Wiles Susie

primary swamp thing trujillo florida man

SCAPEGOAT BLUE TSU CALLEY MEANS 11 26

SEE BALLARD BRIAN PARTNERS FARA VENEZ RUBIO, KELLYANNE....

dtr PIC lobbyist

NEPO BABY VAPE LOBBYIST // KID KILLER? russia

SHE WILL BOOST KELPTO KAKI-

2nd on cos mercury thus swamp thing lobbyist rev door

disambig see partner in crime LACIVITA FABRIZIO NEW TORTURER DIC LOBBY

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AN 11 26

Former White House chief of staff Susie Wiles has come under fire after a former aide to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. alleged in an interview Sunday that Wiles' lobbying firm, Ballard Partners, controlled the White House. Now, CBS News is reporting her firm cashed in $186 million during Trump's first two years in office.

Calley Means told "Face the Nation" on Sunday that the White House prioritized specific industries and corporations, like the sugar industry and big tobacco, while ignoring the president's "Make America Healthy Again" agenda.

Means alleged Wiles blocked efforts to address issues like children’s sugar consumption because she needed donations from the industry for Republicans in the 2026 midterms. Meanwhile, her lobbying firm also pushed the pesticide glyphosate and worked on the approval of fruit-flavored vapes that capture new, young smokers.

The firm's huge profits "did not happen by accident," Means alleged.

Means, who resigned in October, also said Kennedy's anti-tobacco agenda ultimately stalled. Wiles and "her deputies were still relentlessly pushing HHS to find a pathway for fruit-flavored vapes," he said.

Big tobacco scored big in May "with new guidance that could let major tobacco companies sell flavored vapes," the CBS report said.

Brian Ballard, Wiles' partner, was a huge fundraiser for Trump. He explained in a statement Sunday that the firm's interactions with Wiles as chief of staff "have been limited and have been the exception, not the rule."

"Ballard Partners' more than $88 million in lobbying revenue last year was, at the time, the most any firm had reported since the Lobbying Disclosure Act took effect in 1996, even after adjusting for inflation," the CBS report said, citing an analysis of Senate lobbying disclosures. "Through the first three quarters of 2026, the firm has already surpassed that, reporting more than $98 million."

The money lobbying firms earn can change depending on the administration in power. Ballard Partners' close relationship to Trump through Wiles and Ballard would likely attract companies trying to win government contracts or influence regulations.

For a short time, Ballard was banned from the White House over its cryptocurrency lobbying, which reportedly irked officials. After helping raise $50 million for Trump's 2024 campaign, Ballard signed up "hundreds of clients, though its relationship with the administration," CBS News reported.

Axios reported that Ballard was ultimately able to clean up the relationships by May 2025, allowing him access to the White House again.

Top Wiles aide James Blair, was another target of Means, who said that the former deputy chief of staff was "relentless on helping the fruit-flavored vape industry."

Blair denied this online and to CBS, saying he did nothing of the sort and that his goal was to fast-track the FDA's rulings on "nicotine product applications."

"Calley is intentionally misrepresenting my role and my responsibility because he opposes the issue entirely," Blair added.

Trump's longtime pollster Tony Fabrizio was another Means attacked publicly, saying that he was helping pharmaceutical companies. Fabrizio called the allegations "ridiculous" and "demonstrably false."

One major problem for the Trump administration is that a key issue that helped usher in the so-called "blue tsunami" in the 2026 election came from those who addressed Washington corruption in their campaigns. Americans identified it as one of the top three most important issues in the six months leading up to the election.

"The Democrats are going to start investigations as soon as they're sworn in, and White House fighting about who was making money will just elevate the topic," commented Marc Short, who served as former Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff.

The feud has certainly drawn the attention of Congress. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calf.), the incoming chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said he will look into all of the claims around Wiles and others.

Attorney General Todd Blanche said that Means was nothing more than a "disgruntled former administration official." He made it clear that he has no intention of investigating Wiles or other administration employees. He told CNN's Dana Bash over the weekend that Means' allegations were merely "something that someone says on a podcast."

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mma

caroline sunshine spox?

Fox guest calls for Susie Wiles and “anybody involved in what was 100 percent a preventable election wipeout” to resign

11/04/26

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an 11 26 blame fire woman?

As Republicans search for someone to blame for the shellacking they received on election night, the knives are out at the White House for chief of staff Susie Wiles.

According to the Daily Beast, MAGA is calling for her to be gone.

“Susie Wiles should be fired tomorrow!” demanded white nationalist podcast host Nick Fuentes, ranting late Tuesday night. “You’re going to have a 260-seat Democrat majority in the House, a 55-seat Democrat majority, and these deputies for the White House were in Bosnia while this bloodbath was going on, making money from foreign governments.”

“[Wiles] should be fired immediately,” he continued. “Vance and Rubio should never get close to the nomination in 2028. That’s the point. That’s why we’re doing this. These people should be investigated. They should go to jail. They should lose their jobs. They should have no political future.”

" Trump should fire Susie Wiles, who most Republicans have an inexplicable affection for. Her role doesn't even need Senate confirmation. Trump needed a wartime consigliere and Wiles was Tom Hagen. Nice, practical, but not suited for these midterms and definitely not good for the next two years," said host JD Rucker.

While President Trump went into Election Day saying that he was confident and ready to stand up to Democrats, he now appears to be "eager" to make deals with Democrats. While Trump bragged that he was ready to get his veto stamp out, he now appears open to working together. The MAGA faithful said that Trump doesn't want to spend the next two years "vetoing everything."

However, Trump may be in deeper trouble than having to deal. He might be forced to spend the next two years begging Democrats not to hurt him.

Other MAGA supporters agree that Wiles is the one to blame and they're eager to throw her under the bus.

The Beast said that some claim that they have been against Wiles since her Dec. 2025 Vanity Fair cover. In the article, she promised: “We’re going to win the midterms.”

A Daily Mail report said Trump spent the evening shuttered in the White House residence while a crowd of Republicans patted themselves on the back and ate catering from the Cheesecake Factory.

"Ensconced with his redoutable Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Natalie Harp, the aide who has enjoyed unusually direct access to Trump throughout this second term, the President watched as the Blue Wave swept in. His First Lady was not watching with him," the Daily Mail said.

As the numbers came through and it became clear just how bad the night would be for Republicans, those who know Trump best quickly disappeared. First were his senior staff, followed by his Cabinet officials. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was there early in the evening, but the report said he suddenly couldn't be found.

As the clocks approached 10 p.m., everyone was almost completely gone, and the Cheesecake Factory food went uneaten.

After midnight, an angry Trump called into Fox News trying to blame them for all of the Fox polls that showed him with horrible polling. "But, tonight, actually, the results was pretty close to what the Fox polls showed," said Bret Baier.

"Well, I don't know about that," Trump said. "I can just tell ya about speaking for myself. And the results for Fox for me were wrong for 12 years. I mean, you got me wrong for 12 years. But I don't care. It doesn't matter. People... you know... people see... when you look at the pollster recently that admitted they weren't even doing polls and they gave the information to the New York Times. They weren't even a legit — it wasn't even a question of legit!"

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an 10 26

Political commentator and national security expert Marcy Wheeler pointed to three recent instances in which President Donald Trump has lashed out at the media and issued new threats.

Writing on Thursday, Wheeler pointed to a letter sent by new White House Counsel Will Scharf to Politico complaining about its owner. The letter was first reported by Marc Caputo.

Scharf alleged articles published between Oct. 14 and Oct. 17 were "demonstrably false and defamatory" and part of a conspiracy to "manufacture a narrative of dysfunction and infighting in the White House."

He went on to demand the stories be retracted and corrections be issued "or face the consequences."

Caputo’s report closed with a comment from one of Trump's aides about Politico's owner being a foreign-owned right-wing billionaire.

Steven Cheung

@StevenCheung47

Politico is a foreign-op designed to interfere in American politics and meddle in our elections with disinformation and misinformation.

Jason Miller

@JasonMiller

Oct 17

What happened to @politico? The notion that the WH Chief of Staff moonlights as a media booker is a lie - and a completely absurd lie at that.

XITTER

Wheeler thinks these attacks are all part of the White House paving the road toward inevitable excuses and finger-pointing that will come from an electoral bloodbath.

The three articles Scharf complained about cover internal power struggles between White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and some in the administration. The White House has issued some on-the-record denials about the reports.

Scharf cited three articles in which Politico reported a power struggle targeting Susie Wiles for which the White House issued some form of on-the-record denials.

One was an Oct. 15 report, “Trump’s ice maiden is under fire,” which appeared in "Playbook," Politico's morning newsletter. Trump called it "fake news." The second Playbook report revealed a "freakout" in the White House over Politico's previous story. According to the source there, Trump "blew up" about it, calling it "unbelievably stupid and false." The third was a report titled “Susie Wiles helped set up Fox interview ahead of press secretary’s exit." Politico has issued a correction about the last story. The report insinuates that ex-press secretary Katie Zacharia was set up in her interview with Sean Hannity. In fact, it was Zacharia who set up her own interview with the Fox host.

A correction on the report now reads: "CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report, including its headline, mischaracterized the role White House chief of staff Susie Wiles played in then-press secretary Katie Zacharia’s interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News. POLITICO’s follow-up reporting indicates she did not play a direct role in setting up the interview.

