# Susie Wiles White House Chief of Staff in the [[Second Trump Administration]] and the most consequential revolving-door node in the KB's [[Lobbying]] layer. Wiles, a veteran Florida Republican operative, co-chaired the 2024 Trump campaign and is widely credited as its disciplined manager. Before returning to politics she worked in the influence industry — as a partner at [[Ballard Partners]] until 2020 and later as a co-chair at [[Mercury Public Affairs]]. Her dual significance: she is both the gatekeeper to the President and an alumna of two of the firms now profiting most from access to him, and her daughter Katie Wiles works at a third ([[Continental Strategy]]). That overlap is exactly the conflict-of-interest pattern the [[Revolving Door]] page tracks. ## Named defendant, press-ban litigation Wiles was named as a defendant in the suit [[CNN]], MS NOW ([[MSNBC]]) and [[Politico]] filed on **September 21, 2026** over the [[White House Press Ban]], with [[Donald Trump]], communications director [[Steven Cheung]] and Secret Service director [[Sean Curran]]. Judge [[Timothy Kelly]] set a hearing for September 23. One detail from the sequence bears on the gatekeeper role described above: Trump announced the ban on **September 18 while Wiles was out of town**, per [[Heather Cox Richardson]]'s letter of September 21. If accurate, it is a data point on the limits of the discipline she is credited with — the most consequential press decision of the term was made in her absence, and she is a defendant in the resulting case. > [!warning] Single-source detail > Wiles's absence when the ban was announced is reported in HCR's letter of 2026-09-21 and has not been confirmed elsewhere. The lawsuit and her status as a defendant are separately verified. ## See also [[Ballard Partners]] · [[Mercury Public Affairs]] · [[Lobbying Hub]] · [[Revolving Door]] · [[White House Press Ban]] · [[Steven Cheung]] · [[Sean Curran]] · [[Timothy Kelly]]