As the President held a lunch with board members of the Trump Kennedy Center on Monday, the person who has become the rock of his administration sat immediately to his left.

Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, watched her often unpredictable charge – Trump – like a hawk, as she always does.

While he freewheeled with reporters on everything from the Iran war to his new ballroom, lesser advisers might have gritted their teeth.

However, Wiles maintained her traditional calm, silently calculating how to deal with any political fallout.

Remarkably, on this occasion, she did so despite having received some terrible personal news.

Just fifteen minutes before the event began, Trump confirmed on Truth Social that Wiles had been diagnosed with early stage breast cancer.

Her decision to carry on was an extraordinary example of stoicism, professionalism and commitment, qualities for which she has become well known behind the scenes at the White House.

It is that same steely determination that has seen her quietly become one of the most powerful women in the world, overcoming a series of setbacks along the way.

President Donald Trump talks to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles during a lunch with the Kennedy Center board members in the East Room of the White House in Washington DC, March 16, 2026, shortly after it was announced that she is being treated for early stage breast cancer

Wiles is the daughter of the late Pat Summerall, the NFL star who went on to become one of America’s most iconic sportscasters. He was also an alcoholic.

Summerall, who died in 2013, revealed in his memoir the impact of his drinking and the extramarital affair that led to his divorce from Wiles’ mother.

‘My children grew up without me. I failed them as a father,’ he wrote.

In a rare personal interview with Politico in 2024, Wiles said: ‘I feel it sometimes, my stoicism comes from him.’

Another influence too was how her mother maintained a ‘picture of calm through this tempest of alcoholism.’

‘She woke up an optimist every day, and she started every day like that, and it would fall apart or it wouldn’t…’ Wiles said.

Her own air of calm in the face of political firestorms – she never swears or shouts – has been a feature of Trump’s second term, and led to her being dubbed the ‘Ice Maiden.’

In his chaotic first term Trump burned through four chiefs of staff, but this time he has the one he wants. 

White House chief of staff Susie Wiles greets US House Speaker Mike Johnson before a lunch with the Kennedy Center Board members at the White House in Washington, DC, on March 16, 2026

White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles waves after disembarking Air Force One, June 25, 2025, at Joint Base Andrews, Md

Wiles’ father Pat Summerall, left, with John Madden in the broadcast booth at the Superdome before Super Bowl 36 on February 3, 2002

Wiles’ rise to prominence began when she worked in the Washington office of New York congressman Jack Kemp in the 1970s.

Later she had a stint on Ronald Reagan’s campaign and in his White House as a scheduler.

Then, she plunged into the fire of Florida politics, advising two Jacksonville mayors, working on statewide campaigns, and helping Rick Scott win the governor’s office.

Those who know Wiles best say she i an expert at shaping political narratives

‘I’ve described her as a political savant, just otherworldly sort of political instincts,’ said ex-Jacksonville mayor John Delaney, for whom she worked.

‘Susie is a brilliant tactician, an enabler.’

The President said Wiles has already started treatment and will continue to work

White House chief of staff Susie Wiles listens as President Donald Trump meets with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office of the White House, Feb. 4, 2025, in Washington

After briefly managing former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman’s 2012 presidential campaign, she ran Trump’s 2016 effort in Florida, when his win in the state helped him clinch the White House.

The following year Wiles suffered personal turmoil when she and her husband Lanny Wiles divorced.

The couple had been married since 1984 and have two daughters.

In 2018, Wiles bounced back with a bang in the political world helping to get Ron DeSantis elected as Florida’s governor.

However, there was then a spectacular falling out between them.

The exact reasons have never been made public but there were suggestions that DeSantis, and his wife Casey, believed Wiles was given too much credit for his success.

DeSantis and Wiles went their separate professional ways in 2019.

Despite her calm and polite manner, Wiles is a tough operator, and revenge against DeSantis would prove sweet.

‘She’s one of those people that has the old rule: F*** me? No. F*** you,’ Rick Wilson, a veteran political operative,’ told Politico.

President Donald Trump speaks with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Secretary of State Marco Rubio during military operations in Iran, at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. February 28, 2026

Susie Wiles with President Donald Trump in his limousine

White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles attends a dignified transfer of the remains of six US Army service members of the 103rd Sustainment Command, who were killed in Kuwait

Wiles led Trump’s 2024 primary campaign against DeSantis and trounced the Florida governor.

During the campaign Trump aides and allies taunted DeSantis with personal details, mocking his laugh, for eating with his fingers, and accusing him of wearing lifts in his boots.

Shortly before DeSantis dropped out of the presidential race in January, Wiles wrote a very rare message on social media, which was aimed at him.

It said simply: ‘Bye, bye.’

Susie Wiles parted ways with Ron DeSantis after helping him become Governor of Florida

White House chief of staff Susie Wiles watches President Donald Trump speak at an event in Kentucky on March 11, 2026

Entering the White House as the first ever female chief of staff in 2025, Wiles put together a more professional operation than in Trump’s first term.

That included an emphasis on senior officials working as one team, rather than as rivals for the president’s attention, and there was also a new determination to stop unauthorized leaks.

She largely avoided the spotlight herself both in the campaign and in power.

When Trump celebrated his election victory on stage she declined an invitation to take the microphone.

Her social media interventions remain rare. On one occasion she hit back after billionaire Mark Cuban claimed that Trump did not have ‘strong, intelligent women’ in his orbit.

Behind the scenes, she has controlled some of Trump’s wilder impulses not by lecturing him, but by reasoning.

Once, when Trump gave a widely criticized speech in Pennsylvania in which he suggested he wouldn’t mind the media being shot, Wiles responded by staring at him silently.

The discipline she has managed to instill in the White House was never more tested than when she was on the receiving end of bad press herself.

In December, Wiles was quoted in a Vanity Fair profile making candid comments about Trump and various cabinet officials.

Trump himself led an all-hands-on-deck operation to defend her after the comments included her saying that he had an ‘alcoholic’s personality.’

The president, who doesn’t drink, said he knew what Wiles had been trying to say.

‘I have said that many times about myself, I do, it’s a very possessive personality,’ he said.

Wiles has become an indispensable member of the President’s inner circle

Wiles watches Trump speaking with other leaders at the United Nations

The episode appeared to have done no harm to Wiles’ standing in the White House.

Following her diagnosis, President Trump called her an ‘amazing fighter.’

He said: ‘Her Strength and her Commitment to continue doing the job she loves, and does so well, while undergoing treatment, tells you everything you need to know about her.’

In a typically straightforward and determined statement, Wiles said: ‘Nearly one in eight women in the United States will face this diagnosis. Every day, these women continue to raise their families, go to work, and serve their communities with strength and determination. I now join their ranks.

‘I am grateful to have an outstanding team of doctors who detected the cancer early and are guiding my care, and I am encouraged by a strong prognosis.’

She added: ‘I am also deeply thankful for the support and encouragement of President Trump as I undergo treatment and continue serving in my current role.’