One of President Donald Trump’s closest aides has offered an unusually frank window into Elon Musk’s brief but disruptive presence inside the White House, lifting the curtain on internal tensions, clashing management styles, and unease over the rapid dismantling of a major U.S. government agency.
In a series of interviews published Tuesday by Vanity Fair, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles spoke at length about Musk’s time as the de facto leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), his personality, and his role in the shutdown of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
“The challenge with Elon is keeping up with him,” Wiles told the magazine.
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She described Musk as an “odd, odd duck,” adding that his unconventional habits — including sleeping in a sleeping bag inside an office building adjacent to the White House — were part of a broader pattern that came with working alongside someone she repeatedly described as a genius operating at extreme speed.
Wiles also made remarks about Musk’s reported drug use that quickly became one of the most contentious aspects of the interview. She referred to Musk as an “avowed ketamine” user and, when asked about a meme he reposted and later deleted — one that compared public sector workers to mass murderers under the dictatorships of Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Zedong — she responded: “I think that’s when he’s microdosing.”
Musk has publicly rejected claims that he is currently using ketamine. In June, he wrote on X that he was “NOT taking drugs,” saying he had been prescribed ketamine “a few years ago” but had not taken it since. When asked for comment following the Vanity Fair publication, a spokesperson for Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, responded tersely: “Legacy Media Lies.”
The remarks soon triggered a second round of controversy. In an interview published Monday by The New York Times, Wiles denied having commented on Musk’s drug use at all, saying she “wouldn’t have said it and I wouldn’t know.” The Times reported that journalist Chris Whipple, who conducted the interviews for Vanity Fair, later played a recording for the paper in which Wiles could be heard making the statements.
Beyond Musk’s personal behavior, Wiles also addressed what she described as her initial shock over the dismantling of USAID, one of the most dramatic policy moves associated with Musk’s tenure.
“I was initially aghast,” she told Vanity Fair. She said that her understanding, shared by many who have worked in or studied government, was that USAID “do very good work.” While she acknowledged long-standing concerns about inefficiencies within the agency, Wiles said the execution of its shutdown crossed lines.
“That’s not the way I would do it,” she said, adding that she explicitly told Musk that “you can’t just lock people out of their offices.”
Wiles framed the episode as a clash of philosophies rather than a personal feud. She said Musk’s approach was rooted in urgency and disruption, likening it to the mindset required to build rockets and push technological boundaries.
“Elon’s attitude is you have to get it done fast,” she said. “If you’re an incrementalist, you just won’t get your rocket to the moon.” That mindset, she added, inevitably leads to collateral damage. “With that attitude, you’re going to break some china.”
At the same time, Wiles made clear she did not believe the existing USAID structure was defensible in its entirety.
“No rational person could think the USAID process was a good one. Nobody,” she said, signaling agreement with the goal of reform even as she questioned the method.
Musk ultimately exited the White House in the spring after a falling-out with Trump over the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill.” While tensions between the two men were widely reported at the time, their relationship has appeared to stabilize in recent months.
Following the publication of the Vanity Fair story, Wiles pushed back publicly. Writing on X on Tuesday morning, she described the article as a “disingenuously framed hit piece,” saying “significant context was disregarded” to create what she called an “overwhelmingly chaotic and negative narrative” about Trump and his administration.
The White House quickly moved to close ranks around Wiles. Asked about her comments, the administration shared a statement from Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt expressing firm support.
“Chief of Staff Susie Wiles has helped President Trump achieve the most successful first 11 months in office of any President in American history,” Leavitt said. “President Trump has no greater or more loyal advisor than Susie. The entire Administration is grateful for her steady leadership and united fully behind her.”
Taken together, the interviews offer one of the clearest accounts yet of how Musk’s fast-moving, Silicon Valley style collided with the realities of governing, and how even Trump’s most trusted aides struggled to manage the consequences of speed, scale, and disruption at the highest levels of power.