White House chief of staff Susie Wiles 'offered positive reinforcement' for Katie Zacharia to appear on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show last week, according to a senior White House official."

Wheeler, for her part, said Trump doesn't appear ready to use the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) laws he has been known to ignore. So, while Politico might be panicking about a legal fight, she doubts it will go further than pool access.

One of the White House's challenges has been finding the people leaking to the press. A previous story revealed that Wiles and FBI Director Kash Patel were trying to hunt down the person who leaked that a Qatari-gifted jet wasn't equipped to handle international travel close to Iran. Trump had to secretly hide in a food cart to sneak onto the older presidential plane. It was never known why that switch needed to be so clandestine or what the plane lacked.

The White House argued that it was a colossal breach of national security. It never found the leaker.

For Wheeler, the issue is that, to her, the White House counsel is attempting to suppress reports about making Wiles the scapegoat for the bloodbath.

"As the first cited article lays out (and cites four people who are getting calls from Trump about replacing Wiles; it should be noted that Trump always solicits advice from Hannity), Trump is testing whether to replace Wiles with people that include Stephen Miller, who (along with Boris Epshteyn) is reportedly close to Scharf," she wrote.

The second Politico report says Trump aide Natalie Harp, who typically surrounds Trump with news that keeps him happy and calm, printed the first one. That second report denied that Trump or anyone at the White House read the first report. But Scharf's letter made it clear that in fact they had.

How else would "Scharf have come to complain about it and the follow-up, you dummies? This threat from Scharf is, quite literally, a legal freak-out," asked Wheeler.

Wheeler thinks the leaker is likely someone like Miller and that it's part of his power play to score the chief of staff gig. In the mean time, the White House Counsel is doing "something legally and logically stupid to punish Politico for reporting what is really going on," she closed.

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Yet another person with close ties to Donald Trump’s White House has been linked to a pro-Russia Balkan regime.

Katie Wiles, daughter of Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, works for a political lobbying firm that has a $35,000-per-month contract to represent a small self-governing territory in Bosnia and Herzegovina known as Republika Srpska. She traveled there as recently as August.

A photograph circulated by Evi Kokalari, a conservative Albanian American activist, showed the younger Wiles wielding a rifle and standing next to a man that CBS News identified as Željko Budimir, the interior minister of Republika Srpska. The image appeared to have been initially posted to Wiles’s Instagram story with the caption “mostly work + some serious fun!”

Continental Strategy, Wiles’s employer, confirmed to CBS that she traveled to Republika Srpska in August, but said she has not lobbied the U.S. government on its behalf. Yeah, she probably wouldn’t have to do much—her mom would do it for her. As of Thursday afternoon, Wiles’s page on her company’s website was inaccessible.

This news comes as MAGA world has turned its ire on two of the president’s closest advisers, Chris LaCivita and James Blair, who took time out of their presumably busy pre-midterm elections schedules to travel to the Balkans to assist in that territory’s elections. The two men were paid hundreds of thousands of dollars each to provide counsel on voting issues to the government, which is led by far-right nationalists. Republika Srpska is closely aligned with Russian President Vladimir Putin and has made a considerable effort to make inroads with Trump and his allies.

Both LaCivita and Blair are connected to Susie Wiles—but even the famed “ice maiden” reportedly couldn’t protect them from the White House’s ire. Trump tried to distance himself from his beloved strategists, claiming that Blair and LaCivita were “outside consultants,” but his chief of staff’s child may be harder to disown.

The Miami Trial Exposing Foreign Influence In Trumpland

Inside a $50 million Venezuelan lobbying deal and a court battle ensnaring White House power brokers — including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and chief of staff Susie Wiles.

Luke Goldstein

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At every stage in Marco Rubio’s political ascent, David Rivera has been by his side.

Twenty years ago, the two Miami-raised Cuban-American Republicans earned the nicknames “Batman and Robin” as they rose to power in the Florida House of Representatives. When Rubio sought the speaker’s gavel, Rivera, known as Rubio’s “enforcer,” whipped the necessary votes. The young legislators even put down a mortgage together for a Tallahassee bachelor pad near the state Capitol.

Later, when Rubio was debating whether to launch a long-shot bid for the U.S. Senate, Rivera convinced him to run and campaigned for him across Florida. And when Rubio decided to propose to his now-wife, Rivera helped him pick out the engagement ring.

This month, the two will be by one another’s side once again — except this time on opposite sides of a courtroom.

Rivera is standing trial in Miami federal court for allegedly acting as a foreign agent on behalf of Venezuela, and Rubio, now secretary of state, is scheduled to testify as a government witness against him.

The blockbuster case hasn’t just ensnared Rubio, a central architect of President Donald Trump’s recent overthrow of the Venezuelan government. It provides a rare glimpse into a constellation of powerful figures in Trump’s orbit — including his White House chief of staff — who have profited from shaping U.S. policy on Venezuela, potentially without always disclosing the true nature of their work.

Now-Secretary of State Marco Rubio, left, talks to reporters as David Rivera looks on. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)

Alongside Rubio, the cast of characters in the case includes a Florida oilman currently advising Trump on Venezuela policy; former Trump senior counselor Kellyanne Conway; a powerful Republican congressman code-named “Sombrero”; a notorious player in the Iran-Contra scandal; a convicted cocaine trafficker with cartel ties; the legal counsel for Jeffrey Epstein’s associate, Ghislaine Maxwell; and even Venezuela’s deposed president, Nicolás Maduro.

Filings in the case, alongside those in related lawsuits and countersuits, hint at hundreds of pages of unreleased documents detailing illicit business networks running from Caracas, Venezuela, to Miami and Washington, D.C. The limited records available describe clandestine operations, government bribes, multimillion-dollar kickbacks, drug smugglers, FBI informants, and secret deals involving Venezuela’s acting president.

The biggest bombshell of all? Documents presented by defense attorneys indicate that Rivera may not have been the only unregistered foreign agent working for Venezuela. According to a subpoena and a judicial decision, representatives of an ascendant lobbying firm in D.C. may also have been hired to promote the Venezuelan government’s interests without the proper disclosures. That includes one of Trump’s top officials: Susie Wiles, his chief of staff.

The trial — and its revelations about foreign influence — is poised to bedevil the White House, even as it tries to move on from its Venezuela ventures to its next regime-change operations in Iran. Under Trump’s increasingly hawkish second administration, the foreign lobbying industry has been booming, with new foreign-agent registrants reaching record highs over the past year.

Legal insiders in Miami interviewed by The Lever never expected the Justice Department’s case against Rivera, initiated in 2022 during the Biden administration, to reach trial under Rubio’s watch. Many still anticipate it will end in a sweetheart deal, given the Trump administration’s freewheeling approach toward pardoning allies.

“This Trump DOJ has been notorious for dropping cases and giving pardons, pointing the finger at the Biden administration, claiming this is some sort of witch hunt,” said Joseph DeMaria, a former prosecutor with the Justice Department’s organized crime strike force who is now a Miami-based defense attorney familiar with the Rivera case. “The question is, why wait until the eve of the trial for this one?”

The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment on the case. But whichever route it chooses, the government is caught in a bind.

Dropping the case — and appearing to go soft on an alleged Venezuelan foreign agent just as government prosecutors build their narco-terrorism case against the country’s former leader and reportedly prepare corruption charges against his replacement — could spark a media firestorm.

Keeping the case alive, however, could expose the administration’s inner circle to scrutiny and potentially damning revelations.

A $50 Million Mystery

By the time Rubio and Rivera sold their Tallahassee home in 2015 after facing foreclosure over disputed bank payments, Rivera had become a political liability.

During their four terms together in the Florida state legislature, Rubio harnessed the flair and showmanship of political theater. Rivera was the workhorse.

A power broker with meticulous attention to detail, Rivera wielded political muscle behind the scenes to pass landmark legislation on projects ranging from the buildout of the Port of Miami tunnel to a free trade agreement with Colombia. An inveterate policy wonk, Rivera would fondly cite arcane provisions from these measures years later.

But alongside those accomplishments came accusations of graft. In Tallahassee, Rivera garnered a reputation as a “Nixonian” political operator for the lengths he would go to win. He once rear-ended a truck carrying incriminating campaign leaflets from his political opponent, according to a 2002 police report.

By the time Rivera lost his reelection for U.S. Congress in 2013 after serving one term, he had been plagued by so many scandals that colleagues described his behavior as “pathological.” And some of his schemes reportedly implicated Rubio.

In the 2000s, the FBI investigated Rivera for a variety of transgressions, although it never brought charges. Among other matters, agents examined whether the legislator accepted bribes from gambling industry executives seeking to block Native American tribes from expanding their casino operations.

In a separate incident, both Rivera and Rubio faced scrutiny for voting to exonerate a fraudulent investment company that wagered on life insurance policies held by elderly and infirm AIDS patients after the two lawmakers received thousands of dollars in donations from a political action committee cofounded by the head of the operation.

Soon after, federal authorities investigated the company for allegedly laundering drug cartel money, eventually shutting it down and sending its top executive to prison.

In 2017, the Federal Election Commission filed a lawsuit against Rivera, alleging that he financed a straw candidate to run against his Democratic opponent in the 2012 primary for Florida’s 25th district in an unsuccessful effort to damage his electoral prospects. After pursuing the matter for years, regulators dropped the case at the start of 2025.

