Editor’s note: The following is a transcript of Susie Wiles’ remarks upon receiving the Barbara K. Olson Woman of Valor Award, delivered at the 2026 Annual Awards Gala.
Heather Higgins:
Good evening, everyone. I want to tell you what a pleasure it is to have you here, and what a pleasure it is to look out of this beautiful room. Amber, I think you’re over there at Table 19 somewhere. It’s gorgeous again. Thank you so much.
…IW galas, but they’ve always just looked better. And if you go to a lot of policy dinners, which I think many of us do, you know that it’s going to be a special evening.
Indeed, last night when I was in New York, I mentioned to a donor of ours that we had our gala this evening, and he said, “I love your group. There’s so many groups that just talk, but you women actually do something.” So I want to say, as the women’s group that actually likes men, that we know … do actually do something, not least our occupant of the White House who is a doer of our excellence, and also many of our guests who are here this evening, it’s so appreciated that you are doers, not just talkers, which particularly in Washington is a real refreshing change. I want to say, indeed, looking around this room, that is clear that we discovered an extraordinary group of people, male and female, who value being effective and having impact.
You’re some of the brightest, most accomplished and most generous individuals anywhere, and I must say, a very handsome and impressive group, and you clean up very well. I’d like to begin by recognizing just a few of the outstanding individuals and organizations who help make tonight possible. First, a huge thank you to our diamond-level sponsor, Johnson & Johnson.
We are especially honored to welcome JFJ CEO, Joaquin Duato, along with Jane Adams this evening, thank you both for your tremendous support. A special thank you as well to our platinum sponsors, the Diana Davis Spencer Foundation, the Mike Rowe Foundation, and the Dick and Mary Beth Weiss Foundation. I also want to acknowledge Mercury Public Affairs as well for their generous support. The wonderful news for us is that this year’s gala has already been a record-breaking success of nearly $1 million cleared after the cost of the dinner. If any of you want to feel your ancient wings growing just a little bit more this evening, by putting us over that $1 million number, go find Amber at Table 19 and we will not say no.
We are deeply grateful to every sponsor and supporter here tonight. While I’d love to name each of you, that would take us through dessert, so I strongly recommend that you look at your programs. We also have some notable and much appreciated administration officials in attendance tonight that I’d like to highlight, including Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Todd Blanche, Secretary of the Interior Todd Bergham, Secretary of Energy and past donor to IW—I knew him when—Chris Wright, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, and FBI Director Kash Patel, who was honored in 2025 as our gentleman of distinction. And funny enough, there’s a second such honoree in the crowd with us tonight, Mike Rowe, who was honored in 2018.
I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention that Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, the recipient of our 2022 Resilience Award for her work in standing up for objective truth and female athletes, couldn’t be with us tonight so instead she spoke at our policy summit this afternoon, which was outstanding. And her principal deputy director, Aaron Lukas joins us this evening. In the interest of full disclosure—this is Washington and they believe in full disclosure—Aaron had very little choice in the matter. This year he’s not hosted abroad, the kids are not so small, and he’s married to our president, Carrie Lukas.
When people ask me why I’m chairman of Independent Women and have invested so much in this organization in time and treasure, I tell them it’s because I have three children whom I have only rarely been inclined to send back, and so I want to leave them the best future for this great country we call home, a place that has been better than any other for liberty and human flourishing, is founded on respect for the Constitution, individuals and God-given human rights, and promotes an ethic of responsibility rather than entitlement and victimhood. I also tell them I care about good policy as assessed by results, not just good intentions, and that Independent Women is a unique and necessary piece of saving the country we all love. We see the Left tell people every day that to like themselves, they have to support ideas and policies they know are wrong and against their own interests.
