michigan. it's georgia. it's wisconsin. we are talking 30,000 ev jobs in michigan, 40,000 in georgia, is going to have a very hard time keeping that promise. >> we will see if it is just for elon musk and not for anyone else. >> all i had to say is that the beatles should not be in the running for the album of the year. beyonce and taylor swift, they just had their moment and make a second category for a.i. music. >> cosign on that. like we should just not put them in the same category. cnn's coverage continues next. what was said and what wasn't about trump's prior promises to quickly end the

war. details on what federal prosecutors say was a plot by iran to assassinate trump before the election. jack smith is winding down the government's cases against the president-elect. good evening. president-elect trump prepares to name more people to his administration, perhaps including some of the names that we'll show you, there is new reporting on some of the moves he's already making. as well as talks that some in the government are having about worst case scenarios. defense officials tell us that informal discussions are underway about how the department might respond if the new president orders active duty troops on to u.s. streets or fires large numbers of non-political staffers. that news coming as we learn when the president-elect spoke by phone with ukraine's president on wednesday, elon musk joined the call. critical in the fight there. the wall street journal reported musk had been in regular contact with vladimir

putin. he and the president-elect have talked publicly about ukraine making concessions to end the war with mr. trump arguing recently ukraine should have made a deal with moscow before russian troops invaded. >> any deal, even the worst deal would have been better than what we have right now. if they made a bad deal, it would have been much better and it didn't need to happen. those buildings are down. those cities are gone. they're gone. we continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refuses to make a deal. zelenskyy. >> according to axios, trump told zelenskyy he would support ukraine but did not go into details on policy. reports ukraine's president came away from the call somewhat reassured by what he heard. behind the scenes there's a lot to get to tonight. how much

do you read into the fact that elon musk was on the phone call with zelenskyy? >> for people who have been covering trump and this campaign over the last few months it's not surprising. because trump has become quite enamored with elon musk and often wants to keep him involved in the conversations and discussions he's been having. he was heavily involved the last few weeks of the campaign. certainly in pennsylvania. having him on the call with zelenskyy just speaks to elon musk's influence and what that could look like in a second trump term. obviously he has stake in the game here since ukraine is using his starlink satellite communications service which i should note that's a contract with the pentagon that expires at the end of next month. we'll see what that looks like after that. obviously he has a lot of stake in this game. for his presence to be on that call is notable because it's on with the world leader and the president-elect and the world's richest man who has major defense contracts. it speaks to how much influence

elon musk has right now in trump's orbit. >> what is the jockeying for position like right now in this transitional period at mar-a-lago? >> it's moving very quickly. that is what almost every single person i've spoken to about this about just what's the current state of the jockeying. it changes sometimes by the hour. who's up and who is down as trump is viewing who to put in these positions. something he's taking seriously this time around, he says his staffing choices in his first term were some of his biggest mistakes citing people like bill barr. so he's taking it very seriously. because of that, people know that in order to influence trump you often need to be right in front of him. either on the phone or in front of him having these conversations. so there is a lot of jockeying happening behind the scenes. a lot of alliances are being formed between people trying to say if it we stick together we can kill this other person off for this job. so often when trump makes these calls it depends on

the person who has the biggest influence on him when it comes to that. >> are people literally at mar-a-lago kind of there hoping to get face time? >> they're all over palm beach. it's remarkable. i spent a lot of time there when trump was president covering him. it's everywhere you go you see potential trump cabinet members or west wing officials hanging out at certain hotels or coffee shops or restaurants. a lot of them booked flights after tuesday night's win because they knew how important it was to be down there. it's hard to get trump on the phone. a lot of them are just showing up and trying to get in front of him. >> as we mentioned cnn is reporting pentagon officials have been holding informal discussions about how the defense department would respond if president trump issued orders to deploy active duty troops domestically and fire large swaths of apolitical staffers which are possibilities that came up on the campaign trail. what is your sense of how much he wants -- how likely any of that might be? >> i think it's very likely. i think that when it comes to,

