Karl Dalén: Who holds Trump's leash when Susie Wiles disappears?

She has been called the "ice lady". Quietly and with an immovable expression on her face, she stayed in the background when Donald Trump was elected president for the second time, but in fact she was one of those who held the reins. She pushed for Marco Rubio and Scott Bessent to become ministers, names that in retrospect have been safe points in a stormy administration.

When criticism against the immigration agency ICE swelled to its worst in January 2026, 69-year-old Susie Wiles is said to have been one of those who lobbied to withdraw agents from Minnesota, which was later also done.

Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, 41, was at the same time one of the main drivers behind the hard-line migration policy. It was he who set the goal of deporting one million people per year and who has pushed to greatly increase the budget for the migration authority.

Stephen Miller was also an aggressive player during the Greenland crisis, when he declared on television that the US needed the landmass and that no one would stop the US from taking it.

Critics have described him as a ruthless bully type who believes that any means is permissible to achieve his goals. Others maintain that he is intelligent and loyal. The change means the president gets a chief of staff who will encourage him to fight back against his opponents, rather than one who sometimes holds him back.

Susie Wiles now becomes the latest in the line of women who have left the White House, following among others Pam Bondi, Tulsi Gabbard, Kristi Noem and Karoline Leavitt.

Wiles was long considered one of Donald Trump's most trusted staffers. But perhaps confidence began to falter after a high-profile interview in Vanity Fair last winter, when she called Vice President JD Vance a conspiracy theorist and said Donald Trump had the personality of an alcoholic.

Susie Wiles said the article misrepresented what she said and was supported by the White House, but somewhere in there her judgment must have been questioned.

During the election night, Trump allegedly blamed the election loss on her in front of others, according to information provided to New York Times journalist Jonathan Swan, one of the most knowledgeable White House correspondents.

Susie Wiles herself writes in social media that it was the honor of her life to work with the president. Maybe she's not too displeased to be leaving an administration that's on a downward spiral.

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