The State Department did not respond to a request for comment regarding Rubio and Rivera’s long-standing friendship and other matters. But for years, despite the slew of controversies, Rubio publicly defended his old roommate as he rose through the Republican ranks.

In 2022, however, Rivera faced charges that were far more difficult to overlook.

That year, federal prosecutors arrested Rivera and charged him — along with a fellow political consultant, Esther Nuhfer — with working for Venezuela in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which requires individuals and organizations to register with the Department of Justice when engaging in U.S. political activity on behalf of foreign governments.

A graphic illustrating Marco Rubio and David Rivera’s relationship. (Source: The Lever)

Enacted in 1938 in response to rising Nazi propaganda in the United States, the Foreign Agents Registration Act requires more stringent disclosures than ordinary lobbying, since foreign clients may have national interests that conflict with those of the United States.

“The question under the law is whether the benefit [of the lobbying] is purely private, divorced from a benefit or control by a foreign government or party,” said Joshua Rosenstein, a lawyer at the Washington firm Sandler Reiff, which advises clients on compliance with lobbying and ethics laws. “The greater the involvement of a foreign government or political party, the less likely it is that you can shoehorn your activities under an exemption.”

The statute also applies to “a person whose activities are directly or indirectly supervised, directed, controlled, financed, or subsidized” by a foreign principal.

According to the Justice Department’s indictment of Rivera, the problems originated in 2017, when he began lobbying on behalf of Citgo, the U.S. subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company.

For his work, Citgo paid Rivera’s consulting firm $50 million, a massive sum of money for a single lobbying firm. For comparison, the entire U.S. oil and gas industry spent just over $120 million on federal lobbying in 2022.

A graphic illustrating the size of David Rivera’s Citgo lobbying contract. (Source: The Lever)

Federal prosecutors allege that Rivera’s lobbying contract was actually a front for a foreign-influence campaign designed to avoid registering under the Foreign Agents Registration Act to conceal the full scope of the operation.

According to the indictment, Rivera was operating as an unregistered foreign agent to normalize relations between Venezuela and the U.S. — two countries that have been adversaries since socialist leader Hugo Chávez came to power in 1999.

Rivera was allegedly working for representatives of the Maduro government, which took power after Chávez’s death in 2013. Among the officials involved, prosecutors say, was then-Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, who now serves as Venezuela’s president.

“It was the purpose of the conspiracy for the defendants to unlawfully enrich themselves… in an effort to influence United States foreign policy towards Venezuela and to conceal these efforts by failing to register under FARA as agents of the Government of Venezuela,” the indictment reads.

Rivera allegedly used his political connections as a longtime Republican lawmaker to arrange meetings between Venezuelan power brokers and U.S. officials.

According to prosecutors, those meetings included a sit-down with Rubio as well as a meeting in Caracas between Maduro and Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas), who represents the oil-rich Lone Star State, which has financial interests in Venezuela’s mammoth oil reserves. At the time, Sessions chaired the House Rules Committee, which plays a pivotal role in deciding what legislation receives votes on the House floor.

Kellyanne Conway, a senior counselor to Trump during his first term, also participated in several of the meetings, according to text messages included in the indictment.

Sessions and Conway could not be reached for comment.

In text message exchanges cited by prosecutors, Rivera and his associates used pseudonyms to obscure the specifics of these meetings. The Texas congressman was referred to as “Sombrero,” while millions of dollars were called “melones.” Their code name for Maduro was “El Guaguero,” a reference to the president’s early career as a bus driver.

These 2017 and 2018 meetings— some reported at the time — came at a fraught moment in U.S.-Venezuela relations. Inside the Trump administration, officials were split over Venezuela policy, including proposals to tighten sanctions or normalize U.S. business ties.

Officials ultimately chose the former, ramping up sanctions in 2017 and again in 2020.

At the end of 2025, Rivera’s defense team subpoenaed Rubio to testify about those meetings. Federal prosecutors subsequently decided to call Rubio themselves, apparently concluding that his testimony would strengthen the government’s case.

Rivera, whose lawyers refused to make him available for an interview with The Lever, denies any wrongdoing. His attorneys have argued in court filings that Rivera, a longtime critic of Venezuela’s communist government, was working to undermine Maduro, not help him.

“We confidently believe that the evidence proves the opposite of what the government has alleged,” Rivera’s lawyers wrote in a December letter to the State Department requesting Rubio’s testimony.

“Specifically, then Senator Rubio and Mr. Rivera were focused only on their support for the Opposition [political leaders] in Venezuela, on sanctions against the Maduro government, and on removing Maduro as head of state in Venezuela.”

The Tycoon, The Trafficker, And The Trump Whisperer

As part of their defense, Rivera’s attorneys appear ready to suggest that the foreign-agent violations leveled against their client could just as easily be applied to another political operative: Wiles, Trump’s chief of staff.

To make their case, Rivera’s lawyers are zeroing in on two businessmen named in the indictment: a wealthy Venezuelan media mogul named Raúl Gorrín and a convicted cocaine trafficker named Hugo Perera.

Court documents claim that Gorrín, the politically connected head of a Caracas-based media company called Globovisión, helped orchestrate the alleged foreign-agent operation and served as a go-between for Rivera and the upper echelons of the Venezuelan government.

According to Rivera’s indictment, Gorrín took part in several of the meetings brokered by Rivera, including a sit-down with Rubio. Rivera also reportedly tried to use Gorrín’s private jet for the rendezvous with Conway.

An employee at Globovision works at the channel’s headquarters in Caracas, Venezuela. (AP Photo/Leslie Mazoch)

Gorrín, who was sanctioned by the U.S. government in 2019 for his purported involvement in foreign bribes and money laundering, was reportedly paid handsomely for his work.

In 2020, Citgo filed a lawsuit against Rivera for breach of contract. According to the suit, Rivera paid $4 million of his $50 million contract fee to Gorrín as a kickback for helping him land the arrangement. Rivera apparently funneled the money through Gorrín’s Miami-based yacht company.

The Lever did not receive a response from Globovisión for a request for comment from Gorrín.

The Citgo lawsuit also alleges Rivera paid $5 million to another subcontractor for help arranging the Citgo contract: Perera, a Miami real estate developer who was convicted in the 1990s for his role in a drug-smuggling operation run by the Cali Cartel in Colombia.

Perera’s name is notably absent in the government’s indictment, and he’s agreed to act as a cooperating witness against Rivera at trial. In retaliation, Rivera has countersued Perera for allegedly violating their confidentiality agreement. Rivera has also claimed in a court deposition that the FBI told him that Perera was an informant.

Perera, who now runs a Miami real estate company, did not respond to a request for comment.

At the same time that Gorrín and Perera were working with Rivera, court documents indicate that both men were engaged in related activities for Ballard Partners, a powerful U.S. lobbying firm that Wiles co-led at the time.

In 2017, the first year of the alleged foreign-agent scheme involving Rivera, Ballard Partners also registered to lobby on behalf of Gorrín’s Globovisión, seeking to expand the network’s presence on U.S. television platforms. Ballard earned $450,000 from the contract, making Globovisión the firm’s third-largest client that year.

Ballard’s work for Gorrín appears to have been extensive. In a subpoena letter sent to the White House requesting Wiles to testify in the upcoming trial, Rivera’s defense team describes roughly 400 pages of documents related to Wiles’ lobbying work gathered during the discovery phase of the case.

Court filings also reference numerous emails exchanged between Gorrín, Wiles, and other Ballard lobbyists. One of those lobbyists was Otto Reich, a former U.S. ambassador to Venezuela who previously ran the interagency office that helped coordinate the Iran-Contra weapons sales during the Ronald Reagan administration.

Other Ballard emails went to Harry Sargeant, an oil executive who is currently advising Trump on his post-regime-change efforts in Venezuela. (Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, began working at Ballard Partners in 2019 after serving as Florida’s attorney general, though she is not referenced in the correspondence described in the filings.)

Based on these email exchanges, Rivera’s lawyers also claim Perera was simultaneously working for Ballard while also serving as a subcontractor for Rivera.

“Discovery documents show that Hugo Perera, an important government witness in the case, was involved in these pro-Venezuelan activities through Ballard Partners at the same time the government has alleged that Mr. Rivera and Ms. Nuhfer were supporting pro-Maduro efforts on behalf of Venezuela,” the attorneys wrote.

A graphic showing how Venezuelan oil money moved through a network of Washington power brokers. (Source: The Lever)

“I Happen To Know That My Government Wants A Way Out”

Rivera’s lawyers do not accuse Wiles or her Ballard colleagues of illegal conduct. But their filings suggest the government’s legal standard for charging Rivera could potentially implicate a far wider circle of MAGA operatives — including the president’s chief of staff.

No federal records show that Wiles or Ballard Partners ever registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act for any Venezuelan entity.

“We’re not taking a position on that [legal question] in the case,” said Ed Shohat, one of the defense attorneys representing Rivera.

Ballard Partners did not respond to multiple requests for comment. But the firm has publicly maintained that it complied with all foreign and domestic lobbying laws and that its work related only to Globovisión’s commercial interests in the U.S. The lobbying firm dropped Gorrín as a client in 2018, amid a federal investigation that would lead to U.S. sanctions against him the following year.

“Ballard Partners’ work for Globovisión involved Globovisión’s efforts to expand its TV network into the U.S. market,” Brian Ballard, the founder of Ballard Partners, said in a statement to the Miami Herald.

