Opinion: Susie Wiles makes history. And it’s because of Donald Trump.

Ahead of the election, billionaire businessman Mark Cuban claimed on “The View” that former President Donald Trump eschewed strong women and that he found them “intimidating.”“Donald Trump, you never see him around strong, intelligent women ever,” Cuban said. “It’s just that simple.”
Now that Trump has once again won the presidency (thanks in part to strong women supporting him – more on that shortly), he’s proving just how wrong that accusation was.
One of Trump’s first acts as president-elect was on Thursday to tap his campaign co-manager Susie Wiles to be his chief of staff.
Wiles will be the first woman in that critical and powerful role. 
“Susie is tough, smart, innovative, and is universally admired and respected,” Trump said in a statement. “Susie will continue to work tirelessly to Make America Great Again.”
Apparently, Trump’s not afraid of those characteristics after all. 
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During his campaign, Trump didn’t go around promising to appoint anyone in his administration because of their sex. That makes this appointment that much more meaningful.
Trump chose Wiles because he thought she’d be the best one to do the job. Period. 
Wiles, a longtime political operative, played an integral role in his previous presidential campaigns, and he has a lot of faith in her talents. 
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As Trump said in announcing her new role, she “just helped me achieve one of the greatest political victories in American history.”
In contrast, President Joe Biden picked women because he promised to. 
During his 2020 campaign, Biden swore he’d choose a woman as vice president. And when it came time to nominate a Supreme Court justice, he said it would be a “Black woman.” 
I found that strategy demeaning, and it cheapened the honor for the women who ultimately got those jobs. 
How about just choose the best candidate for the role – and if that person happens to be a woman, great. 
That’s Trump’s approach.
Going back to Cuban’s insults about how no strong women associate with Trump, here’s additional proof he’s wrong. 
Let’s start with Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador under Trump. Cuban’s comments on “The View” related to how he believed Trump was afraid to use Haley on the campaign trail. 
Yet Haley, who was Trump’s fiercest opponent in the Republican primary, has on her own said multiple times that she would support Trump over first Biden – and then Vice President Kamala Harris. 
Trump invited Haley to speak at the Republican National Convention in July, and she graciously accepted, even though the two had certainly exchanged barbs during the primary. 
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Then just days before the election, Haley penned an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal making her case for Trump.
“I don’t agree with Mr. Trump 100% of the time,” she wrote. “But I do agree with him most of the time, and I disagree with Ms. Harris nearly all the time. That makes this an easy call. Here are the facts most relevant to me.”
Haley was able to put emotion and personal jabs aside to make the decision she thought was best for the country.
Sounds like a strong woman to me. 
And then there is Megyn Kelly, one of the best (and most successful) independent media voices out there. 
She and Trump have had very public differences in the past, but Kelly came out to support Trump at one of his final rallies – and he invited her on stage. 
Kelly made an intelligent and straightforward case for why she was supporting him. 
And she started with this: “I really enjoy this feeling of proving Mark Cuban wrong and so here I am at a Trump rally – a strong, intelligent woman – to prove Mark Cuban wrong.”
It wasn’t only well-known women who supported Trump. Despite the much talked about gender gap, 46% of women voters supported the Republican nominee − that translates into tens of millions of women nationwide. Even Cuban might find at least a few of them strong and intelligent.
Liberal women are melting down on social media about what a Trump presidency means for their lives. If he were as anti-woman as they believe, there is no way women I respect like Haley and Kelly would extend their support. 
Trump’s choice of Wiles to serve as his closest adviser speaks volumes, too. 
Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA TODAY. Contact her at [email protected] or on X, formerly Twitter: @Ingrid_Jacques.