you know, the way they talk about it is these career employees working at federal agencies. when you talk to a lot of those people, they're not majorly political. but they're people who have worked there for a long time. thousands of positions and they have said frankly they don't know how certain facets of the pentagon are going to work if those people just disappear in two weeks from now. i think that's a question of how much of the hollowing out they do that trump and elon musk promised to do when it comes to the federal government. if if the dod specifically, who trump is going to pick as his defense secretary. he was very frustrated with several of the ones he picked the last time he was in office. he took to at the end of mark esper's term he was saying he was calling him mark yesper and ridiculing him outright in public. he certainly wants someone that he has more cohesion with as trump people would put it. essentially someone who does more of what he wants and less

pushing back at the pentagon. >> we'll see you at the top of the 9:00 hour. former trump national security advisor john bolton. joining us now, cnn political commentators. scott, elon musk obviously critical in the campaign. what do you make of him joining this call. he was also on a call with the leader of turkey. >> doesn't surprise me at all, actually. donald trump can put anyone on the phone he wants. i assume a lot of these calls are congratulatory in nature. as further more policy driven calls take place i would expect other policy and administration officials or designated officials on the calls. but at some juncture trump won and he's got a cough draw of advisors that's going to include elon musk. >> i think it's is a little

weird. the other day i saw a picture of trump with his family except melania but elon musk was there. there's also conflicts of interest. this is somebody who has contracts with the department of defense. this is somebody who has starlink that's a big part of what's going on in ukraine. i find it a little weird. but as scott said, they won, he gets to do whatever he wants. if he wants elon everywhere all the time, that's what's going to happen. >> i mean it is unusual but not surprising, i guess. >> i think elon musk will go down as the single most important and influential person in the trump administration. he is in charge now of the information flow with x or misinformation sometimes. he is in charge as we saw with what's going on in ukraine. he's basically in charge of the entire

communications system over there. it lives and dies with him. apparently president trump-elect is going to put him in charge of slashing costs and getting into the federal bureaucracy and trying to figure out what departments and people to cut. i mean he's basically going to be in charge and influencing every aspect of the government. and i think he will be the most influential advisor nonpaid that trump will have. >> interesting then because there is people who have to go through senate confirmation. people who, you know, have to submit all their background information. it seems like there's going to be a number of people just with kind of a portfolio without any really oversight. >> you're so old fashioned, anderson. vetting of people to make sure they don't have conflicts of interest or don't have foreign governments with dirt on them? that's old fashioned. you win, you do what

you want. that's the new way. reality is we're in a new -- people started calling me down. this is no big deal. this is all normal. this is totally weird. this is bizarre. the privatization of certain parts of american life including our space program has real upsides. because elon musk has done an incredible job with the space program. the problem is he also has a conflict of interest with having this many government contracts. ordinarily you wouldn't want anybody with those conflicts of interest helping to make policy. but we don't care any more, apparently. there are down sides to this new way. and also elon musk has a disproportionat e amount of power and leverage over ukraine. ukraine wanted to go much more hard against russia and elon musk said you cannot go hard against russia. you have a private citizen

dictating the terms of a war. sitting next to the president of the united states on a phone call. this is all weird. it might work out great. let's not pretend this is normal. this is all really weird stuff. >> the thing about the pentagon discussions at the pentagon. i don't know what level this is. i guess it's understandable they'd have these discussions. scott, is it -- >> look, i don't like this. what's donald trump supposed to think? he's sitting down there president-elect and he's got to read in the newspaper that the unelected bureaucracy is having meetings about how to thwart the commander in chief. i don't care if it's at the pentagon or hud or ag department. it doesn't matter. the unelected bureaucracy of this president answers to the leadership that we just did. and if you were in his shoes and you just won the popular vote with a clear mandate and now you've got to read that

unelected bureaucrats are plotting against you. what would you think? >> i think there's a reason for that though. >> if they have problems they should not have meetings that then leak to the press. if they have ideas r things they should call the president's office and say hey, we'd like to have some discussions for planning purposes. but secret meetings that leak. terrible way to get off to a start with the administration. >> i agree that's maybe not the best way to do it. trump has set them up to be in this situation where they think he's coming after them. he's talked about -- >> he won. he's the president. >> first of all, we are discussing something we don't really know details of. you're portraying it like it's a cabal of people plotting this. for the flip side, for planning purposes they want to figure out if active duty troops are called what mechanisms are there. what happens. if all these people are fired, don't they need to plan for this? >> i've been part of a