But a key document in the Rivera case obtained by the Miami Herald appears to suggest that Ballard’s work for Gorrín may have gone beyond strictly commercial interests.

In 2017, Ballard reportedly drafted a memo for Gorrín to provide to Trump, though he ultimately never delivered it. The letter apparently outlined a proposal to mend strained U.S.-Venezuela relations by offering Maduro a path out of the country in exchange for a transition in leadership. As described by the Miami Herald, the document did not directly relate to, or mention, Globovisión’s access to U.S. markets or other commercial interests.

“I happen to know that my government wants a way out, a way to save their skins and fortunes,” the draft letter from Gorrín read. “The opposition, on the other hand, wants a way in but is not unified in how to achieve its goals.”

Should Ballard Partners’ work on the Gorrín letter — or its other lobbying efforts — have required the firm to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act? That’s likely impossible to determine without additional information about Globovisión’s relationship with the Venezuelan government.

“An exemption [to FARA] would be available, provided the client (Globo) isn’t directed/controlled by a foreign government or political party, and the principal beneficiary of the work wasn’t a government or political party,” said Rosenstein, the lobbying lawyer. “That’s a factual question.”

According to Rosenstein, foreign lobbying involves many legal gray areas, in part because the Justice Department has prosecuted relatively few cases, leaving the law with limited judicial precedent. Under Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Trump Justice Department has curtailed enforcement of foreign corruption and lobbying laws.

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A graphic illustrating where key figures connected to the alleged Venezuelan lobbying network are based. (Source: The Lever)

The hundreds of pages of Ballard records described by Rivera’s attorneys could shed light on the matter, but the documents may never become public. Last month, a federal magistrate judge in Florida’s Southern District Court granted a Justice Department petition allowing Wiles to avoid testifying at Rivera’s trial, thereby permitting related documents to remain under seal.

But in his ruling, the judge made a surprising admission.

“To be clear, no one disputes that Ballard Partners registered under FARA and dealt with Gorrín openly,” wrote Magistrate Judge Edwin Torres.

Torres’ office refused to comment. But if Torres is correct, it would mean that — despite no publicly available record of the filing — Trump’s chief of staff previously worked as a registered foreign agent for a government the U.S. recently moved to overthrow.

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Miami insiders say Rivera’s aggressive defense strategy isn’t just legal maneuvering ahead of trial; it’s also a political effort to pressure the Trump administration to drop the case.

That campaign includes issuing subpoenas to a striking list of high-profile witnesses, including not just Rubio, but also Conway and Sessions. Rivera’s attorneys even subpoenaed Maduro, Venezuela’s deposed president, who is currently awaiting his own trial on U.S. narco-terrorism charges. Maduro’s attorneys resisted the subpoena, saying their client would plead the Fifth.

Former U.S. Rep. David Rivera speaks with media outside Miami federal court in Miami, Dec. 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Joshua Goodman)

While Miami defense lawyer Joseph DeMaria believes some of these witnesses could provide crucial testimony for Rivera’s defense, he also notes the political optics of such subpoenas.

“A lot of this strategy is political — to try to put pressure on the Trump administration to leave Rivera alone,” said DeMaria. ”Depending on how the judge rules on [the defense’s requests for testimony], that could lead them to wanting to make a deal with Rivera.”

Rivera’s legal team has a track record of exploiting political leverage when evidence-based legal defenses don’t pan out in the courtroom. One of Rivera’s attorneys is David Markus, a renowned Miami defense lawyer who also represents Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s associate and convicted sex trafficker.

“A lot of this strategy is political — to try to put pressure on the Trump administration to leave Rivera alone.”

As Maxwell’s counsel, Markus has openly proposed a deal with the Trump administration in which his client would receive “clemency” in exchange for being allowed to speak “fully and honestly” about whether the president was involved in any potential sex crimes, or the crimes for which she was convicted.

In a *Vanity Fair*interview about his work, Markus embraced the ethos of a defense attorney: “I love representing the underdog.”

If David Rivera is an underdog, he’s an underdog with powerful friends in Washington — some of whom may soon be called to testify.

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AN 2 26 NOT PROCESSED

A court filing in a federal criminal lobbying case against a former Republican congressman confirmed what the government watchdog Public Citizen warned against as soon as President Donald Trump appointed Susie Wiles to be his chief of staff: that her “lobbying client list is both extensive and littered with controversial clients who stand to benefit from having their former lobbyist running the White House.”

The court filing was submitted Thursday by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and sought to “quash” a subpoena that was served to Wiles in December.

Wiles was called to testify as a witness in the case against former Rep. David Rivera (R-Fla.) and his political associate, Esther Nuhfer. They are accused of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) by lobbying on behalf of the sanctioned Venezuelan businessman Raul Gorrín.

According to a grand jury indictment from December 2024, Rivera sought to lobby top US government officials to remove Gorrín from the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List. He allegedly worked to conceal and promote Gorrín’s criminal activities by creating fraudulent shell companies using names associated with a law firm and with a government official.

Rivera received over $5.5 million for his lobbying activities and did not register under FARA as required by law, according to the DOJ.

TheMiami Heraldreported late last month that Rivera and Nuhfer are “also accused of trying to ‘normalize’ relations between the [Venezuelan President Nicolás] Maduro regime and the United States while Rivera’s consulting firm landed a head-turning $50 million lobbying contract with the US subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company.”

Attorneys for Rivera subpoenaed Wiles at the White House, seeking to compel her to testify about her lobbying work for Ballard Partners on behalf of Globovision, a Caracas-based TV station owned by Gorrín.

As the Herald reported, Wiles worked at Ballard shortly after running Trump’s presidential campaign in Florida. Due to her presidential ties she “brought an instant cachet” to the firm, where Gorrín was “hoping to gain access to the new Trump administration, which was threatening economic sanctions against the Maduro regime and Venezuela’s oil industry.”

Gorrín was working with Ballard in an attempt to expand Globovision to the US as a Spanish-language affiliate—an aim that presented challenges due to the government sanctions and the Federal Communications Commission’s limits on foreign ownership of US TV stations.

Rivera and Nuhfer’s lawyers are seeking Wiles’ testimony to show that her lobbying firm was trying to influence Trump, “on behalf of Gorrín, to bring about a regime change in Venezuela.”

The subpoena document said the defendants’ lawyers want to question Wiles on her “extensive communications” regarding Ballard’s work with Gorrín and efforts to help the businessman gain access to Trump.

They are also seeking similar testimony from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who as a senator met privately with Rivera, Nuhfer, and Gorrín at a hotel in Washington in 2017, according to the Herald.

In the court filing, the DOJ said Wiles had “no apparent connection to any of the allegations in the superseding indictment concerning defendants’ activities as unregistered agents of the government of Venezuela.”

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Public Citizen noted Wiles’ work with Ballard in November 2024 when it published the report Meet Susie Wiles’ Controversial Corporate Lobbying Clients, which revealed 42 lobbying clients the chief of staff had between 2017-24.

The client list was “extensive and littered with controversial clients who stand to benefit from having their former lobbyist running the White House,” said Public Citizen on Friday.

In addition to Gorrín’s TV station, Wiles’ represented a waste management company that resisted removing nuclear waste from a landfill, a tobacco firm that sought to block federal restrictions on its candy-flavored cigars, and a foreign mining private equity firm seeking approval to develop a gold mine on federal public lands.

Jon Golinger, Public Citizen’s democracy advocate, said Friday that the subpoena in the Rivera case raises even more questions about Wiles’ potential conflicts of interest.

“This kind of entanglement,” he said, “shows exactly why a person with Wiles’ lengthy record of controversial corporate and foreign lobbying clients is too conflicted to be running the White House.”

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AN 12 25

The bombshell Vanity Fair interviews with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles continue to make waves, and now one reporter has been accused of parroting the official Trump administration "spin" on the story.

On Tuesday, Vanity Fair's Chris Whipple published a story comprising 11 months of interviews with Wiles, Donald Trump's chief of staff and co-chair of his 2024 reelection campaign, in which she made several shockingly frank and unflattering comments about figures in the administration. She referred to Trump himself as having an "alcoholic's personality" and operating with "a view that there’s nothing he can’t do." She said Vice President JD Vance has "been a conspiracy theorist for a decade" and only changed his stance from Trump critic to supporter out of a political calculation, rather than a change in principles. She also described businessman and one-time Trump advisor Elon Musk as "an avowed ketamine" user and "an odd, odd duck" whose irrational behavior left her "aghast."

On Wednesday, Rachael Bade, a former Politico reporter, took X with an extensive post outlining damage control efforts within the White House that she had been told about by sources close to the matter. Her post notably depicts figures within the administration as fond of Wiles and unbothered by the comments relayed in the Vanity Fair piece, dismissing them as "cherry picked" and showing a "depth of loyalty" towards her.

"After the VF/WILES bombshell dropped yesterday, a band of Trump allies showed up at the WH unprompted to help do damage control — all out of love for the chief," Bade wrote in her post.

Bade's sources also claimed that Trump was not bothered by the piece after having a conversation with Wiles, with one claiming that the story "doesn't f—— matter" if Trump is fine with her.

"The president and Wiles had a private conversation today, I’m told. And while the details of that one-on-one remain unclear, I hear from others who spoke to him that he was 'unfazed' by the story and said he didn't care," Bade wrote.

