#zealots

Brian Krassenstein :: @krassenstein

BREAKING: Vanity Fair author Chris Whipple just revealed stunning details from his conversations with Susie Wiles, Trump’s chief of staff. Here’s what she told him: - Wiles said she has read the Epstein documents and acknowledged that Trump’s name is in them.

- Wiles said she urged Trump NOT to pardon the most violent January 6 rioters. He ignored her advice.

- She admitted Trump is looking for retribution...“when there’s an opportunity, he will go for it.”

- She tried to convince Trump to stop “score-settling” against political enemies after 90 days in office. That effort failed because Trump’s desire for retribution never stopped.

- Wiles directly contradicted Trump’s claims about Bill Clinton, stating there is “no evidence” Clinton ever visited Jeffrey Epstein’s private island.

- She described Trump as having “an alcoholic’s personality.” Wiles said her ability to work with him comes from growing up with an alcoholic father, the sportscaster Pat Summerall.

- On Vice President JD Vance, Wiles said he has “been a conspiracy theorist for a decade,” and that his conversion from Trump critic to loyalist was political, driven by his Senate ambitions rather than principle.

- She described Elon Musk as “an avowed ketamine user,” “an odd, odd duck,” whose actions were often not “rational” and left her “aghast.”

- She called budget director Russell T. Vought a “right-wing absolute zealot.”

- Wiles defended USAID, saying that “anyone who has paid attention to government knows they do very good work.”

- She said Attorney General Pam Bondi “completely whiffed” the handling of the Epstein files, explaining: “First she gave binders full of nothingness. Then she claimed the witness list or client list was on her desk. There is no client list

— and it sure as hell wasn’t on her desk.” - She said the administration needed to “look harder” at deportations to avoid mistakes.

- Referring to two mothers who were arrested and deported with their children after voluntarily attending routine immigration meetings, Wiles said: “I can’t understand how you make that mistake — but somebody did.”

- She tried unsuccessfully to get Trump to delay major tariffs, citing a “huge disagreement” among his advisers.

ifa lay out

Zealots

The Zealots were a group of Jews who began to emerge as a religious/political movement around the beginning of the 1st century CE. They strongly opposed Roman rule and turned on everyone, including other Jews, who cooperated with Rome. A subgroup of them, known as the Sicarii, frequently attacked Romans and those considered to work for them.