A federal investigation has been launched after elected officials and other prominent figures were contacted by an imposter posing as White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, reports said late last week.
“They breached the phone; they tried to impersonate her,” President Trump told reporters. “Nobody can impersonate her. There’s only one Susie.” Trump added that she’s an “amazing woman” who “can handle” the situation.
A White House official confirmed the investigation on Friday, following a report by the Wall Street Journal that business leaders and politicians—including governors, senators, and members of Congress—began receiving texts and calls from someone who had apparently hacked into Wiles’ personal phone, gaining access to her contact list.
The official clarified that it was Wiles’ personal phone, not her government-issued device, that was compromised.
One of the messages reportedly included a list of individuals the impersonator claimed should be pardoned, while another contained a request for a cash transfer.
Wiles has since personally reached out to her colleagues to alert them of the breach, though the total number of people contacted by the impersonator remains unknown, the New York Daily News reported.
The incident follows an FBI warning earlier this month about a campaign involving text and voice messages from unidentified “malicious actors” impersonating senior U.S. government officials.
Meanwhile, reports indicated last week that the White House is close to unveiling a new seating arrangement for the briefing room—a change that might see some major outlets lose their traditional front-row spots as more MAGA-friendly allies are being added in the room.
The administration plans to establish and enforce its seating chart, a role that the journalist-led White House Correspondents’ Association has managed for decades.
A senior White House official told the outlet that the Trump administration is aiming for a “fundamental restructuring of the briefing room, based on metrics more reflective of how media is consumed today.”
“The goal isn’t merely favorable coverage,” the official told Axios. “It’s truly an honest look at consumption [of the outlets’ coverage]. Influencers are important, but it’s tough because they aren’t [equipped to provide] consistent coverage. So the ability to cover the White House is part of the metrics.”
“Major legacy outlets will still be included. But expect some to have diminished visibility compared with their customary spots in the first few rows. We want to balance disruption with responsibility,” the official said, per Axios.
The change is likely to provoke a strong backlash from reporters already upset by the White House now determining who comprises the press pool—the select group of journalists granted access to the president at events that can’t accommodate many. Critics argue that the Trump administration is trying to mute its detractors while promoting its supporters.
“This move tears at the independence of a free press in the United States,” WHCA president Eugene Daniels whined in response to the White House taking over the press pool assignments. “It suggests the government will choose the journalists who cover the president. In a free country, leaders must not be able to choose their own press corps.”
Daniels didn’t go on to list any actual instances of how the Trump White House moves limited the “independence” of the “free press,” however. Also, the White House is not barring any outlet from ‘covering the president.’
Politico added: “The administration’s embrace of alternative conservative outlets continues a pattern from Trump’s first term, but the divide between the MAGA-friendly media and their more mainstream counterparts has become visible in the briefing room in a way it wasn’t before. Without dedicated seats of their own, a group of about a dozen new media reporters have taken to gathering in the ‘conservative corner’ … along the far wall of the briefing room, near the ‘new media seat’ that Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, has set aside for a rotating cast of alternative outlets and conservative influencers.”