be starker as the American people suffer.
What the Vanity Fair reporting makes clear is that the danger facing American democracy does not come only from Trump. It also comes from the quiet cynicism of insiders who know better, say so privately, and then return to advancing policies that harm millions. We’ll keep covering this administration relentlessly, no matter how much they try to fight it. Because when it comes to the poison of propaganda, the most powerful antidote is the truth.
