Leading Wall Street executives have often turned to Wiles and her staff. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon and his team have been in regular contact with her, as well as her former deputy, James Blair, according to the Journal’s reporting. Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser has also had some interactions with both Wiles and incoming chief of staff Stephen Miller, according to people familiar with the matter.

Wiles announced her departure Friday in a statement on X, saying the day would be her last as chief of staff. She wrote that serving the president “has been the honor of a lifetime” and said that while her role may be changing, her “commitment to the President and the mission never will.” Trump said Wiles will move to his political operations.

Throughout her tenure, Trump’s departing chief of staff became a sounding board for corporations and advocacy groups trying to influence the administration, according to people familiar with the matter. Lobbyists and surrogates for some of the world’s largest companies had a go-to strategy when they saw no other path to head off a damaging policy from Trump: call Wiles. Her departure will leave many businesses searching for a new interlocutor within the White House, according to people familiar with the matter.

It was Wiles, along with Vice President JD Vance, who helped broker a truce between Trump and Elon Musk after their public falling out, according to people familiar with the matter. Musk recently poured roughly $500 million into Republican midterm efforts.

Wiles was known to encourage companies to invest domestically. After a foreign auto manufacturer announced earlier this year that a new plant was being built in the United States, Wiles texted “thank you” to officials at the company, according to a person who received the text message.

Corporate entreaties to Wiles sometimes failed. Shortly after Trump imposed sweeping tariffs last year, a healthcare trade group reached out to Wiles and advocated for the administration to pare back the trade levies, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. The tariffs continued despite the lobbying effort, the person said.

Chief executives might not find as sympathetic an ear in Miller, according to the Journal’s reporting, which describes him as known to be publicly combative with his enemies and as not always having had friendly ties to businesses. America First Legal Foundation, the nonprofit group Miller founded, has previously filed complaints against corporations including Nike and Disney with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging discrimination in hiring practices.

Miller has also been adamant about supporting two policies that may affect business: the president’s aggressive immigration agenda and his tariff regime. After Trump’s initial round of tariffs last year, Miller said at a press conference that the administration wasn’t going to provide middle-class tariff relief but instead tax cuts that Trump signed into law months later.

White House spokeswoman Danielle Alvarez said that both Wiles and Miller have “tremendous” relationships. “This administration will continue building powerful partnerships, advancing the president’s America First agenda, and delivering historic wins for the American people,” Alvarez said. Wiles didn’t return requests for comment.

A Florida native, Wiles has been the president’s top aide since 2021 and was the first woman to serve as White House chief of staff. She gained Trump’s trust by working for him in 2016 and helping to win Florida, and she served as Trump’s campaign manager in 2024. Wiles, 69, held on to the job far longer than her predecessors during Trump’s first term. The Journal reported that Wiles has been one of the most influential voices on foreign and domestic policy decisions during Trump’s second term and has tried to create a less chaotic climate inside the White House compared with Trump’s first term.

She has a deep bench of contacts in Republican circles, both in Washington and in Florida, where she spent years as a political power broker. Wiles previously worked as a lobbyist at Ballard Partners, a Florida-based firm that has become among the best-connected lobbying shops in Washington under the Trump administration. The firm was founded by Brian Ballard, one of Trump’s top donors in the 2024 presidential campaign, who has reaped rewards from his access to the White House.

Critics of Wiles say that she and other officials sometimes gave priority to business relationships for political purposes over completing the president’s agenda. Calley Means, a former senior adviser to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said of Wiles and her allies during a Joe Rogan podcast published Friday: “They would often say that we can’t do certain things because that would hurt special interest configurations for the midterms.”

Means accused Wiles of succumbing to pressure from lobbyists to stall efforts to make food healthier for children and said her team supported relaxed standards on fruit-flavored nicotine products, a top industry priority. “Susie said to me many times: ‘We need money for the midterms, Calley. We need money for the midterms,’” Means said on the podcast.

Wiles has espoused more moderate views on immigration than Miller and often wanted the administration to temper some of its more drastic moves. Her influence increasingly irritated people on the party’s hard-right flank, who called for her ouster, according to the Journal. Some of her critics had shared information with the president alleging that people close to Wiles were making money off him, according to people familiar with the matter.