Chris Whipple

You cannot facilitate it without steering him clear of landmines.

You have to be able to have the tough conversations.

And to give just one example, when James A. Baker III, Reagan's White House chief, swapped jobs with Don Regan, it was no coincidence that shortly thereafter, we had the Iran-Contra affair.

The White House chief has to be able to tell the president you cannot go down this road.

Believe me, it's a mistake.

I don't think she does.

I don't think she's an ideologue.

I think she would regard herself as a kind of Jim Baker-style pragmatist, trying again to facilitate the president's vision, execute his agenda, play honest broker, all of those things that White House chiefs, the good ones, traditionally have been.

She doesn't insert herself, assert herself or express her opinion all that often about policy of any kind.

When she does, Trump listens.

And he would turn to Susie after Vance and Rubio and Miller and the others had had their say and say, Susie, what do you think?

And rarely would she express her own opinion.

opinion that differed from the consensus.

But when she did, he listened.

Oh, no.

I think to this day, she considers him a real conspiracy theorist.

And she's really talking about all the way back to 2016, that for a decade, Vance has been that way.

And she says he'd be the first to admit it.

She does have faith in J.D.

Vance.