Trump’s new chief of staff is a former lobbyist. It will face a number of special interests

WASHINGTON — As White House Chief of Staff, one of the Susie Wiles The vexing challenges will be overseeing the buffet line of powerful interests who want something from Donald Trump.

It’s a world he knows well. During Trump’s first presidency, she lobbied for many of them.

Trump was first elected on a pledge to “drain the swamp” in Washington. But his transactional approach to the presidency instead led to a lobbying boom that landed allies, including Wiles, with lucrative contracts, empowered wealthy business partners and stymied his agenda after his administration became mired in -a series of influence peddling scandals.

Now, like Trump is preparing to return to powerhis victory is likely to embolden those who think they can catch his ear, raising the prospect that his second administration could face many of the same dangers as the first. That will test Wiles’ ability to manage a growing number of high-powered figures — including Trump’s children, his son-in-law Jared Kushner and billionaires like Elon Musk — who won’t depend on her for access to the president.

Appointing a former lobbyist to such an important job “bodes very ill for what we’re going to see from the next Trump administration,” he said Craig Holmanhimself a registered lobbyist for the government watchdog group Public Citizen. “This time, Trump didn’t even mention ‘draining the swamp.’ … He’s not even pretending.”

In a statement, Brian Hughes, a spokesman for Trump’s transition effort, rejected any suggestion that Wiles’ history as a lobbyist made her susceptible to pressure.

“Susie Wiles has an undeniable reputation for the highest integrity and unwavering commitment to service both inside and outside of government,” Hughes said. “She will bring that same integrity and commitment to serving President Trump in the White House, and that’s exactly why she was chosen.”

The selection of Wiles as chief of staff was the first hire announced by Trump after his victory. Wiles co-managed the former president’s campaign and was widely credited with running an operation that was far more disciplined than his previous two efforts. Even so, she will have her work cut out for her. Although the job has traditionally involved ensuring police have access to the president, Trump chafed at such efforts during his first presidency, when he sacked four chiefs of staff.

During his recent victory speech, Trump called Wiles ‘Ice Dog’ while praising her as a consummate player behind the scenes. She will be the first woman ever to hold this position.

What is also clear is that Wiles, 67, has successfully led stubborn men over a long career in politics, government and lobbying. The daughter of NFL player and sports reporter Pat Summerall, Wiles worked for U.S. Rep. Jack Kemp, a conservative icon, in the 1970s, followed by stints on Ronald Reagan’s campaign and as a White House programmer.

She later headed to Florida, where she advised two Jacksonville mayors and is credited with helping businessman Rick Scott, now a U.S. senator, win the governor’s office. After briefly managing Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman’s 2012 presidential campaign, she oversaw Trump’s 2016 effort in Florida, when his victory in the state helped him win the White House.

Wiles was a partner at Ballard Partners, a regional firm that lobbied for Trump companies in Florida. Shortly after Trump’s election, Ballard quickly established himself in Washington became a dominant playerthat pulled in more than $70 million in lobbying fees during Trump’s presidency, representing a who’s who of corporate America, lobbying disclosures show.

Many of Wiles’ clients were simple entities with obvious goals—General Motors, a trade group for children’s hospitals, home builders, and the city of Jacksonville, Florida.

One in particular stood out that talks about the ways, subtle or not, that foreign interests seek to influence US policy. In 2017, Wiles registered as a lobbyist for Globovisión, a Venezuelan TV network owned by Raul Gorrin, a businessman charged in Miami with money laundering.

Gorrín bought the broadcaster in 2013 and immediately scaled back its anti-government coverage. He hired Ballard to advise on “general government policies and regulations,” lobbying disclosures show. But rather than work with the telecommunications watchdog agencies Ballard’s lobby trained at the White House, which would have little say in regulating a foreign broadcaster in the U.S., Globovisión paid Ballard $800,000 for a year of work.

Brian Ballard, the company’s president, said it was clear to him that Gorrín’s aims were not limited to the media business. Gorrín, who owns several luxury properties in Miami, has long positioned himself as a bridge between Venezuela’s socialist government and US officials.

Until Wiles and a team of Ballard lobbyists represented Globovisión, Gorrín was leading a quiet charm offensive for Nicolás Maduro’s government, which was seeking closer ties to Trump at a time when the country was facing food shortages, violent crime and hyperinflation. It started before Trump took office, when Citgo, a subsidiary of Venezuela’s state oil company, made a $500,000 donation to Trump’s inauguration.

“It was a fraud, and as soon as we found out it was a fraud, we fired him,” Ballard said. “They would ask us to organize a lot of things, in LA and DC, and then nothing would happen. It was all a fantasy. He just wanted to use our firm.”

Days after Ballard dropped Gorrín in 2018, federal prosecutors unsealed charges against the businessman for allegedly using the U.S. financial system to provide Venezuelan officials with private jets, a yacht and champion show jumping horses as part of a bogus loan schemes perpetrated by insiders. to steal the coffers of the state. Last month, he was charged a second time, also in Miami, in another scheme to embezzle $1 billion from state oil company PDVSA.

Ballard said Wiles had almost no role in managing the relationship with Gorrín or several other clients for which she is listed as a lobbyist. But he praised her as someone who is a highly organized “straight shooter” and “tough as nails” despite her soft-spoken demeanor.

“She’s the kind of person you want in a shelter,” he said. “She will serve the president well.”

During Trump’s first term, Maduro embarked on a peace offensive that included attempts to hire at least two other lobbyists. It went out, however. In 2019, the White House imposed crushing oil sanctions on the OPEC nation, closed the US Embassy in Caracas and recognized the head of the opposition-controlled National Assembly as the country’s legitimate leader. Maduro was then indicted in 2020 by the US Department of Justice on federal drug-trafficking charges in New York.

Gorrín has long denied any wrongdoing and remains a fugitive. In a brief interview with The Associated Press, he called Wiles “ma’am” and said she always acted professionally and humanely.

Ballard called the company’s work for Gorrín a “big mistake.” Going forward, Ballard expects access to the White House to be more tightly controlled, just as his firm, after a steep learning curve during the first Trump administration, will do a better job vetting potential clients to ensure their interests are aligned with the president’s agenda.

“I learned a lot,” he says, “and so did the president.”

Globovisión was not Wiles’ only client with foreign ties.

In early 2019, she registered with the Department of Justice as a foreign agent working for one of Nigeria’s main political parties for two months. Another client was a car dealership owned by Shafik Gabr, a wealthy businessman who was in a financial dispute related to the sale of cars in Egypt with the subsidiary of the German manufacturer Volkswagen.

Wiles was also a registered lobbyist for subsidiaries of a multinational gambling company and a Canadian company seeking to build a copper and gold mine near Bristol Bay, rich in Alaskan salmon.

Wiles was hardly an outlier in Trump’s Washington, where his eponymous hotel served as a hub for lobbyists, business leaders and foreign governments seeking to mingle with Trump World figures as they sought the president’s favor.

While much of this was part of the normal course of business in Washington, a number of Trump allies and advisers have been investigated and charged with crimes related to their work on behalf of foreign countries and entities.

After becoming Trump’s de facto campaign manager in 2022, Wiles continued to lobby, this time for Mercury, a multinational public affairs and lobbying firm. Most recently, she represented cigar maker Swisher Sweets.

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Goodman reported from Miami and Suderman from Richmond, Virginia.