transition. every department should be right now making plans on what the handover is going to look like. should be having meetings. i think there's an added concern because of project 2025 and because some of the things that donald trump has said about eliminating and going after even career folks. what does that mean? when career folks who have the institutional memory all of a sudden gotten rid of. what does that mean? >> these career folks is what the steve bannons call the deep state. >> i think you're making an important point. i've heard from people who are just regular old career people. they went to college, they got a degree in political science and they've been working for the government for 14 years and now they're concerned that if it they don't swear a loyalty oath to donald trump. not the constitution, they might get fired. these are just regular people. maybe they voted for trump. maybe they didn't. this

is a new thing. if people are responding in ways that are different, it's because the president has said things that are different. when you're labeled deep state just because you got a job working in some bureau, that is scary for people. they're going to talk about it. >> now have senator mike lee who is up for potential high post with the president. you have him saying the executive branch should be able to take over the federal reserve. so already you have the fed chair saying over my dead body is that going to happen because it has to remain an independent. so already on just two days after the election we're talking about that. >> chairman of the federal reserve said he would not step down if donald trump wanted him to. >> so important because you don't want the president to be able to say hey, buddy, print up a bunch of money. you're going to really undermine the dollar on the world stage if the fed is just a puppet of the white house. we have these institutions that give us this great life. we don't know what

they are. it's like having a house and you don't know how it was built. >> if he wants to do all of this stuff we're talking about, get rid of some of those officials that are just regular people, he wants to do these things he has talked about doing. where is the check and balance? who is there? what is there to provide check and balance? there's no ethic czar. he's got the senate. he's going to have the house. the supreme court has given him immunity. he won the popular vote. who's going to -- like the real housewives would say, who's going to check me, boo? >> the president is the unitary executive over the executive branch. >> that's a theory. >> he should have wide latitude to operate the executive branch the way he sees fit. there is a separate branch of called the congress and the court. that's the way it's going to work. i think there's a lot of freaking out going on. >> yes. >> we just had the election on tuesday. >> i was freaking out then too. >> but he needs to be allowed

to build a government and democrats and the rest of the bureaucracy he may do things differently but that's no reason to try to thwart the duly elected president of the united states. >> unitary executive theory is a theory. not the theory we've operated under since fdr. you do not have the president of the united states asserting authority to fire everybody down to like the post office service people. they have civil service protection to prevent corruption. to prevent a president of the united states from being able to sell positions to people and that's what's being taken out. >> i think that he was given a mandate to do deportation first or handle immigration, tax cuts. i think those things will happen first. and i think the american people will be upset. they don't even understand the idea that he may be coming after federal employees nor do they care about it.

>> thank you. we'll be looking closer at the former president's successful effort to win support from black voters. next though, we're learning about the alleged iranian plot on trump's life. how authorities broke the case.

the 2024 campaign has been darkened. man was arrested before any shots were fired. today the justice department announced charges in another

alleged plot. this one hatched in iran to kill candidate trump. so what do we know about this plot? >> these are murder for hire charges issued against three men. these were orders from the iranian revolutionary guard. the rgc tasking a man with assassinating former now future president trump. now the orders were given, we understand to shakari who is an afghan national believed to be at large in iran. he actually spent time here in the u.s. growing up then he spent years in new york state prisons. that's where the feds believe he met many of his future accomplices including two co-defendants named in the documents unsealed today. now shakari allegedly had a meeting a month ago. he was told to come up with a plan to assassinate trump before the election. he was told you only have a week. if you don't do

