Lobbyist with Pharma Ties Tapped for Chief of Staff in New Trump Administration

And that might not be such a bad thing.

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Since President Trump announced last week that he had chosen Susie Wiles as his next (and first-ever female) Chief of Staff, the health freedom community has been abuzz with concern - if not, at times, outright panic. Wiles, 67, served as President Trump’s campaign manager and has obviously earned his trust. This really should come as no surprise. It’s hard to argue with results, after all. The former President and now President-elect won the Presidency in a landslide victory last Tuesday, claiming 312 electoral college votes. But Wiles’s role in getting President Trump re-elected isn’t what has people worried. Instead, it’s her vast experience working as a corporate lobbyist, including managing a lobbying firm that represents pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. As Fox News reports:

Federal disclosures filed in April show Wiles was a lobbyist for the tobacco company Swisher International while running the Trump campaign. The documents show she worked to influence Congress on "FDA regulations." 

Wiles is the co-chair for the Florida and Washington, D.C., offices of Mercury Public Affairs, a lobbying firm whose clients include AirBnB, AT&T, eBay, Pfizer, Tesla, and the Embassy of Qatar, although she is not a registered lobbyist for any of those clients. 

So, although it appears that Wiles has never personally lobbied for Pfizer, the headline in health freedom circles has been just that, something along the lines of, “Susie is a pharma lobbyist who worked for Pfizer!” This development has caused some to question whether President Trump is indeed committed to his promise to “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) in coalition with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who the President promised would have a prominent role in the new administration. Speaking to a packed house at Madison Square Garden on October 27, 2024, President Trump said of Kennedy, “I’m going to let him go wild on health. I’m going to let him go wild on the food. I’m going to let him go wild on the medicines.”

So is the appointment of Wiles an indication that he is backing off that promise? Not at all. While it’s unclear how much involvement Wiles had in Pfizer’s lobbying operations, it’s hard to believe that she wouldn’t know much about one of the largest clients (if not the largest client) of the firm she co-chaired. It stands to reason that she knows quite a bit about Pfizer. It would not at all be surprising if she is on a first-name basis with the company’s CEO, Albert Bourla. Maybe she’s even had dinner at his home.

What I realize when I describe Wiles in these terms is that it sounds very much like I’m describing our own organization President, Dawn Jolly. Years before she and I founded We The Patriots USA, Dawn worked at the executive level of Pfizer, closely with Albert Bourla. And yes, she even had dinner at his home with his family. In her role overseeing the Global Oncology, Vaccines, and Consumer Healthcare Division, Dawn gained an insider knowledge of Pfizer and the pharmaceutical industry. This has been one of the greatest assets to her work as a health freedom activist, but it was also the greatest source of skepticism and distrust for those who observed her in the early years of her fight against vaccine mandates. With well over two decades and countless legislative and legal victories for health freedom now firmly etched into her legacy, it is rare these days that anyone questions Dawn’s motives. But this was common in the early going.

It is safe to say that I’ve worked more closely with Dawn in a professional capacity, and for longer, than anyone else. Beyond the fact that she is a person of great intelligence and integrity with natural leadership skills, what I’ve learned is that Dawn’s insider knowledge of the pharmaceutical industry has best equipped her to fight its corruption. As Sun Tzu famously wrote in his classic The Art of War,

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.

Why, then, anyone would want someone other than a pharmaceutical insider leading the charge to root out corruption in the pharmaceutical industry is beyond me. Dawn Jolly checks all the boxes in that regard, and Susie Wiles at least possesses the knowledge needed for the job. In the coming months and years, there will be no shortage of battles on the health freedom front, and I for one wouldn’t want anyone but Dawn Jolly leading our organization. Don’t think for a minute that there won’t be massive pushback to the MAHA initiatives in terms of litigation, and We The Patriots USA will be on the front lines in the courtroom seeing to it that individual rights and freedoms are protected. As we near the close of this year and the dawn of a new Presidential administration, we ask that you please remember We The Patriots USA in your year-end giving plans. You can make a donation here or by mail/donor advised fund to:

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