That’s really twisted if you think about it. And we know that the Left works hard at selling good-sounding ideas—ideas that have had and will have terrible consequences if and when implemented. I’m saying this is a New Yorker, hoping some of this gets back to the mayor. At Independent Women, we unmask bad ideas that sound good, and when we see problems and where we see things being done badly, we provide better solutions. To the men in the room, I want to ask you, when you’ve told your wife or your girlfriend what to think, how well did that go down? Not so well. Yet that approach is the approach that nearly the entire conservative movement takes, telling people what to think and talking therefore only to the people who already agree with them. On the back of the $2 bill, if you ever get a chance to see a $2 bill, we’ve done 1818 painting and it’s not of the July 4th signing of the Declaration of Independence, which is what many people assume.
It’s actually June 28th, the presentation of the draft of the Declaration of the Independence to Congress. They hadn’t written it for the minority of people who already agreed with them. They did their work because they understood the importance of persuading others of the validity and importance of their cause. That’s what we, at Independent Women, do. We are dedicated to speaking beyond the base and encouraging more people to join our cause. We approach issues differently so that more people, especially women, but not exclusively women, will give up hearing. We listen and identify policy ideas and stories backed by data that will speak to people’s concerns while being consistent with our principles and good, real-world results. We know that it is not about us but about getting successful policies implemented through smart strategies.
I’m describing the ethic and approach that underpin Independent Women, and that is also a very good description of the incredible woman whom we celebrate tonight.
Susie Wiles changed the course of history. She did it quietly, behind the scenes, solving problems and creating a bigger coalition than anyone ever thought possible.
For four decades, Susie has been a political strategist, building winning campaigns and movements. Today, she is using these skills as the first female chief of staff to occupy the West Wing, overseeing White House operations, personnel, and policy operations.
Not only did she run the campaign brilliantly, she is—hands down, in my opinion—the best chief of staff of my lifetime. Why? Because she is all about getting stuff done quietly, effectively, and with impact, just as we at Independent Women do.
Part of what makes her so effective is that she is also known as a dedicated mother and mentor to the people around her. Her staff love her and appreciate how considerate she is of them all the time. She is tough, but the kind of tough that is about getting the best in people, which is exactly the kind of woman that this award was meant to recognize.
The Barbara K. Olson Woman of Valor Award is named after Barbara K. Olson, who died on September 11th aboard the plane that crashed into the Pentagon. Barbara was a co-founder of Independent Women’s Forum and was herself a tireless champion of limited government and individual liberty. Barbara was the quintessential happy warrior, known as much for her eviscerating arguments as for her style and quick smile.
Independent Women’s Forum has bestowed this award on some of the most influential female leaders in the country, including Miranda Devine, Secretary Betsy DeVos, Kim Strassel, Kellyanne Conway, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and Condoleezza Rice, among others.
Tonight’s awardee is wholly deserving of joining these impressive ranks.
Susie Wiles, please join me on stage to accept the Barbara K. Olson Woman of Valor Award.
So I just want to say, before we get started with our conversation, Susie, that there was one person who couldn’t be here tonight. He likes us and he loves you, and he wanted to send a message. So I’d like you to take a look at the video monitors. We have a little message for you before we get started.
[Video Message from President Donald Trump]
Hello to Heather Higgins and everyone gathered at the Independent Women’s Forum Annual Awards Gala. It’s a great event. Thrilled to join you in congratulating my great chief of staff—she’s amazing—Susie Wiles in receiving your annual Woman of Valor award, the woman of valor, that is Susie come to think of it. Not only is Susie the first female chief of staff in American history. She’s also one of the best White House chiefs of staff ever in history. I say the best, actually. I’m tremendously grateful for her friendship, loyalty, and support every single day. She’s a real professional. It’s been especially inspiring to see her courage and toughness in recent weeks as she’s been winning a battle with cancer, winning it decisively. It was an early diagnosis, so she’s going to be in great shape. Susie played a key role in every one of my campaigns for president, but especially in 2024, when she helped lead us to perhaps the most consequential election victory in modern times.
Everything we have done here in the White House has been with her help and her leadership. She’s respected by everybody. Every one of these people, they respect Susie. We have a problem, I say “go to Susie.” We owe her tremendous debt, and what she’s done is just incredible for our country. Thank you, Susie, and congratulations.
