Trump Press Sec Goes Off Rails as Susie Wiles Fiasco Takes Worse Turn

THE DAILY BLAST with Greg Sargent

The New Republic

News, Politics

4.4 • 800 Ratings

🗓️ 17 December 2025

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

White House chief of staff Susie Wiles gave numerous interviews to Vanity Fair that were way too candid about, well, everything. That prompted press secretary Karoline Leavitt to offer some rancid spin: She went full cult in praise of Trump. She dissembled lamely about “fake news.” And she raged at the publication for not including enough of Trump advisers’ praise for him—as if it’s obliged to do that! We think Wiles’ most interesting revelation was her open admission that Trump’s prosecutions are indeed about “retribution.” Zeteo reporter Asawin Suebsaeng has a piece out today reporting on a new turn in this saga: That confession will complicate Trump’s prosecution of enemies, because it gives them ammo to show that his targeting of them is vindictive. We talked to Suebsaeng about the damage this will do to Trump’s corrupt prosecutions, why Leavitt and others praise Trump so obsequiously at difficult moments, and what all this says about our slide into authoritarianism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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1:36.6	As you've heard by now, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles gave 11 interviews to Vanity Fair in which she was way too candid about, well, everything.
1:44.9	To our mind, though, the most interesting thing she did was to admit that Trump's prosecutions are about retribution against enemies.
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