The night before Donald Trump issued a statement saying he was “very honored” that Ron DeSantis endorsed him upon dropping out of the 2024 primary, one of his top advisers had a different message: “Bye, bye.”That was the response of Susie Wiles, a top strategist for the Trump campaign, to a post on X late Saturday night to reports that DeSantis had canceled his campaign events for Sunday.
While the DeSantis demise might delight much of Trumpworld, it is undeniably sweetest for Wiles, who worked for the Florida governor until a falling out left them bitter enemies.
A longtime Republican operative from Florida, Wiles was instrumental in getting DeSantis elected as governor in 2018 and catapulting him to the national stage. But after DeSantis won, he “banished” her from his orbit, for reasons that were never quite clear, according to The New York Times.
But Trump hired Wiles for himself, making her his Florida director in 2016 and for the 2020 campaign. After Trump left office, he put her in charge of building the political operation meant to return him to the White House, and she’s been a top staffer ever since.
