Trump defends chief of staff after tell-all interview

Global News Podcast

BBC

Daily News, News

4.2 • 7.8K Ratings

🗓️ 17 December 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Susie Wiles, one of the most powerful people in Donald Trump's team, gave a rare insight into the administration in a candid interview with Vanity Fair. The White House chief of staff described the president as having an "alcoholic's personality" and Vice President JD Vance as having been a "conspiracy theorist" for a decade. Wiles has now claimed the magazine disregarded "significant context" to create a "disingenuously framed hit piece". Mr Trump said he had full faith in Ms Wiles.

Also: Donald Trump says he's ordered a blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers going to and from Venezuela, escalating his pressure campaign against President Nicolas Maduro. Funerals have begun in Australia for the victims of Sunday’s mass shooting at Bondi Beach. Nick Reiner, son of the Hollywood director Rob Reiner and his wife Michelle, has been charged with their murder. Why having difficulty concentrating or losing personal confidence in midlife may put a person at an increased risk of dementia, according to a study. How a picture of Miss Finland sparked a row over racism and a PR crisis for the Nordic nation. The singer Lizzo is celebrating a legal victory after a judge dismissed allegations of fat-shaming made by three of her former dancers. And after six centuries of male voices, King's College Cambridge finally gets an all female choir.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.
0:05.6	You're listening to the Global News Podcasts from the BBC World Service.
0:11.2	Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. We're recording this at 5 o'clock GMT on Wednesday the 17th of December.
0:17.8	President Trump steps up the pressure on Venezuela with a blockade on sanctioned oil
0:22.0	tankers, even as the White House reels from a bombshell interview. In Australia, the first funeral
0:28.0	is held after the Bondi Beach massacre, and the son of the Hollywood director, Rob Reiner,
0:33.3	has been charged with murdering his parents.
0:38.8	Also in the podcast,
0:40.7	losing confidence in yourself,
0:42.5	difficulties coping with problems,
0:44.2	impaired social connectedness,
0:47.8	feeling nervous and difficulties concentrated.
0:51.4	The signs which could mean you're at higher risk of dementia.
1:01.8	Susie Wiles is the first ever female White House Chief of Staff, and she played a key role in getting Donald Trump re-elected last year.
1:05.2	But she has now shed some unwanted light on the inner workings of the Trump administration. Vanity Fair quotes her
1:12.4	as saying the president has an alcoholic's personality. His vice president is a conspiracy theorist
1:18.4	and Elon Musk is an odd duck who left her aghast with the rapid dismantling of the US agency
1:24.5	for international development. Ms. Wiles says the article is a hit piece and lacks context.
1:30.2	She's been backed by the president and his team.
1:32.9	I heard more from the BBC's Bern de Booseman in Washington.
1:35.8	The interview was remarkably candid from a White House in particular
1:39.9	that is quite insular in terms of at least those senior officials.
	...

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