it over the next week we'll wait until after the election. now he didn't plan on coming up with that plot within that time frame. we know that because he was actually speaking with the fbi not once but five times, anderson, in the past few months that's where they got a lot of this information. this plot as you know, not the first iranian plot to try to kill trump. a pakistani man was charged in it august with plans to assassinate government officials. the feds believe including former president trump. >> what are they saying about other targets? >> the main target was a very prominent antiregime human rights. she's been on cnn a bunch of times. shakari tasked his two accomplices here in the u.s. american nationals who are now in custody with tracking her down. they followed her to

fairfield university. they tried to track her down in brooklyn where they thought she lived. he was going to pay them $100 for carrying this out. that attack was never carried out. two others of note. two american jewish businessmen. they were going to offer $500,000 for each one. and then another plot they wanted mounted if you will in sri lanka to kill israeli tourists. last month the israeli and american governments issued warnings to their citizens there. now this raises all kinds of questions about what future president trump will do in response as we know he went after the head of the force.

>> how extraordinary is it to see a government targeting a former president? >> it's not the kind of thing you see every day. we have seen the iranians trying to act out in similar ways. targeting other political figures here in the united states. in 2011 we uncovered a plot put out there by the irgc force to assassinate the saudi ambassador to the united states in dc. similar plot the use of low level criminal to hire criminal associates and distance the plot from official irgc members. most of the complaint is focused on the plot to assassinate the dissident in brooklyn, new york. towards the end they talk about the tasking he gets in

this fall just towards in october to shift his focus to then candidate trump and it's not clear what action was actually undertaken to accomplish that. >> this is not the first type the iranian government has tried to kill president-elect trump. do you think there are more plots out there? >> absolutely. what stage they're in is unclear. iran has been bent on taking retribution for the killing of this irgc general the most important general in iran in charge of regional activities. all those proxy forces killing him in 2020, january january 2020. they've been at this. they have been active threats against a number of senior u.s. officials. those threats haven't gone away. some of those officials are not really fully protected the way that

president trump is. iran is emboldened. they are not going to give up. that is their mo. >> john, this seems like a dangerous thing for iran to be doing. desperate. >> if you look at these levels, you know, the fbi joint terrorism task force has worked iranian plots that andy and beth were just talking about. nypd intelligence bureau has done the surveillances there. arrested a guy. >> outside the activists house in brooklyn. >> exact ly. this has been a massive effort to protect her. that's a dissident. they are on their third or fourth plot for. elevating that to a former president, a president elect, a future president. you have to understand where iran's head

is here. in the intelligence analyst world they talk about mirror imaging. you can't assume that the adversary is going to think with the same logic you think about the same things. iran is in a position where they've vowed revenge from the ayatollah to answer for the death of sulemani. weave seen israeli decimate hezbollah. none of these revenge plots have worked out. something so foolish as to target someone. >> they look weak in the region? >> they're losing face. they're becoming a paper tiger. as unreasonable as it sounds to us, knowing the retaliation would be crushing

this is something they keep going at. >> the president-elect is not the only target of this. does it surprise you how many people were targeted? >> it's worth reading the affidavit supporting the indictment just to see the sort of detail that's in there. but yeah, they start out focused on the dissident and then the next thing you know if you believe the main defendant shakeri who is relating this to the fbi in a series of phone conversations that i can only describe as completely bizarre. >> explain why is this guy giving this evidence to the fbi? >> that's a great question and it's not explainable from the affidavit that we have. we know they talked something like five times. he's in tehran,

allegedly. conducting these revealing conversations directly with the fbi. >> so this guy is in iran talking to the fbi on the phone? >> yeah. these are telephonic interviews that took place over presumably sever weeks while he was in tehran. so there's a lot of questions there as to what would have been his motivation to ingauge directly with the fbi and reveal these incriminating facts. it's also clear from the affidavit the agent specifies on a number of facts he lied to them. he lied about some things. tried to correct things later. didn't correct everything. so his credibility is definitely questionable. now the statements he makes about targeting president-elect trump come at the end of the affidavit. it's two very brief paragraphs. there's no clear evidence that action was taken. so you really kind of have to, i'm not trying to minimize

this, it's incrediblably serious. if he's telling the truth is indicates iran has a persistent interest in trying to kill president trump. that's a terrible thing. but really we need to drill down on what the story is behind the source. >> thanks very much. coming up, new cnn projection in a key senate race. the president-elect once questioned whether vice president harris was black in response to a question about republicans calling her a dei hire. question may be why did his support among black men more than double? omar jimenez is taking a look at that tonight.

