The Ice Maiden Cometh Postscript

Response to reader feedback to my post on Susie Wiles

I woke up to several text messages expressing concern about my positive post on Susie Wiles, Trump’s pick for his chief of staff. I also took the time (as I always do) to review reader comments.

I appreciate the concern that Susie Wiles has a history of working as a lobbyist and that her clients have included Big Pharma companies. However, this criticism might as well be for the simple fact that she has worked as a lobbyist, because Big Pharma is by far the biggest client of the entire lobbying industry.

Though I too view the lobbying profession with suspicion, I doubt that having worked as a lobbyist automatically means that a person cannot be trusted to be an honest chief of staff. This aspect of her biography is cause for vigilance, but it’s hardly a disqualification. From having worked as a lobbyist, she understands how Washington politics actually works.

Susie Wiles’s primary qualification is the fact that she did a terrific job organizing and running Trump’s campaign, the positive result of which speaks for itself.

Other readers took exception to my statement that I find it reassuring that she is a grandmother who values discretion and modesty and has no interest in being on television. To clarify: I have known grandmothers to be extremely organized and exceptionally gifted at multitasking and holding together families that are riven with fraction. They are accustomed to assuming responsibility, taking care of others, moderating disputes, and quietly asserting their authority.

I have often found grandmothers to be far more wise and discrete than young people who are still inclined to seek attention for themselves instead of getting jobs done. I have known of several families that would have completely fallen apart had it not been for their grandmother, who compensated for all of the folly and irresponsibility of the younger generations. I suspect the entire House of Windsor would have collapsed decades ago were it not for the quiet strength of Queen Elizabeth II.