Heather Higgins:
We’re so grateful that you did that, and I hope you didn’t know about it. We tried really hard to circumvent you.
Susie Wiles:
I walked in when he was filming it, but I didn’t know what it was for, and then I got dumped out the back door. I didn’t know.
Heather Higgins:
We’re very pleased. It’s very hard to get anything done in the White House without Susie knowing.
We here at Independent Women are huge Susie Wiles fans, and we’re so grateful that you accepted this honor.
Part of the reason that we think you’re so amazing is that it’s never about you. It’s all about getting things done, being impactful, and keeping things quiet while layers of smart strategy get a chance to unfold. There’s tremendous discipline and focus required for that, and it’s so rare.
We’re in Washington, where the oxygen of the place is self-aggrandizement. Why is it that you don’t need the external validation that so many people in politics seem to need, that we see in politics? And do you think perhaps being a woman helps in that regard?
Susie Wiles:
Well, first of all, thanks to all who took the time to be here. I’m very honored. I looked at the list of people who had been honored before me and thought, “Oh boy, I don’t deserve this ‘rarefied air.’” Then I got here and saw a tactical team with the Secretary of War, so we should all feel very safe.
It’s not about me. That’s why it’s easy to have it not about me. I’m not on the ballot. I just have a team, and the team is incredible. Many of them have been with me and with President Trump for years.
So it’s easy to not be personal about it because it just doesn’t require that. And yes, it probably is easier because I’m a woman. But honestly, just look at the facts. If you make it about you, you’re taking away from what the cause is really about. So I don’t find it hard.
Heather Higgins:
Well, we appreciate it, and I believe that is truly the winning strategy.
When you look back at your early career, did you ever imagine that you might end up in this kind of role, shaping the future of our country? Did that path reveal itself over time, or did you only find out yesterday?
Susie Wiles:
No, I didn’t. I was going to be an English teacher, and happenstance led me to an early political job. I’ve been in and out of the field for some years, but this is the path God chose for me. And I’m here, and I’m doing the best I can every day.
That’s what my recommendation is to everybody: show up, do your best, work hard, have a great team around you, and success will follow.
Heather Higgins:
Was there a defining moment that led you to think this might be where you wanted to be and what you wanted to do?
Susie Wiles:
No. I worked as an intern on the Hill, a paid intern, when I was young because I could make more money there than waiting tables—obviously.
Heather Higgins:
And what about White House chief of staff? When did that call to you?
Susie Wiles:
I thought about it sort of the last week of the campaign—whether I would want to stay in Washington, whether I would go back to Florida. I didn’t think deeply about it.
And then a couple of days after the campaign was over, the president called me in and said, “I hear you don’t want to be my chief of staff.” I said, “Where did you get that?” So here I am.
Heather Higgins:
Was there a risk you took that, in hindsight, really shaped the trajectory of your career?
Susie Wiles:
Early on, I took a number of years off work at all, and certainly in this business. And when I went back to work after my children went to school, my first job was working for a good friend of mine—because she was a good friend of mine, but she was also a member of Congress. And I’ve kind of been in that pathway ever since.
In recent years, the biggest risk I took was, I think, in 2016. I had a couple of Floridians in the presidential race who I really adored—one of them is the Secretary of State now. Yet I wanted a disruptor. I looked around at the disruptors in the field and said, “I think Donald Trump’s the one.”
We were the 17th string. We were the last people chosen, the last people with experience. Yet here we are. That was a big risk, but it certainly changed everything for me—and made life completely different and better than I ever could have imagined.
Heather Higgins:
What did you see that made you think that a disruptor was what was needed?
Susie Wiles:
I’m a lifelong Republican. I’ve always been a traditional Republican, and it just wasn’t working in my mind. I thought we had to do it differently, but it has to be a Republican.
There was a huge field—for those of you who remember that race, it was quite contentious. But literally, I looked around and said, “Which one do I think can win and is legitimately a disruptor?” I think we all agree that President Trump is that person.
