Susie Wiles' Demand For Trump Officials To Stay Local Will Surely Put A Damper On JD Vance's Life

As Donald Trump's chief of staff, Susie Wiles, also known as "The Ice Maiden," has a formidable reputation that matches her Trump-bestowed nickname, and she just might force JD Vance to freeze any future family getaway plans. "She's smart, she's competitive, and she can be, in her own out-of-the-way, soft-spoken, 'who, me?' manner, pretty cutthroat," Politico writer Michael Kruse asserted in November 2024. Although Wiles' relationships with her colleagues may have been on shaky ground after her candid Vanity Fair interview, the chief of staff seemed to quickly reassert herself.

In February 2026, Wiles clamped down on staffers' travel privileges. "The international ones are on a case-by-case basis, but they definitely want you to focus on domestic travel," one insider explained to Politico, adding that they must get the go-ahead from Wiles before going on any overseas trips. Although the policy is reportedly intended to be a mid-term campaign strategy, Wiles' restrictions could hit JD particularly hard. During his first year as vice president, JD's frequent, lavish vacations had some questioning his commitment to his job.

In many cases, JD was able to combine work and play. Some trips, like when he and his wife, Usha Vance, took their kids to Italy and India in spring 2025, were a blend of family time and political visits. Others, like his trip to the U.K. several months later, were more heavily weighted towards time off. Either way, Vance's trips highlighted a huge disconnect between his family and most U.S. voters. Wiles might have had optics like these on her mind when she announced the new limitations.

Long before she joined Donald Trump's team, Susie Wiles worked for Ronald Reagan, and she amassed decades of experience working on political campaigns in Florida. Even though Wiles was successful in her efforts to get Trump back into the White House, she's seemingly not content to relax her campaigning muscles. "We're going to win the midterms," Wiles succinctly declared to Vanity Fair.

Besides JD Vance's penchant for expensive vacations, Wiles might also be considering the political fallout from former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem's international travel. While it's standard procedure for Vance to have his own plane as VP, Noem's luxury jet dinged her reputation considerably.

On the positive side, Vance's expanding family could make it easier for him to adjust to Wiles' decree, at least in the short term. Since the couple's fourth child is due in July, the Vances might have already decided to postpone any long-distance outings until after the birth. In addition, Vance has proven himself adept at planning luxury domestic vacations. A month into his VP job, the Vances took a ski trip to Vermont. That summer, he and his family got a semiprivate Disneyland experience. Unfortunately for Vance (and possibly for Wiles), these domestic outings didn't help his reputation, either. Besides attracting protesters on both trips, Vance earned a brutal nickname at Disneyland, annoying some of the guests at the park and attracting eyerolls across the internet.