Photo shows top Trump aide’s daughter with pro-Russia politician in Bosnia

An image circulated on social media and verified by CBS News shows Katie Wiles, the daughter of White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, recently traveled to Republika Srpska, the Bosnian-controlled territory led by pro-Russian Serb strongman Milorad Dodik. 

The photo raises further questions about possible White House links to the pro-Russian politician. President Trump on Wednesday distanced himself from two top political advisers after the New York Times reported they had traveled to Republika Srpska last week to assist Dodik’s pro-Russia party in Bosnian elections.

The image, shared online by conservative Albanian American activist Evi Kokalari, shows Wiles holding a rifle and standing next to a man CBS News has identified as Željko Budimir, the interior minister of the semi-autonomous Republika Srpska administration. In a post on X, Kokalari claimed the image was taken in August. CBS News Confirmed has verified the image is of Wiles and that it was taken in Republika Srpska. The image appears to be a screenshot of a story from Wiles’ personal Instagram account, with a caption “mostly work + some serious fun!” 

CBS News confirmed the veracity of the images through satellite imagery and previous social media posts from the shooting range where the image was captured. The position of the sun in the image also indicates that it was taken in the summer. CBS News was also able to confirm that the woman in the photo is Katie Wiles.

The RIS shooting range is located in northern Republika Srpska and is frequented by Budimir, the interior minister, according to Bosnian media reports.

Katie Wiles is a partner at Continental Strategy, a large political lobbying firm based in Washington, D.C., according to its website. 

A spokesperson for the firm acknowledged to CBS News Thursday that Wiles had taken the trip in mid-August but not on business for Continental Strategy. 

“Katie Wiles visited the country in mid-August for two days with a U.S.-based company who was invited to do a feasibility study in the region,” the spokesperson said. “Wiles provides strategic communications support to this US company and has done so for over two years. Wiles has not spoken with any United States Government official regarding Srpska.” 

CBS News has asked Continental Strategy for the name of the company and whether the American company in question is a client of Continental Strategy. 

U.S. foreign agent registration filings [FARA] reviewed by CBS News show that Continental Strategy registered to lobby on behalf of Republika Srpska in early 2026. 

“Susie does not discuss work matters with her daughters,” a White House official told CBS News Thursday. 

Another FARA filing from the same firm this year lists the signature of Alejandro Garcia, a former deputy political director for Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign, as a consultant for Republika Srpska. Garcia is also a partner at Continental Strategy. 

The lobbying firm’s spokesperson told CBS News that Garcia attended Bosnia’s election day on Oct. 4 “but no other member of the team was present.”

“Garcia is the sole person who has interacted with the United States government regarding Srpska, and his contacts have all been meticulously tracked to be reported in accordance with FARA requirements,” the spokesperson said.  

White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles met with Željka Cvijanović, a close ally of Milorad Dodik, last month, and a White House official told CBS News that meeting was arranged by Garcia, not by Katie Wiles. 

On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that James Blair and Chris LaCivita, two key GOP strategists in the Republicans’ midterm election efforts, spent some of last week in the small, self-governing territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina to help Dodik’s party with its own campaigning.  Katie Wiles has no such involvement with Mr. Trump’s political operation. 

Under the control of Dodik’s party, Republika Srpska has forged close ties with President Vladimir Putin’s government in Russia, while also spending heavily on U.S.-based lobbying firms to court associates of Mr. Trump, according to FARA filings reviewed by CBS News. 

Serbian secessionist leader Dodik, who until recently served as the president of Republika Srpska, has long been accused of undermining the U.S.-brokered Dayton Accords, which ended the bloody sectarian violence between Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia in the 1990s. A Sarajevo court last year convicted Dodik of failing to comply with the terms of Bosnia’s 1995 peace accords. He was then removed as president and banned from holding political office by Bosnia’s electoral authorities.

In a Truth Social post Wednesday, Mr. Trump said he did not “have any idea” who LaCivita and Blair had been working for and he pledged, “if there’s a conflict, I will terminate them, immediately!”

Later Wednesday, Mr. Trump appeared to slightly soften his language.

“They don’t have a conflict, because they’re independent people. You know, they don’t work for me,” Mr. Trump said, addressing reporters in the Oval Office. “They are consultants and I assume they have a lot of clients. I don’t know who their clients are. If I thought they had a conflict here, I would terminate them.” 

As CBS News reported this week, the involvement of a U.S. firm linked to associates of Mr. Trump in an energy project in Bosnia and Herzegovina worth more than $1.5 billion has raised questions about the White House’s relationship with Dodik. 

Last month, House Democrats published a report accusing the Trump administration of lifting sanctions against Dodik in an effort to enrich and empower allies of Mr. Trump, and of undermining longstanding U.S. foreign policy interests in the region in the process.

The central allegation is that AAFS Infrastructure & Energy, a company incorporated in the U.S. last year and headed by Mr. Trump’s former personal attorney Jesse Binnall and Joseph Flynn, the brother of Trump ally Gen. Michael Flynn, secured the contract to build a key gas pipeline between Bosnia and Croatia after the sanctions were lifted against Dodik, who had previously opposed the development.

FARA filings cited in the report and reviewed by CBS News show that Michael Flynn, Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser, worked as a paid lobbyist for Republika Srpska in October 2025, the month during which the sanctions against Dodik were lifted. 

Within six months of the sanctions being lifted, Dodik’s party, which has veto power in Bosnia’s legislature, dropped its opposition and the Bosnian parliament passed legislation naming AAFS as the lead developer on the billion-dollar project.  

The White House declined to comment on the pipeline project last week, but an administration official said the sanctions against Dodik were lifted to prevent instability in the Balkans. 

“This is yet another example of President Trump’s pragmatic, farseeing foreign policy that has prevented disasters on perennial issues that his predecessors so often stumbled into,” a White House official told CBS News on Friday, without elaborating on the type of disasters the Trump administration was preventing.