Heather Higgins:
You’ve been in this game a long time, and part of that world is navigating relationships with an often-hostile media. The president and his team regularly are attacked by the media, and you came in yourself under a pretty nasty attack last year.
So as you found yourself targeted, has that experience given you a different understanding of how to navigate, and how conservatives should navigate, those relationships?
Susie Wiles:
Back in my career, back in the day, I did press work. That was my job. I was a press secretary and communications director. At the local and state level, you usually have good relationships most often with the press that cover you.
So I was a little bit surprised at the intensity of the vitriol—not only for me, but for many members of the cabinet and even our staff. You have to grow thick skin, which is not easy, and I can’t say I’ve fully succeeded there.
I resist the temptation to correct everything that is wrong, because you’d spend all your day and night doing that. I stay off Twitter because it makes me crazy when I see all that criticism. But honestly, you just have to get up every day and do your job again, and not let the critics get to you. Easier said than done, but that is my way of operating.
Heather Higgins:
So are you still back-channeling with media, or are you now much more careful about who you talk to?
Susie Wiles:
Much more careful. If I do it, I get in trouble at the White House. So I don’t. I have a couple of friends in the reporter ranks, but we keep to friendship.
Heather Higgins:
So we should assume that if there is a quiet conversation with the media, it’s something the president wants for them to get out there. JD Vance told the story … obsession with an idea delivered in a way…. Have there been many of those?
Susie Wiles:
Not too many. Not for me. [inaudible]
Heather Higgins:
I’ve thought about what it must be like to work in that White House. Maybe you’re one of those lucky people who only needs four to five hours of sleep at night. But if not, or even if you do, how do you manage working for somebody who never sleeps and operates on Trump time? How do all the normal mortals need to function, manage that?
Susie Wiles:
I am not one of those people that doesn’t need sleep. I actually very much. During the campaign, I’d go to sleep early, and Dan Scavino—who I’m sure many of you know—is a night owl, so we divide it. And I’d get the early calls and he gets the late calls. And that’s the way we sort of navigated over a couple of years, making sure we all get enough sleep, even if the president doesn’t.
Heather Higgins:
Is there a misconception you often wish people better understood about the White House and how it functions?
Susie Wiles:
Yes. We work hard. Many people make sacrifices. They have young families, they have marriages they’re trying to keep intact, and there’s just not the ability to prioritize that. So when people come to work at the White House, they’re giving up a lot. So when people talk about the “rarefied air” we live in, that’s true, but it doesn’t come without a price. We’re honored to pay it, but I wish people understood more what seven days, and fourteen days, and twenty-one days of eighteen-hour workdays do to you. It takes a bit away. And so we’re not spoiled. We work in a beautiful, beautiful place for a wonderful person, but we work as hard as anybody I’ve ever known, and certainly as hard as I’ve ever worked.
Heather Higgins:
Can you share a moment that didn’t go as planned, and what leadership looked like in that moment?
Susie Wiles:
That’s every day.
Heather Higgins:
Tell us a story.
Susie Wiles:
I can’t tell you a story. Well, there are some stories.
The Trump White House is nimble. It’s dynamic. That’s the nice way of saying it changes every day. I had a head start because I went to work almost full-time for the president in 2021, so I’ve been watching this movie a while. You just have to roll with it.
You never know when he comes downstairs with in the morning, but whatever it is, you have to move it forward and deal with it. The surprises are not surprises—they are what they are every day.
Heather Higgins:
The kind of work you do requires intensity, resilience, and long stretches of pressure, just by definition. What helps you stay grounded in the midst of it all?
Susie Wiles:
Well, when you introduced yourself, you talked about your children. One of them actually works for us, is that right? One of your children works with us?
Heather Higgins:
She may even be here. Or I don’t know if Kevin Hassett let her go. I see a—Delaney.
Delaney:
Hi mom.
Heather Higgins:
Yah, so one is a Marine. One is working in the White House. The third one jokes that the first two are on the public dole, so he has to be in the private sector, making money. So he’s a startup in Austin.
