In his first term, President-elect Donald Trump burned through four White House chiefs of staff who tried in vain to police who had access to the president.
Now, incoming chief of staff Susie Wiles, the “ice maiden,” will be tasked with guarding the president from special interests who seek to abuse the White House for their own personal gain. But progressives are calling out Wiles for her own history as a former corporate lobbyist and are raising concerns that her hire signals Trump does not intend to keep his promise to “drain the Swamp.”
“By putting a corporate lobbyist in charge of his administration with his first act as president-elect, Trump is hanging a ‘For Sale’ sign on the front door of the White House,” said Jon Golinger, the democracy advocate for Public Citizen, a non-profit, progressive consumer advocacy group. Public Citizen released a report authored by Golinger on Friday that details WIles’ lobbying disclosures and highlights her work on behalf of various special interests.
The report found that Wiles was a registered lobbyist for 42 different clients between November 2017 and April 2024. Some of her more controversial clients, according to Public Citizen, include Republic Services, a waste management company that has yet to clean radioactive nuclear waste from its dump; The Pebble Partnership, a Canadian copper and gold mining company that wants to build a mine opponents say would harm the environment in the Bristol Bay region of Alaska; and Swisher International, a tobacco company that opposed federal regulations of candy-flavored cigars.
TRUMP NAMES SUSIE WILES AS FIRST FEMALE WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF IN HISTORY
Trump co-campaign manager Susie Wiles is seen at Nashville International Airport as Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump arrives, July 27, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
“A lobbyist with this record of controversial representation and a minefield of potential conflicts of interest…