Responding to Bade's post, Michael A. Cohen, a former columnist for the Boston Globe, accused her of being gullible and parroting the White House's "spin" on the situation, thereby making her part of the damage control campaign herself.

"It appears that the WH damage control on Susie Wiles, as described in this post, was finding a reporter credulous enough to transcribe their spin on the story," Cohen wrote.

"Bade's not credulous, she's a paid mercenary," sports editor and reporter Rodrigo Azurmendi wrote in response to Cohen's post.

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AN 12 25

An extensive interview with President Donald Trump's chief of staff Susie Wiles dropped on Tuesday from Vanity Fair, sending shockwaves through the political world as she revealed what she really thought about Cabinet officials in the administration.

Bill Kristol, former chief of staff to ex-Vice President Dan Quayle, called the piece "a dramatic exit interview from Susie Wiles."

After reading it, Kristol posted, "Wiles lies to try to duck blame. 'In the interview, Wiles took issue with the quote about [Musk's] drug use. "That’s ridiculous, I wouldn’t have said it and I wouldn’t know." But Whipple played a tape for The Times in which she could be heard saying it.'"

Wiles quipped at one point, “He’s an avowed ketamine [user]" and referred to his "microdosing.”

Democratic strategist Jon Cooper agreed, questioning how much longer "Wiles will have a job."

NBC's Sahil Kapur pointed specifically to Wiles' comments that Attorney General Pam Bondi "completely whiffed" in handling the investigation files around Jeffrey Epstein.

The Bulwark's Tim Miller pointed to the excerpt on the report showing that Wiles still doesn't know how Ghislaine Maxwell was transferred from the Florida penitentiary to what Miller calls "Club Fed," a prison camp that typically doesn't allow sex offenders.

However, the text says that Wiles claimed neither she nor Trump "had been consulted about Maxwell's transfer to a less restrictive facility after Blanche's visit," the report said.

"The president was ticked," Wiles claimed. "The president was mighty unhappy. I don't know why they moved her. Neither does the president." However, she said that "if that's an important point, I can find out."

Political podcaster Joanne Carducci, a.k.a. @JoJoFromJerz highlighted the piece of the report in which Wiles confessed Trump is "using criminal prosecutions to retaliate against adversaries." The report also said that Wiles, "acknowledged that he was not telling the truth when [Trump] accused former President Bill Clinton of visiting the private island of the sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein."

"Tell us more, won't you, Susie Wiles," Carducci commented.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's (D-N.Y.)communications director remarked about that same excerpt, "Damn. Susie Wiles still has to like, go to work today after saying this."

Never Trumper, Rick Wilson, cautioned, "Susie Wiles is gonna have a tough day."

The Bulwark's Sam Stein remarked, "This Susie Wiles interview is wild. But also shows that she really does see herself as a facilitator for Trump, not a strategist employed by him: Openly disagreeing with the boss on a host of big fronts with apparently zero thought that she might not be the right fit."

Meghan McCarthy,who previously worked Courier Newspaper, replied to Stein commenting, "The intention of doing this article seems to be humanizing herself, but instead she comes off like heartless robot. It’s wild to be like, oh USAID was very bad, moving on…"

Stein also pointed out, "Buried in the Wiles interview is that she concedes the president would need authorization from Congress if he were to authorize a land incursion into Venezuela. I'm sure they'll say she's wrong. But a notable marker there."

Writer Charlotte Clymerhoped the establishment wouldn't try to lionize Wiles after coming forward.

"I haven't yet read the Susie Wiles interview, but let me guess: the whole of legacy media are going to pretend she sincerely expected a competent and ethical environment under Trump and she's now 'speaking truth to power' and thus gets a pass on her willful complicity?" she asked.

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AN 12 16 25

On Tuesday, Vanity Fair published an extensive series of interviews with Donald Trump's White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, in which she made numerous unflattering comments about major figures in the administration. In response, Wiles herself and several other White House officials hit back, slamming the report as a "hit piece" and accusing the outlet of misrepresenting her words.

The interviews between Wiles and Vanity Fair's Chris Whipple were conducted over the course of the first 11 months of Trump's second term and produced many notably candid comments. She refers to Trump as having an "alcoholic's personality" and operating with "a view that there’s nothing he can’t do." She said Vice President JD Vance has "been a conspiracy theorist for a decade" and changed his stance from Trump critic to supporter out of a political calculation, rather than a change in principles. She also described businessman and one-time Trump advisor Elon Musk as "an avowed ketamine" user and "an odd, odd duck" whose irrational behavior left her "aghast."

As the comments made waves online and beyond, Wiles took to her official account on X to slam Whipple's article as a "disingenuously framed hit piece."

"The article published early this morning is a disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the finest President, White House staff, and Cabinet in history," Wiles said in a statement. "Significant context was disregarded and much of what I, and others, said about the team and the President was left out of the story. I assume, after reading it, that this was done to paint an overwhelmingly chaotic and negative narrative about the President and our team."

Wiles notably did not deny making the comments included in the Vanity Fair piece.

Speaking with the *New York Times* on Monday about the interviews, Wiles disputed the quotes attributed to her about Musk's drug use, but the outlet stated that Whipple had shared with it a recording of her saying it as quoted.

Soon after that post, other prominent Trump officials also took to X with similar statements, including Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, whom Wiles was quoted in by Whipple as calling "a right-wing absolute zealot."

"Susie Wiles is an exceptional chief of staff," Vought wrote. "I have had the privilege of working in President Trump's White House for every single minute of his two terms. Let me be very clear: It has never worked this well or been more oriented towards accomplishing what he wants to accomplish. In my portfolio, she is always an ally in helping me deliver for the president. And this hit piece will not slow us down."

"I have worked under three chiefs across two Trump administrations, and without a doubt, Susie Wiles has led the most effective, efficient, and unified White House and administration—second to none," Harrison Fields, a White House principal deputy press secretary, wrote. "Her service to the President is selfless, and her mandate to serve is rooted in allegiance to God, the President, and the millions of Americans who elected him. Any attempt to selectively or maliciously attack her leadership is shameful and entirely without merit."

"Chief of Staff Susie Wiles has helped President Trump achieve the most successful first 11 months in office of any President in American history," White House lead press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote. "President Trump has no greater or more loyal advisor than Susie. The entire Administration is grateful for her steady leadership and united fully behind her."

XIT

Susie Wiles

@SusieWiles

The article published early this morning is a disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the finest President, White House staff, and Cabinet in history. Significant context was disregarded and much of what I, and others, said about the team and the President was left out of theShow more

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rww

12/12/2025

Kyle Mantyla

Rep. Chip Roy says that Republicans in the House of Representatives will be holding hearings to expose how George Soros, NGOs, and the United Nations have been using the SPLC and antifa to promote "Marxists and Islamists who want to take this country over."

"Prophet" Mark Taylor fumes that "Susie Wiles and her people are the ones responsible for single handedly KILLING the America First Agenda!": "She is a demonic infiltrator in the highest order sent in to destroy the President and the America First Agenda."

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an 10 25

ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl discussed the push and tug between affluent Donald Trump supporters in the aftermath of Trump’s November election win, with certain personalities grinding against others at the very onset.

Vanity Fair published an excerpt of Karl’s new book “Retribution,” which lays out early opposition to certain appointments by billionaire World Wrestling Entertainment co-founder Linda McMahon and America First Policy Institute CEO Brooke Rollins — who Vanity Fair writer Bess Levin described as a member of Trump’s “brick-s—— scary new cabinet.”

Karl said McMahon and Rollins quickly despised Trump’s pick of former campaign worker Susie Wiles for White House Chief of Staff and “rushed over to Mar‑a‑Lago in a last‑ditch effort to derail the pick.”

“Various Trump aides, most of whom had worked for Wiles during the campaign, managed to impede the two women on their way to see Trump. They even orchestrated a phone call with Vice President–elect JD Vance to delay the two aspiring chiefs of staff on their way to Trump’s office. By the time McMahon and Rollins got in to see Trump, it was too late. He had already asked Wiles to be chief of staff,” Karl wrote. “They would have to settle instead for secretary of education and secretary of agriculture, respectively.”

Trump’s billionaire friend Howard Lutnick, meanwhile, campaigned early to topple the appointment of former Republican lawmaker and MTV reality star Sean Duffy for the role of transportation secretary. Claiming “the man has no relevant experience” doesn’t get far with Trump, according to Karl, so Lutnick “tried to appeal to the president‑elect’s ego instead, tasking his team with searching through Duffy’s hundreds of television appearances to find any criticism of Trump.”

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Duffy, according to Karl, was a consistent supporter. Lutnick had to scroll all the way back to the early days of the 2016 Republican presidential primary “to find anything Duffy had said that was remotely negative about Donald Trump.”

Lutnick eventually found a September 2015 interview in which the then‑congressman had said he didn’t believe Trump was a real conservative and didn’t think he would win the party’s nomination. Of course, even then, Duffy had praised Trump for “boldly speaking and saying things that the conservative wing wished that their leaders would say.”

“As weak as Lutnick’s effort to dig up dirt turned out to be, that one stray comment from almost ten years earlier nearly cost Duffy the job,” Karl wrote. “Trump, reconsidering the pick, called Duffy and his wife, Rachel, and they were able to convince the president‑elect that Sean had long since changed his views on Trump’s conservative bona fides.

Trump’s advisor Steve Bannon launched his own attack against the appointment of Kristi Noem as secretary of the sprawling Department of Homeland Security.