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including blurred vision, joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. don't change or stop asthma medicines without talking to your doctor. ask your eczema specialist about dupixent. it's taken a few days but we now have a cnn projection out of nevada. cnn can now project that incumbent democratic senator jackie rosen will survive a challenge. two races still outstanding. on the presidential side, just over one in five black men who voted for president-elect trump not much different than 2020. black

men accounted for 21% of the total vote this year. according to exit polls. one of the many hard facts facing democrats since tuesday night's election loss. >> have you actually noticed a shift among black men here in pennsylvania? >> definitely. >> what do you mean? >> when i was growing up people used to say republicans are for businesses and the democrats were for the regular working class. i don't think that's the same right now. i think maybe the roles have flipped a little bit. >> linwood holland is a republican ward leader in philadelphia. he has more republican voters in his community than he's used to. >> i've been in some places with some guys say you know i kind of like what he's doing. they might talk smack too, you know what i mean? doesn't bother them what he's saying. they like his macho image, i guess or whatever he's doing and they just want to be like i want to be part of something different. >> to be clear, the overwhelming majority of black

men in pennsylvania supported vice president kamala harris for president and supported president joe biden in 2020. now in 2020, based on cnn exit polls, just 10% of black men in pennsylvania supported donald trump. this election though that number jumped to 26% in the state. that's the biggest increase of any of the swing states. nationally though the shift was much smaller going from 19% of black men in 2020 to 21% in 2024. have you noticed a shift within the black community just in conversations you've had over the last four to eight years? >> absolutely. from 2016, you know, there was quiet support. it was ground breaking to vote another way. in 2020, it became more of a reality, you know, that there is an option here. in the next cycle if that

doesn't work then we do something else. but we can't be permanently buried in the voting one way for the rest of our lives. >> reporter: a trump ally and chair of the philadelphia black republican council. he also believes economic reasons ranked above anything the former president has said. >> you may misinterpret something someone says or aisle not voting for your attitude. i work for people that have not been as favorable to me as an individual. but at the end of the day i can get a check and feed my family. >> and omar joins us now. did anyone speak to other issues than the economy or was 9 economy front and center? >> it was really front and center. i asked one of them about the insurrection and to him he said it wasn't really an issue. i asked why. he said

because to him trump didn't explicitly call for violence despite the violence we did end up seeing from some of his supporters who were there to see him. now while those two voices and profiles weren't necessarily representative of the majority of black voters here in philadelphia or pennsylvania or black women more than 95% of black women supported vice president harris or president biden the past two cycles based on exit polling. it did give a little insight to some of what we saw from some black men this election cycle who as we see from some of the polling numbers this time seemed to up their support. now the president-elect trump. >> appreciate it. perspective now from van jones and republican strategy joe pinion. van, it's interesting the numbers in pennsylvania in particular versus nationwide. economy? >> all those people are sellouts. no, i'm just joking. that's the problem though. for

too long democrats were trying to bully and shame people into voting for a party that we forgot people are sitting on a white hot stove with not enough money in their pocket, a lot of problems that haven't been resolved when itment comes to education, community safety and people got tired. one of the things the democrat party is going to have to do is listen more and lecture less when it comes to african american men. >> yeah, look, i think we talked about it a little bit outside the old founding ethos is that black people have no permanent friends and no permanent enemies. the better part of the last 50 years black people have made a permanent friend of the democratic party. there are black men who realize that stove had got a little too hot. the outcomes they were looking for had not been achieved. when they decided to raise their hand and say we're considering going another way they were not greeted with concern, they were greeted with

