Last April Tony Fabrizioone of the Republican Party’s main polling analysts, had a conversation with a journalist from the magazine Politico called Michael Kruse. During it, Fabrizio said the following phrase: “I don’t think anyone in our orbit has as much information as she does; she touches everything.”
Days later Kruse spoke with Carlos Curbeloa former Republican Party congressman, who, referring to the same person, said: “Right now he is one of the most important figures in American politics.” “And no one,” a Florida lobbyist named Ronnie Book– he even knows who he really is.”
They were referring to a 66-year-old woman – she turned 67 the following month – called Susie Wiles.
Born in the late 1950s in New Jersey, Susan Wiles entered the fascinating world of political consulting in 1979, when a young Republican congressman from New York named Jack Kemp hired their services. From there it didn’t take him long to jump into the Ronald Reagan before going on to consecutively swell the ranks – in increasingly more prominent positions – of the teams of John Delaney, Tillie Fowler, John Peyton, Rick Scott y Jon Huntsman Jr. Mayor of Jacksonville, congressman, mayor of Jacksonville, senator and governor of Utah, respectively. Although when Wiles went to work for the latter, his mission was to help him prepare his candidacy for the 2012 presidential elections.
Until finally, in 2016, Wiles was hired by the campaign Donald Trump. Which is where it continues to this day.
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People who have worked with Wiles often describe her as a moderate conservative, particularly educated and with a low-key disposition. A profile that does not seem to have much in common with that of his boss. When asked about it, Wiles tends to shrug. “I come from a very traditional background”she told Kruse himself when he finally managed to talk to her. “Early in my career things like form mattered and a certain level of decorum was expected.” However, he adds, today’s Republican Party – some could argue that politics in general – is different and you have to adapt or die. “We must live with the changes that come to us if we want to continue doing what we have come to do,” he stated.
But, of course, what has Wiles come to do? Many of his biggest admirers are colleagues who work for his two rivals: the Democratic Party or the anti-Trump conservatives known, in jargon, as nevertrumpers. They are the ones who have been wondering since the first electoral victory of the New York businessman, in 2016, why such a moderate and restrained woman is helping a politician so apparently contrary to his values to achieve triumphs like the overwhelming victory achieved this week.
Every time he is faced with that kind of accusation Wiles gets angry. “I usually turn around and walk away, I don’t even respond, because it’s a vile thing that doesn’t deserve a response.”he explains. “These people do not know the inner workings of Trump’s world and therefore, in my opinion, they have no right to judge.”
Be that as it may, it is to be hoped that Trump’s second presidential term has managed to establish his name in the history books that in the coming decades, and who knows if centuries, will seek to explain the political drift experienced by the United States during the first half of the 21st century.
Along with names like George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Dick Cheney, Michelle Obama, J.D. Vance, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders, Valerie Jarrett, Ron DeSantis or Trump’s own could well find his own. Susan Wiles. Accompanied, for example, by the description given by Joe Grutersthe former leader of the Republican Party in Florida: “The most valuable political advisor in the country.”