Politico issued a correction late Wednesday to a story about White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and the events leading up to the firing of ousted press secretary Katie Zacharia last week.
The outlet had originally reported that Wiles helped set up interviews for Zacharia on Fox News. Those media appearances were widely panned and ultimately ended with Zacharia being fired as press secretary last week.
But Politico has now walked back a key part of that reporting.
“An earlier version of this report, including its headline, mischaracterized the role White House chief of staff Susie Wiles played in then-press secretary Katie Zacharia’s interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News,” the outlet wrote in its correction. “POLITICO’s follow-up reporting indicates she did not play a direct role in setting up the interview.”
The correction did not come out of nowhere. According to Axios, the White House sent a letter to Politico demanding that the outlet correct the record on Wiles’s role in Zacharia’s Fox News appearances.
The West Wing also warned that the outlet could face unspecified consequences over the inaccurate report, Axios reported.
Fox News also pushed back on Politico’s reporting, the outlet noted.
The correction amounts to a notable reversal for Politico, which had initially tied Wiles to the series of interviews that preceded Zacharia’s exit. With the update, the outlet now says its follow-up reporting shows the chief of staff did not play a direct role in arranging the Hannity interview at the center of the story.
The clash between the White House and Politico this week is the latest flashpoint in a broader period of tension between President Trump’s administration and the press corps.
Politico was one of three outlets Trump sought to ban from working at the White House. The West Wing has also barred the political news outlet from Air Force One on at least one occasion since then.
The Politico story is also just the latest in a string of reports suggesting Trump was losing faith in Wiles, who serves as his chief of staff.
The White House’s response to the story, including the letter demanding a correction and the warning of possible consequences, signals that the administration is prepared to push back forcefully on reporting it views as inaccurate, particularly when it involves top officials like Wiles.
Meanwhile, Trump and his aides have seemingly grown more frustrated with the media in recent days. The president has snapped at reporters while fielding their questions.
Trump has also reportedly floated the idea of moving the press corps out of the White House to another location, a move that would mark a significant change in how reporters cover the administration.
For now, Politico’s correction stands as a clear acknowledgment that its original account of Wiles’s involvement in Zacharia’s Fox News interview was mischaracterized, including in the story’s headline.
The episode underscores the increasingly strained relationship between the Trump White House and the outlets that cover it, as the administration continues to challenge reporting it disputes and the president voices his frustration with the press.
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