Lobbyists and surrogates for some of the world’s largest companies had a go-to strategy when they saw no other path to head off a damaging policy from President Trump: call Susie Wiles.
Her departure, announced Friday, will leave many businesses searching for a new interlocutor within the White House. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon and his team have been in regular contact with her, as well as her former deputy, James Blair, the Journal has reported. After Trump’s initial round of tariffs last year, Miller said at a press conference the administration wasn’t going to provide middle-class tariff relief but instead tax cuts that Trump signed into law months later.
Leading Wall Street executives have often turned to Wiles and her staff. But while Wiles was viewed as a sympathetic ear by corporate titans, their entreaties to her sometimes failed.
Throughout her tenure, Trump’s departing chief of staff became a sounding board for corporations and advocacy groups trying to influence the administration, according to people familiar with the matter. Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser has also had some interactions with both Wiles and incoming chief of staff Stephen Miller, according to people familiar with the matter. Shortly after Trump imposed sweeping tariffs last year, a healthcare trade group reached out to Wiles and advocated for the administration to pare back the trade levies, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. The tariffs continued despite the lobbying effort, the person said. “This administration will continue building powerful partnerships, advancing the president’s America First agenda, and delivering historic wins for the American people,” Alvarez said. Wiles in a statement on X said that Friday would be her last day. She wrote that serving the president “has been the honor of a lifetime” and said that while her role may be changing, her “commitment to the President and the mission never will. Trump said that Wiles will move to his political operations.
Wiles has espoused more moderate views on immigration than Miller and often wanted the administration to temper some of its more drastic moves. Her influence increasingly irritated people on the hard right, who called for her ouster.
Some of her critics had shared information with the president alleging that people close to Wiles were making money off him, according to people familiar with the matter.
