As we’ve reported in detail, the mainstream media tends to fan the flames regarding supposed “tension” among members of the Trump administration, as illustrated by critical pieces about Secretary of State Marco Rubio and various individuals in the Trump team.
One of the more infamous instances involved Rubio and Steve Witkoff, the United States Special Envoy to the Middle East, who has been a longtime close associate of President Trump. A CNN article from March asserted without evidence that Rubio was irked because he supposedly believed he was being “overshadowed” by Witkoff.
Both Witkoff and Rubio blew the report up soon after, with Rubio in particular tweeting that “CNN is an anti-Trump gossip tabloid that uses thinly sourced stories to generate clicks and try to make trouble. Witkoff is one of the people I work with the CLOSEST on our team. These people are pathetic.”
The most recent installment in the mainstream media’s “feud” narrative comes from Vanity Fair, which released an interview conducted over 11 months with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, who characterized the article as “a disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the finest President, White House staff, and Cabinet in history.” Wiles also stated that “significant context was disregarded” in the piece.
A number of Trump’s cabinet members have come to Wiles’ support, including Vice President JD Vance. When asked about a quote from Wiles during an economic speech he delivered in Allentown, PA, on Tuesday, where she claimed that Vance had been “a conspiracy theorist for a decade.” Vanity Fair failed to provide any context for this remark, which supports Wiles’ assertion about how statements can be taken out of context.
Regarding Vance, he excelled in his reply by turning the question back on the reporter, highlighting that the “conspiracy theorist” banter had been an ongoing joke between Wiles and him for several months, and noting that he was deemed a conspiracy theorist only when the theory turned out to be accurate.
Some of the instances he referenced included one about the well-documented cooperation between the media and the Biden-Harris administration to obscure former President Joe Biden’s health issues, as well as another concerning Biden’s four-year legal campaign against Trump in anticipation of the 2024 presidential election. Vance responded:
For example, I believed in the crazy conspiracy theory back in 2020 that it was stupid to mask 3-year-olds at the height of the Covid pandemic, that we should actually let them develop some language skills.
You know, I believed in this crazy conspiracy theory that the media and the government were covering up the fact that Joe Biden was clearly unable to do the job.
And I believed in the conspiracy theory that Joe Biden was trying to throw his political opponents in jail rather than win an argument against his political opponents.
So, at least on some of these conspiracy theories, it turns out that a conspiracy theory is just something that was true six months before the media admitted it, and that’s my understanding.
Vance also effusively praised Wiles, adding that she would never be one to work against Trump and his America First agenda nor the interests of the American people. He then concluded by adding: “If any of us have learned a lesson from that Vanity Fair article, I hope that the lesson is we should be giving fewer interviews to mainstream media outlets.”
Vice President JD Vance is asked about the quotes from Susie Wiles in the Vanity Fair article ??
"Sometimes I am a conspiracy theorist, but I only believe in the conspiracy theories that are true."
"For example, I believed in the crazy conspiracy theory back in 2020 that it… pic.twitter.com/XJ8MRfNjUB
— Andrew Kolvet (@AndrewKolvet) December 16, 2025
You understand that these people are called “enemies of the people” for a reason.