disdain. they were called everything but a child god in the name of trying to preserve values that the democrats claim they want to uphold. those numbers show two things. the frustration of black men dealing with failing schools, dealing with issues with the criminal justice system. they show the republican party, turns out when you spend money in pursuit of the diligent and earnest way. that needle does move. as you saw, moved a lot more in peps and wisconsin than it did nationally because that's where the money was. >> did the republican party spend a lot of money reaching out? >> absolutely. we woke up in a body bag. the online outreach to african american men that targeted outreach, you began to see it in peoples conversation. you started hearing african american men who aren't even political saying the same exact thing over and over again because the republican party

was spending money on ads and outreach on streaming services and all kinds of stuff i'd never heard of before. kamala harris campaign wound up spending a bunch of money on tv ads. the tv ads sucked. they did not appeal to anyone but the data dummies were telling us these are great ads. nobody liked the ads. people are saying america is this racist, sexist, fascist country because of this outcome. that's not what happened. what happened is you had some key parts of this coalition, especially black men who were not handled properly. what was the agenda for immigrants? comprehensive immigration reform. what's the agenda for women? abortion. what's the agenda for transgender people? dignity and respect. what was the agenda for black men? you still can't tell me. that was a problem on our side. and when somebody walks away you can blame them,

you can blame yourself. the democratic party needs to start listening. black men have good ideas. black men have given the majority of our vote to this party. when you don't give people respect they don't stick around. >> is there something you think voters expect now from president-elect trump? >> look, i think there is a hard truth to american politics. if you feel as if nothing changes at least let me vote for the person where the rising tide can perhaps lift all boats. we did have 7 million jobs pre-covid under president trump. we did have record low employment. those are real numbers. you can try to poke holes in them, but the financial reality a lot of people were facing underneath president trump felt better and the inflation we have experienced certainly as a part of covid didn't help. >> the prices were higher but unemployment was lower and black wealth building was better under biden. the prices

are what did us in but let me just say one thing. donald trump has an opportunity to lock this in or or to screw it up. he will screw it up. the only thing donald trump promised black men. more stop and frisk. death penalty for drug sellers. mandatory stop and frisk. a whole bunch of other awful stuff. >> good times are over. no, look, he promised we're going to have school choice for every single family that calls this nation home. if you're looking at that, 80% of black children not able to do reading at grade level. that is far and beyond the greatest thing he can do for the black community. >> we'll see. van jones, appreciate it. what likely happens. house republicans put jack smith on notice. details next.

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heard my name! i swear to god, kevin! -we told you to wait in the car. everyone in my old squad has xfinity. less lag, better gaming! i'm gonna need to charge you for three people. we've got the clearest indication the federal prosecution. likely winding down. special counsel jack smith asked for and was granted a pause in all upcoming

deadlines. smith says he could have a decision on how to resolve the case by december 2nd. justice department policy precludes prosecution of sitting presidents. trump said he would fire smith if reelected. this is how smith characterized the formal charges. >> the attack on our nation's capitol was an unprecedented assault on the seat of american democracy. described in the indictment it was fueled by lies. lies by the defendant targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the u.s. government. nation's process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential. >> the letter reads in part the office of special counsel is not immune or above

accountability for its actions. effectively these cases are over. >> the federal cases are really over. there is never going to be a trial on january 6th. never going to be a trial on the classified information case. as for jack smith, his investigation is over. whether he personally gets fired, you know, he's a department of justice employee, he could maybe have a job there. he will leave that investigation at the beginning of the trump term next year. the interesting question is what does congress want with him? what does congressman jordan, you know, that's -- there's an implicit threat there. >> right. can he be jailed? >> you know, as long as the rule of law exists in something like its current form there is no way you can imprison jack smith. however, what you could do is call him in to testify and there i would say to the republicans be careful what you

ask for. because if jack smith has a forum to talk about these cases, i doubt it would go so well for president trump. >> the other question is will jack smith release a report putting evidence out there that he would have presented in court? >> yes, i think there's a certainty. in fact i'm sure what that office is doing now instead of preparing for trials they're preparing for the report. remember, robert mueller who was special counsel in the same -- under the same authority issued a big report. robert hu who investigated president biden's classified information. he also did a report. that report i am sure smith's team is rushing to get to merrick garland so he can release it before the next administration. >> would garland necessarily release it? >> i think it's a certainty. there might be some review for classified information, but he would certainly release it perhaps with some redactions.