“‘We still got the global war on terror,’ an exasperated Steve Bannon told me two days after Trump made the announcement. ‘She runs the whole thing? She runs the f—— Secret Service? It’s all of it. It’s the global war on terror. It’s all that’” Karl reports. “‘What are you talking about? She’s never been in law enforcement!’”

But Bannon didn’t put the blame on Trump for making what he considered a terrible choice. He blamed Corey Lewandowski for convincing the president‑elect to do it.

“’This motherf—— asked for somebody who’s obviously unqualified — and it’s dangerous,’” Karl reports Bannon telling him. “‘This is dangerous. What are you doing?’”

Read the full Vanity Fair excerpt at this link.

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RWI WILL LEVERAGE KACI KLEPTO

AN AH 1 25

Less than a week from now — on Monday, January 6, 2025 — Donald Trump will once again become president of the United States. And he will return to the White House with small Republican majorities in both branches of Congress as well as a 6-3 GOP-appointee supermajority on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Senate confirmation hearings have already been held for some of Trump's presumptive nominees, including former Fox News host Pete Hegseth (Trump's pick for defense secretary) and former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi (the president-elect's choice for U.S. attorney general).

In an article published on January 16, The Hill's Brett Samuels lays out some reasons why Trump's second term could have a greater impact than his first.

"This Trump knows more about how Washington works," Samuels explains. "Trump 1.0 wanted to change Washington, but Trump 2.0 is set up better to succeed. And the president-elect is equipped with a highly capable chief of staff in Susie Wiles, who has infused more discipline into his operation…. Trump's team retains its outsider appeal, and the frenzy that was a defining element of Trump's first term is unlikely to disappear. But it's also a team with more insiders who can reach into the halls of American power."

Samuels continues, "One of Trump's top allies now is tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, the richest person in the world. Other tech and business titans, including Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg, are signaling they want to work with Trump, underscoring how the next four years won't be like the president-elect's first four in office."

Sean Spicer, the first of four White House press secretaries during Trump's first term, stresses that the president-elect is in a much different "environment" than he was eight years ago.

Spicer told The Hill, "When it comes to the three big things — the people, the process and the priorities — these guys are in a totally different league than we were in 2016…. It's not just lessons learned. It has to do with the environment."

Samuels notes that in 2017, Trump "frequently clashed with" then-House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) — whereas in 2025, he has an "established relationship with" Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana).

"Trump has also met, in recent weeks ,with Republicans in the Senate and House to ensure he has the full backing of the GOP upon taking office," Samuels observes. "And he'll have a cavalcade of outside supporters pushing his agenda, in the form of think tanks, conservative media influencers and powerful allies such as Musk, who has already hinted he could use his enormous wealth and megaphone to pressure Republicans who do not back Trump's agenda."

Samuels adds, "Taken together, these factors amount to a second Trump term that will feature many of the same players but look drastically different in its ability to implement his agenda, especially in its early days."

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an 6 25

The Daily Beast reports an Iranian-linked hacking group is threatening to sell emails it stole from President Donald Trump’s inner campaign circle.

The hackers, who use the pseudonym “Robert,” told Reuters they had about 100 gigabytes of emails downloaded from the accounts of White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Trump lawyer Lindsey Halligan, longtime Trump ally and political consultant Roger Stone, and Stormy Daniels, the adult film star Trump paid to keep quiet about an alleged affair ahead of the 2016 election.

Marci McCarthy, director of public affairs at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), acknowledged on X that a “hostile” foreign adversary was threatening to “illegally exploit purportedly stolen and unverified material in an effort to distract, discredit, and divide.”

Reuters authenticated some emails obtained by the hacking group in the final months of the 2024 campaign, which included settlement negotiations between Trump and Daniels and details of a financial arrangement between Trump and attorneys representing former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is now Trump’s health secretary.

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“This so-called cyber ‘attack’ is nothing more than digital propaganda, and the targets are no coincidence,” said McCarthy on X. “This is a calculated smear campaign meant to damage President Trump and discredit honorable public servants who serve our country with distinction.”

McCarthy added that “these criminals will be found and they will be brought to justice. Let this be a warning to others: there will be no refuge, tolerance, or leniency for these actions.”

Prosecuting ransomware crimes outside of U.S. jurisdiction is notoriously difficult and usually requires the resident government to join U.S. agents in building cases and arrests. Recent U.S. bombings in Iran have likely strained relations between the two nations, and the Justice Department alleged in last September that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards were behind the Robert hacking group.

FBI Director Kash Patel threatened “anyone associated with any kind of breach of national security” with investigation and prosecution “to the fullest extent of the law.”

Read the full Daily Beast report at this link.

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an 1 25

Trump has placed 'For Sale' sign on White House with chief of staff pick: watchdog

Jake Johnson Common Dreams

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3 of Trump's top cabinet-level picks recently worked as ...}:

Business Insider

https://www.businessinsider.com › Politics](https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-lobbyists-ties-wiles-bondi-duffy-ballard-2024-11)

5 days ago — Incoming White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, attorney general nominee Pam Bondi, and Transportation secretary nominee Sean Duffy have all ...

several of Donald Trump's top picks have recently been lobbyists.
Susan Wiles, Trump's incoming chief of staff, maintained ties to a lobbying firm until this month.
Sean Duffy, Trump's pick for Transportation secretary, has lobbied for a group of major airlines.

President-elect Donald Trump is set to rely on a trio of former lobbyists to help implement his agenda to shake up Washington.

Incoming White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, attorney general nominee Pam Bondi, and Transportation secretary nominee Sean Duffy have all been registered lobbyists. According to disclosure filings, Bondi and Wiles did lobbying work as recently as this year, with Duffy working as a lobbyist into 2023.

Their combined clients range from blue chip companies — including Amazon, GM, and Uber — to insurance giants like MetLife and Fidelity National Financial. Wiles and Bondi were also separately registered to lobby for foreign interests, which included one of Nigeria's largest political parties and the Qatarian embassy.

Wiles and Bondi have both once worked for Ballard Partners, once a regional firm in Florida that exploded in popularity due to its ties to Trump world. Earlier this summer, the firm opened an office in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

"Part of why you hired Ballard Partners over the last few years is knowing that if Trump is president, the people you are working with stand at having a pretty good chance at having influence in a Trump administration," Jeff Hauser, executive director of the Revolving Door Project, a public interest group, told Business Insider.

Brian Ballard, a major Republican fundraiser and founder of the firm, did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

Wiles continued to have K-Street ties as she helped run Trump's campaign.

Wiles, according to The New York Times, did not cut ties to her most recent firm until Trump announced his intention to have her lead his second White House.

Her past work included an effort to get the Trump administration to approve a cooper and gold mine in a sensitive area of Alaska. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, widely viewed as a key vote in the narrowly divided US Senate, and other top state officials have long opposed the Pebble Partnership. The EPA, under Obama, Trump, and Biden's administrations, have repeatedly opposed efforts to mine in the bay, home to one of the world's largest salmon fisheries.

Duffy, who if confirmed would oversee the Federal Aviation Administration, lobbied in 2020 for an airline group that includes American, Delta, and United among its members.

Starting not long after he left Congress in 2019, Duffy lobbied for Polaris, a US auto manufacturer known its off-road and recreational vehicles. Former lawmakers are only restricted from lobbying Congress for a year, though they can immediately lobby the rest of the federal government. According to his disclosures, Duffy's work at times included advising the company on how to navigate EV incentives and tariffs.

ProPublica previously reported that Duffy lobbied White House trade adviser Peter Navarro as Polaris sought to win exemptions to tariffs on the parts it was importing. ProPublica found that Polaris' efforts, including use of Duffy, ultimately led the company to get most of what it wanted.

Bondi's work for Amazon was related to trade and tariff policy, according to disclosures. She also lobbied for General Motors, Uber, Fidelity National, Carnival North America, and even Major League Baseball.

Trump didn't start the revolving door, but the swamp could get larger.

Wiles, Bondi, and Duffy's respective work all fits within the larger revolving door narrative that dominates Washington, even as Trump portrays himself as ready to shake up the status quo.

Ron Klain, President Biden's first chief of staff and longtime adviser, was a lobbyist for Fannie Mae in the early 2000s. Steve Ricchetti, another longtime Biden fixture, spent so much time lobbying that top Obama administration officials tried to prevent then-Vice President Biden from hiring him after the 2008 election. His brother Jeff Ricchetti, who remains a registered lobbyist, saw his business boom after Biden won the 2020 election.

President Barack Obama initially received high praise for his limits on hiring lobbyists who had recently lobbied the federal agency they sought to join, though he granted some limited waivers including to a former top lobbyist to Raytheon. Ultimately, Obama was unable to stop the revolving door, as Politico reported in 2015.

Hauser said what stands out about the Trump team so far is their unorthodox approach to the transition, including refusing to sign formal agreements with the current administration which would include ethics guidelines.

While Trump, like Obama and Biden, issued an ethics-related executive order after taking office in 2017, Hauser isn't convinced it will happen again.

"Given the aversion of his transition to the ethics process of the transition, I think it's an open question whether or not he is going to make his appointees sign additional ethics pledges in office this time," Hauser said.

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AN 11 24

BEWARE PALACE INTRIGUE?

Behind closed doors, President-elect Donald Trump's transition team has become a somewhat fractious and chaotic environment according to a new report.

