Vanity Fair's Trump hit piece is a ‘nothingburger’ — except for one part

Conservatives are riled up after Vanity Fair released a hit piece on the Trump administration on Tuesday morning. Published in two parts, the article combines months of candid interviews with Trump's chief of staff Susie Wiles, who is quoted saying many brow-raising things about President Trump and fellow Cabinet members.

One particular section of the article is going viral on X. It quotes Wiles claiming Trump has “an alcoholic’s personality,” JD Vance has “been a conspiracy theorist for a decade,” Elon Musk is an “avowed ketamine user,” Russell Vought is a “right-wing absolute zealot,” and Pam Bondi “completely whiffed” in her handling of the Epstein files.

In response to Vanity Fair’s hit piece, Wiles posted the following response.

BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler confesses she’s not sure why everyone is freaking out about this article.

“This article does not bump my adrenaline or my cortisol up even a notch. ... In a sense, this article is a nothingburger because it just doesn’t matter ... because the mainstream media are liars,” she says.

And that includes Vanity Fair. In this very article, author Chris Whipple called January 6 a “bloody ... assault on the Capitol” that left “nine people” dead.

“What an absolute lie this is,” says Liz.

“One person died on January 6, and that was Ashli Babbitt, who was shot by a Capitol police officer. The others died of natural causes, drug overdoses, suicides in the days and weeks following,” she corrects.

“January 6 protesters killed no one, and yet Vanity Fair would have you believe that this was a bloody, murderous mob. ... That’s just factually wrong, and Vanity Fair knows this.”

The fact that Vanity Fair pushes such propaganda should be enough cause for us to dismiss this article. Further, even if Wiles engaged in office gossip, it doesn’t change the Trump administration’s “operational capacity or success.”

However, there is one section of the article Liz says is interesting and perhaps worth paying attention to, and that is the part where Wiles addresses Attorney General Pam Bondi.

In part two of the article, Whipple notes Wiles’ reaction to the Epstein files, specifically regarding Bondi’s spectacle of passing out “secret” Epstein info binders to certain right-wing political commentators, including Liz — binders that contained nothing of import or interest.

The article quotes Wiles saying, “I think [Pam Bondi] completely whiffed on appreciating that that was a very targeted group that cared about this. First she gave them binders full of nothingness. And then she said that the witness list, or the client list, was on her desk. There is no client list, and it sure as hell wasn’t on her desk.”

Later in the article, Whipple quotes Wiles again: “Whether [Epstein] was an American CIA asset, a Mossad asset, whether all these rich, important men went to that nasty island and did unforgivable things to young girls — I mean, I kind of knew it, but it’s never anything I paid a bit of attention to.”

Liz has long speculated about President Trump’s dismissive attitude about Bondi’s infuriating binders and the Epstein files in general. It seems he’s “underestimated” how much his base cared about the Epstein issue and perhaps Wiles is why.

“Behind the scenes, I know there was some discussion about why President Trump misread his base and particularly who might have been misinforming him about how the base thought about the Epstein files, and at the time, I had some people telling me behind the scenes that is was Susie Wiles,” says Liz, noting that she “never made a big deal about it” because she didn’t have confirmation.

“Well now, this [article] seems to somewhat confirm it — not because of necessarily any malicious motive. But if, in fact, Susie Wiles told Vanity Fair that she underestimated the potency of the Epstein scandal, and it was not something she ever paid attention to, then that somewhat explains President Trump’s dismissal of the entire Epstein scandal,” she adds.

“It sounds to me like Susie Wiles was in his ear telling him that, you know, ‘This will just pass; just let it go.”’

To hear more of Liz’s commentary and analysis, watch the full episode above.

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