Susie Wiles:
I have two daughters, grown daughters, and a grandson. I wake up every morning thinking about what I can do, in my little piece of the world, to make the world and their lives better going forward, into the future. That’s enough to motivate me. Others may need more—I don’t.
Heather Higgins:
I appreciate you saying that, but I’ve got to make—there’s something you may do when you need time to reset and recharge. What would that be? What’s the Susie Wiles recharge-your-batteries strategy?
Susie Wiles:
I love to walk wherever I am. I find a good path and walk. I have a very eclectic music playlist that I listen to that has nothing to do with politics or anything. I think the most recent song on it is probably from 2000.
Heather Higgins:
Having worked so closely with President Trump, what’s something he insisted on during the campaign that made you think, “That’s very on-brand, but I did not see that coming”?
Susie Wiles:
Well, it’s no secret in this room—and I see Todd Blanche here—that we’ve had a few trials. Courtroom time. One particular trial, at the end of the day, he walked outside and talked to the press, and just sort of held court with the press outside this nasty, dirty courthouse in lower Manhattan.
I thought, “Why are you doing this?” And yet it was so on-brand. Of course he did that at the end of the day—for weeks running. There are so many examples of that, where he doesn’t do what you think he’s going to do, but it is so him, and it works so well.
Heather Higgins:
When he decided to serve McDonald’s or drive a garbage truck, was that his idea?
Susie Wiles:
No. I spoke earlier that we’re a team, and that was their idea. The McDonald’s thing, that was just sales itself—he eats it every single day. The garbage truck—I see Brett Powell here—I think she had something to do with the garbage truck.
Heather Higgins:
When you first started working with President Trump, what was the biggest “this is not what I was briefed for” moment?
Susie Wiles:
I did not go into the White House in ‘16. After the 2020 election, I worked for—I ran Florida. And then when he came back to Florida after leaving the White House, he called me and invited me to dinner. I was not in the inner circle. I was overwhelmed and couldn’t imagine why.
I drove down to Mar-a-Lago—which I think he thought I live ten minutes from there, but it’s really four hours. We had a lovely dinner, and at the end of it, he wanted to know why he won Florida but maybe struggled in some other states. And I think we’re gonna find out he actually did win, but I wrote an after-action report, gave it to him to read, and as I was going out the door, he said, “I have a PAC, and I think it has money in it, but I’m not sure, and I’m not sure who works there. Can you take that over?”
And I said, “Well, sir, I have a job.”
He said, “No, you can do it in your free time, you get it done.” And I did.
Heather Higgins:
He definitely gets value for money, doesn’t he?
Susie Wiles:
He does.
Heather Higgins:
…seconds of your time for two questions?
Susie Wiles:
Of course.
Heather Higgins:
As you reflect on your career, what is a lesson you’ve learned and wished you had learned earlier?
Susie Wiles:
I really have always believed in the concept of a team. I was raised in a family of athletes who understood the value of all of that. I raised my own girls that way.
But the full extent of what you can do when you have good people around you who don’t want to get any credit and just want to put the best product out that you possibly can, is something I wish I’d known in my twenties. I didn’t. I do today, so I think that’s what I wish I had known a little earlier.
Heather Higgins:
And finally, when you think about the legacy of your work, what do you hope people will say about your impact?
Susie Wiles:
I haven’t thought about that—and I’m not leaving anytime soon.
I guess I want to be known as somebody who was predictable, steady, considerate of everybody—the people that worked with me and even the people that maybe opposed me. Or us.
We’ve moved forward at a pace that’s almost inconceivable, and yet we continue to do that. And I’m proud of our ability to pull everything together to get that done.
I also—and I think I can say this—I got a cancer diagnosis nine weeks ago. I come to work every day, I do my job, I don’t complain, and I think that sets an example, too, for the people I work with.
Heather Higgins:
We give out awards to honor people, but truly, I think it is we who are honored by your accepting this award. I’d like you all to join me in one more round of applause for Susie Wiles.