The Washington Post reported Saturday that "new camps have formed" at Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida with competing visions for how to prepare for the next four years. The outlet described "shouting matches, expulsions from meetings and name-calling" as frequent occurrences between various factions.

"As during Trump’s first term, competing factions have begun to run roughshod over each other, sometimes kicking up clouds of dust," wrote the Post's Josh Dawsey, Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer.

According to the Post, three different factions have formed — each with their own leaders and strategic goals. One of those camps is led by Trump's eldest son, Donald Jr., with Vice President-elect JD Vance on his side as well as "longtime MAGA warriors" like former Fox News primetime host Tucker Carlson, Vance advisor Andy Surabian and ex-Trump White House official Cliff Sims.

Another faction is led by Trump White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, who also co-chaired Trump's 2024 campaign. Wiles' camp mostly includes her advisors and acolytes, like Trump campaign political director James Blair and deputy campaign officials Taylor Budowich and Robert Gabriel. And a third group consists of transition co-chair and Secretary of Education-designate Linda McMahon and alumni from the America First Policy Institute like Brooke Rollins (who was rumored as a finalist for chief of staff) and Keith Kellogg, who was former Vice President Mike Pence's national security advisor.

Dust-ups between top Trump advisors are also breaking out during Trump transition team meetings. The Post's report began by describing an altercation between Trump attorney Boris Epshteyn and transition team co-chair Howard Lutnick (whom Trump has tapped to lead the Department of Commerce). Lutnick physically blocked Ephsteyn's path as he tried to enter a Mar-a-Lago meeting about potential Cabinet appointees, telling him: "We're not talking legal nominees today." But Ephsteyn reportedly stiff-armed Lutnick, saying: "I'm coming in."

In another contentious meeting, billionaire Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk — who is sometimes referred to as "co-president" over Vance — and Epshteyn got into a loud back-and-forth, with the former suggesting the latter was leaking sensitive details of meetings to the press. One unnamed witness described the encounter on the Mar-a-Lago patio as a "huge fight" and a "big blowup," with Epshteyn reportedly saying: "I don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t do anything wrong."

“It’s Boris against the world,” one unnamed "Trump confidant" told the Post, with another anonymous source saying Epshteyn was on “an island of his own.”

Vance has also participated in some the more heated arguments among transition team leaders, with one culminating in a social media post the vice president-elect has since deleted. While several Republican senators were at a SpaceX launch earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) managed to get several of President Joe Biden's last remaining federal judges confirmed. Grace Chong, who works for former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon on his "War Room" podcast, criticized Vance for missing the vote.

"You guys better show up and do your one fricken[sic] job!!" Chong posted to X, referring to both Vance and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who Trump picked to head the State Department. Vance responded by calling Chong a "mouth-breathing imbecile" in the now-deleted tweet. Chong has since added "mouth-breathing imbecile" to her X bio.

:{:{Click here to read the Post's report in its entirety (subscription required).}:

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an 11 24

alternet-no lnx

Trump has placed 'For Sale' sign on White House with Chief of Staff Pick: watchdog

Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with his senior advisor Susie Wiles as he speaks, following early results from the 2024 U.S. presidential election in Palm Beach County Convention Center, in West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., November 6, 2024. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

Jake Johnsonand Common Dreams November 15, 2024

A government watchdog group said Friday that President-elect Donald Trump has effectively signaled that the incoming administration is open for business by choosing longtime Republican strategist Susie Wiles—a former lobbyist for the tobacco industry and other sordid interests—as his White House chief of staff.

In a new report, Public Citizen shows that Wiles represented at least 42 clients as a registered federal government lobbyist between 2017 and 2024—corporate influence-peddling that continued even while she helped run Trump's 2024 presidential bid.

Among Wiles' clients, according to the watchdog group, were:

A waste management company that has resisted removing nuclear waste from its radioactive landfill;

A foreign copper and gold mining company that wants to eliminate federal opposition to its plan to dig a massive mine in a pristine watershed;

A tobacco company that sought to block federal health restrictions on its candy-flavored cigars, which the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has found are attractive to kids;

:{A foreign news company whose owner has been indicted for money laundering;

and}:

A foreign mining private equity firm seeking approval to develop an open-pit leach gold mine on federal public lands.

"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," Jon Golinger, a democracy advocate at Public Citizen and author of the new report. "A lobbyist with this record of controversial representation and a minefield of potential conflicts of interest should not go near the Oval Office, much less be White House chief of staff."

White House chief of staff is a powerful position that does not require Senate approval. In the role, Wiles will control the flow of information and those who have access to the president as well as manage White House personnel.

Trump's selection of Wiles flies in the face of his previous pledge to "drain the swamp" and recent criticism of the disproportionate influence lobbyists wield in Washington, D.C.

"They're making a lot of money, absolutely," Trump acknowledged in an August appearance on the "This Past Weekend" podcast with comedian Theo Von. "One way you could stop it is to say if you're going to go into government, you can never be a lobbyist."

"You have to stop listening to lobbyists," Trump said. "You know, I was not a big person for lobbyists."

In fact, according toProPublica, the first Trump administration hired more than 280 lobbyists—one for every 14 political appointments.

The campaign finance watchdog OpenSecrets reported in 2021 that Ballard Partners, Wiles' lobbying firm, "increased its revenue with each year of Trump’s presidency, peaking in 2020 with a $24.4 million haul."

"Wiles' lobbying client list is both extensive and littered with controversial clients who stand to benefit from having their former lobbyist running the White House."

Corporate influence inside the second Trump administration will likely be even stronger given the presence of Wiles and other figures such as Elon Musk, the world's richest man and a major beneficiary of government contracts. Earlier this week, Trump tapped Musk and biotech billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy to co-lead a commission tasked with recommending sweeping cuts to federal spending and regulations.

Public Citizen called Trump's decision to form such a commission and place Musk at its helm "the ultimate corporate corruption."

In its new report, the watchdog argued that a person with Wiles' lobbying history "should not be White House chief of staff."

But assuming she ultimately takes the position in January, Public Citizen called on Wiles to disclose details of her lobbying work, including "the names of the individuals she lobbied, what she asked those individuals to do or not to do, and what resulted from her lobbying"; recuse herself from "all decision-making involving her past lobbying clients and the federal agencies that are making decisions that affect her lobbying clients"; and agree not to lobby the federal government again after she leaves the White House.

"Wiles' lobbying client list is both extensive and littered with controversial clients who stand to benefit from having their former lobbyist running the White House," Public Citizen said Friday. "This report's findings raise serious questions about potential conflicts of interest that need to be answered before Inauguration Day."

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an 11 24

Progressive advocates voiced alarm Monday over U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's initial leadership picks—including a border czar who oversaw the separation of migrant families during the Republican's first term—amid fresh allegations that the 2024 victor's transition team is breaking the law by failing to sign a required ethics agreement.

As of Monday, Trump has tapped—or in one case, is expected to imminently name—the following senior administration officials:

Elise Stefanik for United Nations ambassador

On Monday, Trump said he is nominating Stefanik, a Republican congresswoman from New York and longtime ally, to represent the United States at the world body. Stefanik is a dogged defender of Israel, even as the country is on trial for alleged genocide at the International Court of Justice for its ongoing obliteration of Gaza.

Stefanik also supports defunding the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, which provides lifesaving aid to Palestinians, over dubious Israeli allegations that its members are members of Hamas and took part in the October 7 attack.

According to AIPAC Tracker, Stefanik has taken more than $900,000 in campaign contributions from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and aligns with the lobby group's advocacy for unconditional U.S. military aid to Israel.

"Other countries send diplomats to serve as U.N. ambassadors. The U.S. always sends AIPAC-approved Israel shills. And, this time, one who is also an abrasive, bigoted, far-right clown," said Craig Mokhiber, a former U.N. human rights attorney who resigned last year over what he saw as the world body "failing" to respond to a "textbook case of genocide" in Gaza.

Mokhiber added that Stefanik is "a fitting pick to represent the rapid decline of the U.S. on the world stage."

Lebanese American University professor Jad Melki said sardonically of Stefanik's selection, "Thank you Trump for removing any illusions about your administration's supportive policy towards the Israeli genocide in Palestine and Lebanon."

While not a Cabinet-level pick, Trump is expected to appoint Brian Hook—described by Drop Site News' Murtaza Hussain as "a major Iran hawk who helped lead the 'maximum pressure' campaign of sanctions, sabotage, and assassinations that characterized Trump's approach to Tehran"—to lead his State Department transition team.

Lee Zeldin for Environmental Protection Agency administrator

Described by one Trump critic as a "fantastic pick to destroy" the EPA, Zeldin, a former Republican congressman from New York, has an abysmal 14% lifetime rating from the League of Conservation Voters and is expected to oversee the dismantling of Biden administration climate policies. He is an avid booster of the fossil fuel industry, which has contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to his campaign coffers, and supports expanding fracking and offshore oil drilling.

"At the EPA, Zeldin could undermine any progress made on protecting our environment and slowing climate change, doing more harm than any administrator before him," warned David Arkush, who directs the climate program at the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen.

"His record is clear: During his time in Congress, Zeldin cast vote after vote against measures that protect our environment and would slow the climate crisis," Arkush added.

Previewing their plans, Trump said in a statement that Zeldin "will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions," and the ex-congressman declared that "we will restore U.S. energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the U.S. the global leader of AI." Both claimed they would do that while also protecting air and water, which critics contested.

