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Donald Trump’s chief of staff revealed on Friday plans for the president to hit the campaign trail for Republicans ahead of the November midterm elections as a way to motivate Republican voters and get them to the polls so the GOP can keep control of the House.
In a podcast interview, Susie Wiles said the plan goes against the usual grain of keeping the focus on local candidates and not on the administration. But she also said she believes having Trump much more visible than normal in key races will spur voter turnout and reverse the trend of seeing the party in power in the White House lose congressional seats.
“Typically, in the midterms, it’s not about who’s sitting at the White House. You localize the election, and you keep the federal officials out of it,” Wiles said in an appearance on “The Mom View” podcast. “We’re actually going to turn that on its head and put him on the ballot.”
“Because so many of those low propensity voters are Trump voters,” she added, noting that some results in 2025 show “what happens when he’s not on the ballot and not active.”
“He’s going to campaign like it’s 2024 again…He’s a difference maker, and he’s certainly a turnout machine,” she noted further, quipping that she hadn’t actually told the president yet he’d be campaigning more.
WATCH:
Wiles’ plans for Trump to hit the campaign trail come after the chief of staff raised eyebrows in an interview with Vanity Fair, during which she said that Trump has an “alcoholic’s personality” – an assessment he later agreed with.
“She meant that I’m — you see, I don’t drink alcohol,” Trump told the New York Post. “So everybody knows that — but I’ve often said that if I did, I’d have a very good chance of being an alcoholic. I have said that many times about myself, I do. It’s a very possessive personality.”
“I’ve said that many times about myself,” the president added. “I’m fortunate I’m not a drinker. If I did, I could very well, because I’ve said that — what’s the word? Not possessive — possessive and addictive type personality. Oh, I’ve said it many times, many times before.”
Wiles’ father, former NFL announcer Pat Summerall, struggled with alcoholism but had been sober for 21 years before his death in 2013, according to the Vanity Fair article.
In the interview, Wiles told Vanity Fair reporter Chris Whipple that alcoholism can intensify personality traits. “High-functioning alcoholics or alcoholics in general, their personalities are exaggerated when they drink,” she said.
Trump, whose brother Fred Trump Jr. struggled with alcoholism, famously does not drink alcohol. Wiles told Vanity Fair that Trump nonetheless displayed what she described as “an alcoholic’s personality,” which she characterized as operating with a belief that “there’s nothing he can’t do.”
In June, federal officials launched an investigation after Wiles’ phone appeared to have been hacked.
“They breached the phone; they tried to impersonate her,” President Trump told reporters. “Nobody can impersonate her. There’s only one Susie.” Trump added that she’s an “amazing woman” who “can handle” the situation.
A White House official confirmed the investigation, following a report by the Wall Street Journal that business leaders and politicians—including governors, senators, and members of Congress—began receiving texts and calls from someone who had apparently hacked into Wiles’ personal phone, gaining access to her contact list.
The official clarified that it was Wiles’ personal phone, not her government-issued device, that was compromised.
One of the messages reportedly included a list of individuals the impersonator claimed should be pardoned, while another contained a request for a cash transfer.
