Caroline Sunshine, who served in the Trump White House, publicly demanded on Wednesday that Chief of Staff Susie Wiles offer her resignation to President Trump, blaming her leadership for the Republican Party's heavy losses in the midterm elections.
Appearing on Fox News's Jesse Watters Primetime, Sunshine said she was voicing what many in the administration are saying privately: "Susie Wiles needs to resign," she asserted. "She needs to offer her resignation to the president before he has to ask for it. Her campaign skills have not translated into governing."
Sunshine acknowledged Wiles' role in Trump's 2024 victory, which earned her the top staff job, but argued that the same skills have not produced results in office. "She was behind the historic win in 2024, and she deserved credit for it and got the top job for it," Sunshine said. "But now she is behind the historic loss where we lost Mississippi and have lost potentially the Senate for six years, and so that cuts both ways."
The Mississippi Senate race remains undecided, with Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith trailing Democrat Scott Colom by a razor-thin margin, according to Decision Desk HQ. The outcome could determine control of the Senate, amplifying the stakes of the GOP's disappointing night.
Sunshine warned that keeping Wiles in her role could hurt Republicans again in 2028. "If she loves and respects the president and his legacy, she'll do the right thing and step aside," she said. She also criticized the administration's operational failures: "A lot of this was staff failure, a lot of this was strategy and messaging failure. It's the chief of staff's job to manage the staff ... Why wasn't the staff out messaging?"
Speculation about Wiles' future has been building. Politico reported last month that Trump had received negative feedback from allies about her, though he dismissed the report as "TOTAL FAKE NEWS" and insisted she has his "COMPLETE confidence." Trump has also publicly praised Wiles, calling her "an amazing person" and "an amazing fighter" after she disclosed her breast cancer diagnosis earlier this year. Wiles announced in September that she was cancer-free.
Former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told NewsNation's The Hill Sunday that he expects Wiles to depart after the midterms, not because she has lost Trump's trust, but because "it's just a natural sort of time to make that change."
Sarah Matthews, a former deputy press secretary in Trump's first term, told MeidasTouch in October that the president has been "pleased with the way things are right now" but has floated replacement ideas to allies, including the possibility of elevating deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller—a prospect Matthews described as "a terrifying prospect."
The midterm results have already reshaped the political landscape, with Republicans facing a potential wipeout in 2026 and the GOP's 2028 field thrown into chaos. Some, like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, have framed the losses as a clear rebuke of Trump and the GOP Congress. Meanwhile, Democrats are mapping a multifront strategy to capitalize on their gains.
