President Donald Trump's White House has been plunged into fresh turmoil following the abrupt exit of his new press secretary, and the president's one-time biographer now says he knows who will be fired next — calling it all but "inevitable."

The upheaval unfolded within a single work week. Right-wing commentator Katie Zacharia made her debut as White House press secretary with a disastrously received briefing, was caught out for false claims about being a lawyer, and was pushed out of the job after just five days. The episode laid bare another storm of chaos inside the West Wing, with subsequent reports indicating that Trump hired Zacharia without input from Chief of Staff Susie Wiles — and may now be looking to replace Wiles herself. Wiles, a veteran Republican strategist who managed Trump's 2024 campaign and became the first woman to serve as White House chief of staff, holds one of the most consequential jobs in West Wing, with broad control over staffing and access to the president.

Michael Wolff, a longtime author and reporter best known for his extensive coverage of Trump's political career, including several books on the president's hectic first term — most famously the 2018 bestseller "Fire and Fury" — discussed the continued fallout from Zacharia's firing on the latest episode of his Daily Beast podcast with co-host Joanna Coles. Wolff argued that what happened to Zacharia was ultimately not her own fault.

"Poor Katie Zechariah. It's not really her fault. It's Donald Trump's fault," Wolff said. "He picked her out of nowhere without preparation. Was she a lawyer? Was she an attorney? What is the difference between lawyer and attorney? What are those bar exams in China like? So, no one has clearly asked those questions, because Trump said, 'Oh, yeah, look, I like the way she looks.'"

Wolff went on to say that the president's decision to go around Wiles in hiring Zacharia was further evidence that "Trump wants Trump in charge," and that he "resents" any suggestion that anyone other him is running the shop in the White House. Viewed through that lens, Wolff argued the whole ordeal makes clear that there is a better-than-good, almost "inevitable" chance that Wiles will be the next person to be fired from the Trump administration.

"I would say it's a pretty good chance, maybe a fair chance... and maybe inevitable that Susie Wiles goes," Wolff said.

Wolff later dismissed Coles' suggestion that Wiles might throw her support behind Secretary of State Marco Rubio as a 2028 presidential contender — a move that could make her the first "chief of staff to two different presidents." During the same exchange, he added that a surprising member of Wiles' family has emerged as a major force in the Trump White House.

"She's brought her daughter into her orbit," Wolff explained. "And her daughter has become a kind of a, you know, a power within the White House, within the Trump circle. Someone you don't want to cross is Susie Wiles' daughter."

Recent reports have suggested that Katie Wiles maintains close relationships within Russia by way of her political lobbying firm, Continental Strategy. For now, Wiles remains chief of staff, making Wolff's "inevitable" call a read on West Wing dynamics rather than an announced decision — one that, per the reporting, only Trump can make.