By GEOFF EARLE, DEPUTY U.S. POLITICAL EDITOR
Published: | Updated:
White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles could become the destroyer of nations without even leaving her desk, President Donald Trump told a crowd of supporters Thursday.
Trump, who regularly talks up the smarts and influence of his to aide, lauded her with a new twist at the White House while signing resolutions to end California‘s mandate to phase out gasoline-powered cars and trucks.
‘And Susie Wiles is here today – stand up Susie,’ Trump said in the East Room, where Wiles was seated in the front row.
‘The most incredible woman. Most powerful woman in the world, they say,’ Trump gushed.
‘She’s the most – she was rated the most powerful woman in the world. Susie Wiles. One phone call and a nation is destroyed. She destroys, she could destroy five nations with five calls,’ Trump quipped, earning laughs from the crowd.
‘And she’s doing a great job, more importantly, right? Doing a great job. Nobody like her,’ Trump said.
Wiles, a Florida political operative who likes to keep a low public profile, stood up and placed her hands together when Trump first praised her.
Trump didn’t provide any more specifics on destroying nations. But his remarks come days after he met with ‘generals and admirals’ at Camp David, and has spoken openly about how Iran could face a military response from Israel if it refuses to end its nuclear program.
President Donald Trump once again spoke to the power of White House chief of staff Susie Wiles. ‘One phone call and a nation is destroyed,’ he said
‘It looks like it’s something that could very well happen,’ Trump said. He ordered a bombing campaign against the Houthis in Yemen but them declared it over in May.
Wiles took on another knotty conflict when she reportedly urged Elon Musk to phone Trump, helping to settle the astonishing feud between the president and the world’s richest man.
The president appears to have concluded he has in interest in talking up Wiles’ wrath. Days ago he also applied his ‘ice maiden’ nickname for her her, as he did on Thursday.
He also said at the time she had ‘big shots’ running ‘scared.
‘She could destroy five nations with five calls,’ Trump said of Wiles. Here An explosion rocks the Syrian city of Kobani during an airstrike by the US-led coalition during fighting between Syrian Kurds and the militants of Islamic State group in 2015
His comments about destruction came in a week when Trump and Wiles visited troops at Fort Bragg and watched a military demonstration of HIMARS rockets
Wiles helped stem the infighting that has plagued Trump campaigns
U.S. President Donald Trump reacts as he leaves after signing a resolution approved by Congress to rescind the EPA’s 2023 approval of California’s plans to require a rising number of zero-emission heavy-duty trucks, and another resolution on California’s low-NOx, or low-nitrogen oxide, regulation for heavy-duty highway and off-road vehicles and engines
Wiles earned Trump’s respect in part by imposing discipline during his 2024 election campaign, helping put a lid on some of the infighting that characterized his previous efforts.
Trump ended up winning all seven battleground states even while facing four criminal indictments.
It is Trump, not Wiles, 68, who can order up missile strikes under the chain of command – during a week when Trump saw a military demonstration at the renamed Fort Bragg, dispatched Marines and Guard troops to LA, and planned a massive military parade in DC.
But she does have wide influence in Washington. A May report by Public Citizen found that several of Wiles’ former lobbying clients met with White House staff at the start of the administration.
US President Donald Trump (L) and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles participate in the Invest America Roundtable in the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 09 June 2025







