Vice President JD Vance addressed comments attributed to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles in a Vanity Fair article during an exchange with a Washington Post reporter, using the moment to defend his record, praise Wiles’ loyalty, and describe what he said is the authentic character of President Donald Trump behind the scenes.
The exchange occurred after Jacob Bogage of The Washington Post raised the Vanity Fair profile while questioning the vice president.
“Mr. Vice President. Jacob Bogage from The Washington Post, it’s good to see you. Good to see you too. Merry Christmas. Thank you. Same to you,” Bogage began.
He then pivoted to the article.
“Unfortunately, I have to ask a bit of an off topic question from affordability, because news events do intervene, and that is the interviews that White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles gave to Vanity Fair, in which she’s quoted as referring to you as, excuse me again, not my words, sir, but a conspiracy theorist of a decade, and described your transformation from someone who once opposed President Trump to now his vice president as an act of political expediency. And I’d like to give you the chance to respond to that Sir,” Bogage said.
Vance responded by noting that he had not read the article, but addressed the label directly.
“Well, first of all, if Susie, I’ll trust. I’ll trust what you said. I haven’t looked at the article. I of course, have heard about it,” Vance said.
“But conspiracy theorist, sometimes I am a conspiracy theorist, but I only believe in the conspiracy theories that are true.”
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He added that the characterization was not new between him and Wiles.
“And by the way, Susie and I have joked in private and in public about that for a long time,” Vance said, before listing examples of positions he said were once dismissed but later validated.
“For example, I believed in the crazy conspiracy theory back in 2020 that it was stupid to mask three year olds at the height of the covid pandemic, that we should actually let them develop some language skills,” he said.
“I believed in this crazy conspiracy theory that the media and the government were covering up the fact that Joe Biden was clearly unable to do the job. And I believed in the conspiracy theory that Joe Biden was trying to throw his political opponents in jail rather than win an argument against his political opponents.”
Vance argued that such claims often become accepted long after they are initially dismissed.
“So at least on some of these conspiracy theories, it turns out that a conspiracy theory is just something that was true six months before the media admitted it, and that’s that’s my understanding,” he said.
The vice president then shifted to discussing Wiles personally, emphasizing her consistency and loyalty.
“Now, look, I do want to say something about Susie, though, because, again, having not read this article, Susie is a person I’ve come to know very, very well,” Vance said.
He described what he said is the reality inside the Trump White House.
“And you know a lot of you probably ask yourself, what is it like behind the scenes? What’s going on actually behind the scenes of the Trump administration? And I’ll tell you, the President is exactly in private who he is in public,” Vance said.
He recounted a personal anecdote involving President Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and himself.
“Like I’ll tell you a little story a few, maybe, actually, a week or so ago, I walk into the Oval Office, and Marco and I are sitting there talking with the President about something,” Vance said.
“He says, stop. And he looks at our shoes and says, You guys have terrible shoes. So he goes and gets a shoe catalog.”
Vance continued, “And remember, it’s the Christmas season, so the President’s got some holiday cheer. He goes against the shoe catalog and gets his favorite shoes and orders like, four pairs of shoes for me and four pairs of shoes for Marco, because he’s like, you know, we need our Vice President or Secretary of State to look their very best.”
Afterward, Vance said, the conversation returned to official business.
“And, you know, then we went back to talking about whatever major, you know, international issue we were talking about,” he said.
“Again, he is exactly in private who he is in public. That’s not true of most people in Washington, DC.”
Vance contrasted that with what he said is common behavior among politicians.
“And I’ve seen so many people who will say one thing to the President’s face, Democrats and Republicans, and then we’ll do the exact opposite behind the scenes,” he said.
He then returned to praising Wiles.
“You know why I really, you know what they are, and you know why I really love Susie Wiles, because Susie is who she is in the President’s presence, she’s the same exact person when the President isn’t around,” Vance said.
“I’ve never seen Susie Wiles say something to the President and then go and counteract him or subvert HIS WILL behind the scenes.”
Vance said that loyalty matters because voters elected the president, not staff.
“Because as much as I love Susie, the American people didn’t elect any staffer. They elected the President of the United States,” he said.
“And what you want and what you want in a staffer is a person who understands they are there to effectuate the will of the American people, and they’re there to follow the orders of the duly elected Commander in Chief of the United States.”
He concluded by calling Wiles the best choice for the role and criticizing media access.
“And Susie Wiles, we have our disagreements. We agree on much more than we disagree, but I’ve never seen her be disloyal to the President of the United States, and that makes her the best White House Chief of Staff that I think the President could ask for,” Vance said.
He added, “if any of us have learned a lesson from that Vanity Fair article, I hope that the lesson is we should be giving fewer interviews to mainstream media outlets.”
Vance then ended the exchange by thanking voters and supporters.
“This is the coolest job I’ve ever had,” he said.
“I will never forget that my job every single day is to make it so that you guys can have a safe and prosperous.”
WATCH:
Vice President JD Vance is asked about the quotes from Susie Wiles in the Vanity Fair article 😂😂
“Sometimes I am a conspiracy theorist, but I only believe in the conspiracy theories that are true.”
“For example, I believed in the crazy conspiracy theory back in 2020 that it… pic.twitter.com/XJ8MRfNjUB
— Andrew Kolvet (@AndrewKolvet) December 16, 2025
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