Roger Stone, a long-time Trump ally and Republican political operative, rushed to shred the claims on X: "Susan Wiles has never worked for or represented any pharmaceutical company."
Do the accusations have merit?
Susan Wiles, nicknamed by Trump "The Ice Maiden", most recently worked as a co-chair in lobbying firm Mercury's Florida and Washington DC offices since February 2022.
On its website Mercury lists Gavi, Ford Foundation, Tesla, Pfizer, United Nations Foundation, Kaiser Permanente, and Gilead as being amongst its 550 clients.
While employed by Mercury, Wiles lobbied on behalf of Swisher International, Inc according to US Senate Lobbying Disclosure website. Swisher is an American international tobacco company, listed in disclosure forms as SI Group Client Services.
Wiles lobbying efforts concerned Food and Drug Administration regulations in the US Senate and House of Representatives. However, she was promoting not drugs, but tobacco.
US investigative website Sludge claims Wiles' tobacco contracts contradicted Trump's Make American Healthy Again agenda.
Prior to working for Mercury, she had been employed by lobbying company Ballard Partners.
According to lobbying disclosure reports, her clients were:
fossil fuel company Alliance Resource Partners
clean energy advocate Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions
automobile company General Motors
insurance company Bankers Financial Corporation
international network Children's Hospital Association, and others.
Still, there are no Big Pharma companies or their subsidiaries in the list of her lobbying efforts between 2017 and now.