>> it's interesting elon musk decided to weigh in on this in response to jim jordan's letter. he said jack smith's abuse of the justice system cannot go unpunished. >> this is consistent with that letter from jim jordan that there is this attempt to somehow put jack smith on trial. as i said, i don't know what you could possibly do but i think this is the swagger of the victorious side in this election coming out. in fact, i don't -- >> what about the fulton county, georgia election interference case? >> you know, apparently the trump team moved to dismiss that case. that case has been in a slow boat to nowhere for months. that case has basically been a disaster. certainly while trump is president for the next four years it cannot go to trial. i don't think it's ever going to go to trial. >> what about the new york hush money? >> that case is coming up on sentencing. but there is a legal issue that judge marchand

has to resolve which is whether the supreme court's decision in trump versus united states means that case has to be retried. i think he will probably rule in favor of the government saying it doesn't have to be retried but that is likely to be appealed and that will delay the sentencing i think pretty much indefinitely. i think the judge is smart enough if he in fact gets this case to sentencing while trump is president or even before trump is president he can't sentence him to prison. it could only be a fine. you simply in our system can't have a president under that kind of restriction. >> thanks very much. what we know about susie wiles who will be the new white house chief of staff. the first woman to hold the post.

one of president-elect trump's first decisions was to name his new white house chief of staff. the first woman to hold the powerful and important role. with more on who she is, here's randy. >> susie likes to stay sort of

in the back. let me tell you. the ice maiden. we call her the ice maiden. >> donald trump's newly minted chief of staff does not enjoy the spotlight like her boss. the 40 year veteran of republican politics prefers to operate behind the scenes. >> she's a steady hand and she's a loyal foot soldier. >> on her linkedin page under specialties wiles listed this. creating order from chaos. a skill that came in handy while running trump's presidential campaign. >> candidates matter. what they stand for matters. >> that was wiles in 2020 speaking to cnn affiliate wplg after she delivered a win for trump in florida as head of his campaign operation in the state. she rarely gives interviews. wiles first successfully ran trump's florida campaign in 2016. then again in 2020. >> the traditional republican voter coalition just simply can't, i don't believe, elect republicans any longer. so beginning to bring into the

tent larger number of hispanic voters. >> reporter: after his presidency, wiles served as trump's de facto chief of staff. then led his 2024 campaign. one of her goals, keep a close eye on who had access to the former president. wiles has a string of political campaign success stories. in 2010 she helped rick scott eke out a win to become governor of florida. in 2018 she was tapped to save ron desantis' campaign for florida governor. he won by 32,000 votes. the closest governor's election in states history. amid tensions wiles was ousted from desantis' inner circle. she went back to work on trump's florida reelection team but was dismissed. in 2020, trump brought her back amid concerns about his campaign standing. he ended up winning florida by more than three points against joe biden. >> susie wiles is the political version of mohammed ali. she does not lose. she is a

relentless fighter. >> reporter: that fighting spirit was instilled early on. she grew up with two brothers and is the daughter of professional football player turned television broadcaster pat sumrall. >> i didn't have all the answers. >> reporter: in his auto biography, he shared during an intervention about his alcoholism wiles read a letter telling him at times she was ashamed they shared the same last name. got treatment after that. before agreeing to her new role in the trump white house, cnn learned wiles insisted on certain conditions. top of the list, more control over who has access to the oval office. >> she wants to make sure the president's priorities are first and foremost followed through on and don't want distractions. she's laser focused. >> what is her overall style like that might benefit the trump white house?

>> anderson, when i spoke with senator joe gruters she has a specific demeanor. if she has any say in the hiring of others she'll likely make sure they have the same dna, will try to keep the chaos out of this next white house. he also said donald trump likes to surround himself with winners and that likely played into this as well. susie wiles is certainly a winner. she has a stack of campaign victories here in florida and certainly the most recent presidential election and he likes that about her. but anderson, keep in mind donald trump in his first term went through four chiefs of staff. welcome to all of you watching in the