President-elect Donald Trump has appointed Susan “Susie” Wiles, the New Jersey-born architect behind his successful reelection campaign, as his next White House chief of staff.
Wiles, who grew up in Saddle River, is the first woman to take on the role widely seen as one of the most powerful non-elected positions in the U.S. government. Now well known for her influence on politics in Florida, Wiles spent her formative years in Bergen County under the shadow of her famous father.
Wiles is the daughter of Katharine Jacobs and Pat Summerall, the legendary New York Giants kicker and sportscaster who became a household name while calling NFL games with John Madden for more than two decades.
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Like many Giants, Summerall chose to live in Bergen County during his playing days. And after retiring from the game, while working for WCBS radio in 1967, he moved to a new, four-bedroom home on Saddle River’s Surrey Drive, The Ridgewood News reported that May. Wiles was 10 at the time.
According to an April 2024 profile in Politico, Wiles’ upbringing was shaped by her mother, who ran the household as her father dealt with his career and his alcoholism. Wiles has described her mother as a “fantastic gardener, a beautiful seamstress, and the best cook there ever was,” noting her calm and disciplined approach in a busy family of three children, Politico reported.
As a teenager, Wiles attended the Academy of the Holy Angels in Demarest, a private all-girls school founded in 1879. She graduated from the academy in 1975 before moving on to the University of Maryland. Her first job in politics came late that decade as a staffer for Congressman Jack Kemp, another former NFL player.
After that job on Capitol Hill, she began working on various Republican campaigns, gaining experience that would later lead her to Florida, where she helped run Rick Scott’s successful campaign for governor in 2010. She also briefly worked for Jon Huntsman’s 2012 presidential campaign.
As a trusted Republican strategist in Florida with experience in effective campaign management, Wiles was drafted by Trump’s 2016 campaign to manage his efforts in the critical swing state. By 2020, she was one of Trump’s most senior advisers — but, unlike some, she remained firmly behind the scenes. Trump again won the state with Wiles running the campaign there, but he failed to retain the presidency.
In a statement last week, Trump called Wiles an “integral part” of his 2016 and 2020 campaigns in Florida. The victories saw her role expanded to national campaign manager for Trump in 2024.
“She’s tough, smart, innovative, and is universally admired and respected,” Trump added in the statement.
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During his initial term as president, Trump cycled through four different chiefs of staff, one of whom held the position on an interim basis for a full year — a notable example of the high turnover within his administration.
The chief of staff role typically sees appointees act as a close adviser to the president, helping the president meet goals while managing the delicate balance of political interests. They also often critically control access to the president, deciding who gets face time and who doesn’t.
Source: politics.einnews.com…
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