Knives will be out for one of the few people Trump trusts

Everyone loves a good political whodunnit. But in Washington this week they're playing a slight variant of that game; it's a why-she-dunnit. The who is Susie Wiles, Donald Trump's fearsome, efficient, no-nonsense chief of staff.

- JON SOPEL

The why is why did she sit down for a whole series of on-the-record interviews with Vanity Fair to give her unvarnished views on the characters of the administration and the way policies were being implemented?

It’s a mystery.

One of the reasons why this second Trump administration has been so successful - compared to the first - is largely down to her. She is the dealmaker extraordinaire behind the scenes. The president has even called her Susie Trump - and what bigger compliment could she be paid than that? This from the man who loves his surname so much it attaches to hotels, golf courses, and soon to the iconic arts centre in DC, the Kennedy Centre which is apparently set to become the Trump Kennedy Centre.

It’s not just that she keeps the competing egos around Trump in check. She’s even able to tell Trump to rein it in. This week the president gave a televised address to the nation about America’s struggles with the cost of living. Sure, bits of it sounded like one of his rally speeches. But he stuck to the autocue script. He didn’t ad lib. He didn’t veer from the message. She had told him firmly he had to stick to the words in front of him, and he couldn’t go over 20 minutes. He stuck to time; he did exactly as he was told.