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) asserted that Zeldin's "only job will be to reward corporate polluters by gutting the EPA and making our air and water dirtier. In Congress and the courts, we've got a fight ahead."

Tom Homan for "border czar"

Late Sunday, Trump announced that Homan, who served as the director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during his first term, will be his point person on border policy, a position that will not require confirmation by what will soon be a Republican-controlled Senate.

Homan—who previously enforced Trump's "zero-tolerance" immigration policy that included the separation of thousands of children from their parents and other relatives—will oversee what the president-elect has promised to be the most sweeping mass deportation operation in U.S. history.

During a Monday interview onFox News, Homan issued a warning to Democratic governors and sanctuary cities that refuse to cooperate with the future administration's mass deportation program.

"If you're not going to help us, get the hell out of the way," he said. "If we can't get assistance from New York City, we may have to double the number of agents we send to New York City, because we're going to do the job."

Earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security said that around 1,400 migrant children still have not been reunited with their families. This, after Homan told the Conservative Political Action Conference in October 2023 that family separation "worked."

"I'm sick and tired hearing about the family separation," he said. "Bottom line is, we enforced the law."

Trump has not ruled out a return to the highly controversial policy in his second term.

Congresswoman Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) said Homan's appointment "should make it clear to everyone that the Trump administration will make good on their promises of mass deportation."

"We know *exactly* who Tom Homan is. He is the architect of the 'zero-tolerance' policy that separated thousands of migrant children from their parents with no plan for reunification," Ramirez continued. "He demonstrates cold disregard for the U.S. citizenship of the at least 4 million children with an undocumented parent, suggesting to keep families together, they should be deported together."

"The Trump administration's goal is to inflict maximum damage on diverse American families, our children, and our communities," the congresswoman added. "But let it be known, I will fight like hell to keep our families together, and our communities are ready to be an obstacle at every turn as he tries to implement his cruel, vile, gruesome plan."

Susie Wiles for White House chief of staff

Wiles is a longtime GOP strategist who has managed Trump's campaign operations since 2021, even as she worked for the tobacco company Swisher International lobbying to influence Congress on Food and Drug Administration regulations. She is also co-chair of the lobbying firm Mercury Public Affairs, which represents Big Pharma and junk food companies in apparent conflict with Trump's stated goal to "make America healthy again."

Stephen Miller for deputy chief of staff for policy

Numerous U.S. media outlets reported Monday that Trump is expected to tap Miller, a first-term senior adviser and speechwriter, as his deputy chief of staff for policy. Miller—an architect of Trump's family separation policy who advocates racist and xenophobic immigration policies—was described in 2019 by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) as a "verified white supremacist."

Although Miller's appointment was not yet official, Vice President-elect JD Vance on Monday congratulated what he called Trump's "fantastic pick."

Miller notoriously authored much of Trump's January 6, 2001 speech that is widely blamed for inciting that day's Capitol insurrection.

Last year, Miller vowed that Trump's first-term program to strip some naturalized Americans of their U.S. citizenship would be "turbocharged" should he win reelection.

Responding to reports of Miller's White House return, Jesse Mermell, the president and founder of the progressive deWit Impact Group, wrote on social media that "nothing about this is a surprise, but seeing it in print is still nightmare fuel."

Both Homan and Miller are among the at least 140 officials from Trump's first administration involved in Project 2025, a blueprint for a far-right overhaul of the federal government that includes terminating the legal status of around 500,000 immigrants currently protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, people commonly called "Dreamers."

CNN reported Monday that billionaire backer Elon Musk has been seen visiting Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida "nearly every single day" since Election Day and is "weighing in on staffing decisions, making clear his preference for certain roles."

Trump said during his campaign that he would place Musk in charge of government efficiency, raising progressive fears of aggressive cuts to crucial social programs and regulators.

As Trump fills out his Cabinet, critics noted in recent days that his transition team still hasn't signed legally required ethics agreements with the Biden administration, possibly over a mandatory pledge to avoid the conflicts of interest that plagued his first term.

"Donald Trump and his transition team are already breaking the law. I would know because I wrote the law," U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said Monday on social media. "Incoming presidents are required to prevent conflicts of interest and sign an ethics agreement. This is what illegal corruption looks like."

Responding to the prospect of a return to the "countless abuses of power" in Trump's first administration, Lisa Gilbert, the executive vice president of Public Citizen, said Monday that "we need to prepare to push back."

"The good news is, we can win these types of fights," Gilbert added. "We helped drive out three Cabinet secretaries from office last time, and we can do that kind of thing again."

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AN RAW 10 24

An ad buyer who said she was fired by the Donald Trump campaign after trying to expose alleged "grift and greed" by top campaign officials and deep distrust at the operation's highest levels has spoken out to the Daily Beast.

The fired worker told the Beast under the condition of anonymity that she wrote an email after she was terminated that laid out her concerns that the campaign's most senior leaders — Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles — appeared to be directing millions of dollars toward companies that may be overcharging the former president. One of them, she said, is run by a major Kamala Harris donor.

“The grift and greed I‘ve witnessed makes me sick and I think leadership has been bad stewards of generous donors money,” the campaign employee wrote to a former colleague after her Oct. 18 firing. “I‘m 100% on Team Trump — I want the very best for this campaign, but what I’ve witnessed is greedy and wrong.”

The woman also alleged that campaign employees had become convinced that leadership had installed a "listening device" in a conference room at the West Palm Beach campaign headquarters, and she said chief financial officer Sean Dollman was so concerned that he and others rummaged through the conference room to find the device.

“[Dollman] has alluded to the fact that he can’t say things for fear of retaliation,” the woman said. “There are napkins stuffed in all the gaps in the conference room now. It seems like they’re willing to go to extremes.”

Sources told The Daily Beast that the woman became so concerned over the summer that Wiles and LaCivita were sending large digital ad purchases to outside firms Strategic Media Services and Zeta Global instead of using the campaign's in-house Launchpad firm — for which she worked — and she concluded the outside firms were charging far more for the same work.

ALSO READ:Kamala's secret weapon against Trump: The F-word that's changing everything

The woman doesn't specify in her email what she meant by "grift and greed," but sources said she had raised concerns for months with Dollman about ad money spending by LaCivita and Wiles, and she was fired three days after The Daily Beast revealed last week that LaCivita's consulting firm had already raked in $22 million from the campaign and two Trump super PACs, although she was not the source of that report.

“Launchpad made the decision to terminate her for spreading rumors about clients, and repeatedly showing poor judgment," Dollman told The Daily Beast, but declined to comment further on her firing.

The whistleblower alleges that Zeta Global, a company run by Democratic donor David Steinberg that was chosen by LaCivita and Wiles, had charged the campaign $20 million for placing media ads, which she said was significantly more than the $13.9 million that Launchpad would have charged.

She does not directly accuse LaCivita or Wiles of receiving a cut from the higher commissions from outside firms, and a senior campaign officials tersely responded to questions about them receiving undisclosed payments.

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an 10 24

If former President Donald Trump wins the November election, who he would put in charge of his White House is down to a small handful of names. And a new report details how there's already a bitter fight brewing over the position.

The Daily Beast recently reported that candidates competing to be the ex-president's next White House chief of staff are in a "knife fight" to gain favor with Trump and undercut their rivals. According to the Beast's Sean Craig, some of the top choices include Brooke Rollins — who was Trump's Domestic Policy Council acting director during his first administration — as well as his current campaign senior advisor, Susie Wiles. Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-California) is also rumored to be in consideration.

"The MAGA world around his campaign is swirling with chatter about three key figures that could be his chief of staff." Craig wrote, noting that unnamed Trumpworld sources are sniping at each of the three as they jockey for position.

Trump has previously complimented Rollins, saying that he likes how she's "tall" and has "the look." But she's relatively inexperienced, and only became the acting head of the trump White House's Domestic Policy Council during his last year in office. She went on to help launch the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), which rivals say could actually hurt her bid given AFPI's position on tariffs is opposite of what the former president has called for.

Under Rollins' leadership, AFPI was also hacked on multiple occasions, and at least one of these security breaches were reportedly carried out by Chinese operatives. This is reportedly already being used as ammunition to undermine her bid for the top job in a second Trump administration.

“The knife-fighting is underway,” one unnamed "Trump World confidant" told Politico. “Someone’s like, ‘Oh, she wants to be chief of staff? Well, she can’t even stop her own organization from getting hacked.’”

The Beast reported that Wiles is credited with "professionalizing" Trump's 2024 bid for the White House, and the chief of staff job would be hers "if she wants it." However, her critics have pointed out that she has little practical experience in D.C. outside of the 1970s and 1980s, when she was a Republican operative.

Wiles has, however, dealt with a "power struggle" earlier this year when Trump brought on his one-time 2016 campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, back into the fold. And she may not have the stomach to contend with the chief of staff job after running a nationwide presidential campaign for more than a year.

Surprisingly, Kevin McCarthy may be a strong contender to be chief of staff. As a previous House speaker, he's uniquely familiar with the legislative process and knows how to get legislation passed through Congress. But his true motivation may be to get back at the eight Republicans who voted with all Democrats to strip him of the gavel in October of 2023.

"He wants to hold to account those who pushed him out," an unnamed California-based Republican operative told Politico.

:{*:{Click here to read the Beast's report in its entirety (subscription required).}:

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