The president had White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles by his side after announcing that she planned to undergo treatment following a cancer diagnosis.
Wiles began working for Donald J. Trump during his second term in 2025, and she acted as a top adviser in his makeshift “war room” or Situation Room at Mar-a-Lago.
He insisted that she would continue working, noting that she has a “fantastic medical team” in a Truth Social post on Monday morning. Hours later, Wiles was sitting next to him during a meeting with the board members of the former John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
But instead of her needing assistance, it was Trump who struggled through the meeting.
The board voted in favor of Trump’s plan to close the Kennedy Center for two years for his dreadful renovations. However, the president used the opportunity to talk about his illegal war in Iran, and Wiles tried to save his bacon as he answered a question about the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump ordered an attack on Iran in a joint effort with Israel on Feb. 28, and Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, which the country uses to export oil, in response. The commander in chief is pressuring NATO allies to force Iran to reopen the strait, and suggested he may delay his upcoming meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping over it.
After a reporter asked the 79-year-old about his meeting with President Xi, he veered off into saying that he did not need Iran’s oil. He went on to ramble about other countries needing Iran’s oil more than the U.S., but the U.S. protects the area.
“We’re at more than double any other country,” Trump garbled. “So, we don’t need it. But, but we did it. It’s almost — you could say we did it out of habit, which is not a good thing to do, but we did it because we have some good allies there,” he said of protecting the waterway.
For seemingly no reason whatsoever, Trump then brought up Cuban-born sugar cane barons José “Pepe” Fanjul and Alfonso “Alfy” Fanjul after noticing Pepe, and then he repeatedly confused him with his brother, Alfy.
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It’s unclear why Trump was thinking of Fanjul, the man who has poured significant money into Republican efforts, donating $814,600 to the Trump 47 Committee and at least $413,000 to the Republican National Committee, and held a fundraiser for Trump on the very day his guilty verdict was announced.
Despite Fanjul’s long-standing alignment with Republican fundraising, Alfy has built a reputation as a major donor to Democratic campaigns.
The moment carried a touch of awkward irony. As Wiles repeatedly tried to correct him, Trump brushed past her and launched into praise—only to misidentify the very man he was addressing.
Spotting José “Pepe” Fanjul in the room, Trump confidently called him by his brother’s name. “It was really there to serve other countries, not us. And by the way, we have the sugar king. Same story. Look at that. Alfy Fanjul,” said Trump.
Wiles looked mortified that he would make such a mistake as she interjected three times—“That’s Pepe”—yet the president continued talking, thanking “Alfy” anyway. “Alfy, thank you both very much. Huh?” he said before he finally listened to Wiles.
“Huh? That’s Pepe? Yeah, Pepe,” replied Trump before trying to save face. “Hi, Pepe. How are you? How are you? Is Alfy in the backstage? Huh? Is he, is he sitting back there waiting for you? No. You’re doing all right. Pepe is a great friend of all of ours, I think, in the room,” he continued.
Os irmãos Alfonso “Alfy” e José “Pepe” Fanjul comandam o maior império de açúcar de cana do mundo, avaliado em US$ 4 bilhões e dono da Florida Crystals e da Domino Sugar.
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(Foto: Taylor Jones/The Palm Beach Post/Zuma Press/Newscom)… pic.twitter.com/1gHVKwncIr
— Forbes Brasil (@ForbesBR) October 18, 2025
A clip of Wiles trying to correct Trump was shared on Threads with the caption, “Trump is distracted from ranting about Iran by someone at the table. He never finishes his train of thought.” “That train derailed years ago,” wrote a second social media user.
Several others remarked on the president appearing to have the “attention span of a methed out mayfly,” while others claimed, “His brain is mush.”
The idea that Trump needed his chief of staff to tell him who he was speaking to baffled many, including one who noted, “Susie Wiles in his ear telling him who people are is just wild work.”
Another asked, “What is he doing under the table?” to which someone suggested, “Susie probably kicked him in the shin.”
Trump also seemed to confuse his former counselor, Kellyanne Conway, with his White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt during a Women’s History Month event last week.
As he praised the women in his administration, he jumped back to his first term in office while meaning to compliment Leavitt.
Following his tangent about the Fanjul brothers during the press meet, Trump went on to gloat about killing Iran’s leaders. “They’re all dead.”
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