Susie Wiles Calls Project 2025 Architect a ‘Right-Wing Absolute Zealot’

Some not dread-inducing news happened Tuesday morning: Vanity Fair dropped a two-part story in which White House Chief of Staff Susie “Ice Maiden” Wiles thoroughly walloped her cabinet colleagues throughout the past year over the course of not one, not two, but 11 different interviews. She quickly posted a statement on Twitter, saying, “significant context was disregarded” and that “much” of what she said was left out. At this point, I have to ask… does Team Trump know what it means to be “on the record” or, at the very least, what a journalist’s job is…??

Speaking to VF’s Chris Whipple (who literally wrote a book on White House Chiefs of Staff in 2017), Wiles dropped truth bombs left and right—saying Trump’s got an “alcoholic’s personality,” that Vice President JD Vance has been a conspiracy theorist for a decade who went from anti- to pro-MAGA as soon as it served him politically, and that Attorney General Pam Bondi “whiffed” the handling of the Epstein files. Best of all, Wiles called Russell Vought—the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Trump’s so-called “grim reaper,” and the villain who architected Project 2025—a “right-wing absolute zealot.” Someone inside the White House not lying? It’s a Christmas miracle. 

Vought, after running the OMB during Trump’s first term, co-authored Project 2025, the extremist guide on gutting reproductive healthcare, banning abortion, subjugating LGBTQ people, dismantling civil rights protections, and anything else you’d imagine a “right-wing absolute zealot” to envision in their sick, regressive head. As Trump’s top budget adviser, who was confirmed in a 53-47 vote, Vought has enjoyed unparalleled power to oversee his manifesto’s rapid implementation—so much so that in October, ProPublica dubbed him “the shadow president.” (On the campaign trail, Trump claimed he knew nothing about the 900-page blueprint, yet he’s since implemented 50% of its policies.)

Zealotry, in particular, defines Vought, who is a loud and proud Christian nationalist who told undercover journalists in July 2024 that he wants to crush the “deep state”; who thanked God for forming “his inward parts” and “knitting” him in his mother’s womb at an anti-abortion conference in 2020 (ew); and who justified the destruction of $10 million worth of birth control pills by saying they were “abortifacients.”

Addressing Wiles’ piece on Tuesday, Vought tweeted, “Susie Wiles is an exceptional chief of staff,” adding, “this hit piece will not slow us down.” And the White House press shop was clearly forced to pull an all-nighter because nearly every member of Trump’s cabinet—including Wiles—said something similar.

Hilarious. The WH had all the Cabinet members simultaneously put out statements supporting Susie Wiles after the Vanity Fair article came out. pic.twitter.com/sg7AyYNEcZ

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) December 16, 2025

“The article published early this morning is a disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the finest President, White House staff, and Cabinet in history,” the Ice Maiden tweeted. (VF, perhaps anticipating the backlash, came ready with the receipts.) Vance wrote, “The President and the entire team love Susie because she is loyal and good at her job.” Speaking to the New York Post, Trump said he hadn’t read the article but insisted Wiles is doing a “fantastic job.” And FBI Director Kash Patel tweeted, “Fake news comes after you when you’re effective. And there’s nobody in [Trump’s] team more effective than [Susie Wiles.]” (To be fair, everybody is more effective than Patel, who is perhaps the worst person at his job in the history of people being bad at their jobs.)

But whatever the Ice Maiden thought she was doing when she clearly said whatever she wanted to a literal reporter, it’s nice that someone in the White House is actually telling the truth for once.

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