Who is the 'ice maiden' behind Trump campaign now rewarded with top job?

Donald Trump has named Susie Wiles as his White House chief of staff in his first major appointment as president-elect.

She will be the first female in history to take up the role – one of the most important non-elected posts in Washington.

In his victory speech, Mr Trump described her as an “ice maiden” and has credited her with his “best-run” campaign.

Here’s what we know about her so far.

Daughter of American footballer

Susie Wiles grew up in New Jersey. Her father was the late American footballer Pat Summerall.

Before his death in 2013, he credited her with helping him get sober and checking in to an alcohol rehab programme.

“I hadn’t been there much for my kids,” he wrote in his memoir. “But Susan’s letter made it clear that I’d hurt them even in my absence.”

Ms Wiles’s first job in politics was in the 1970s as an assistant to the late Jack Kemp, who became a Republican representative for New York after playing alongside her father at the New York Giants.

The now 67-year-old was later part of Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaign and subsequently worked as a White House scheduler during his term.

Following the Reagan administration, in 1988 she worked on the vice-presidential campaign for George H W Bush’s deputy Dan Quayle.

Having moved to Florida, she worked as an adviser to two Jacksonville mayors.

Outside politics she has worked in the private sector as a lobbyist, for both Ballard Partners, whose clients include Amazon, Google, and the MLB (Major League Baseball), and then Mercury, who works with Elon Musk’s SpaceX and the Embassy of Qatar.

On her appointment to the Trump team, Mercury chief executive Keiran Mahoney said: “This is great news for the country. Susie has been a valued colleague. We are all proud of her and wish her the best.”

From DeSantis to Trump

In recent years, Ms Wiles has worked for some of the Republicans’ more divisive figures.

After helping Rick Scott become governor of Florida in 2010, she worked on Mr Trump’s 2016 campaign there.

With the Sunshine State win credited with helping Mr Trump take the White House, Ms Wiles was brought in to help Ron DeSantis’s ailing campaign to replace Mr Scott as governor in 2018.

The pair are reported to have fallen out after he was elected, which was seemingly confirmed when Ms Wiles was in charge of Mr Trump’s 2024 bid. Mr DeSantis was up against Mr Trump in the primaries, but was widely ridiculed and forced to pull out early on.

It was later claimed that Ms Wiles was behind some of the media stories that made fun of Mr DeSantis.

‘Ice maiden’

Although unsuccessful, Mr Trump credited Ms Wiles with being an “integral” part of his second presidential bid in 2020.

She was co-manager of his effort this year alongside Chris LaCivita.

After her appointment this week, he described her as the “perfect pick” with a “master ability to manage multiple things of significance simultaneously”.

During the campaign, she also lobbied for the tobacco company Swisher International.

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Throughout her decades-long political career, Ms Wiles has stayed out of the limelight and scarcely engaged with the media.

Speaking to the Tampa Bay Times in 2016, she hit back at criticism of Mr Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric.

“I will tell you this: The Donald Trump that I have come to know does not behave that way, and the lens that I look at him through, I don’t see any of that. I see strengths, I see smarts, I see a work ethic that is unparalleled,” she told the newspaper.

She is believed to have been behind the campaign material that targeted Latino and black voters, who were key in taking votes from the Democrats.

At a rally in Milwaukee earlier in the year, Mr Trump said: “She’s incredible. Incredible.”

This article was originally published by Sky.com. Read the original article here.

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