Katie Miller fervently lobbied for her husband, Stephen Miller, to become White House chief of staff, according to a new report.
After Republicans suffered crushing losses in Tuesday’s midterm elections, she called administration officials and allies, urging them to support her husband as Susie Wiles’ replacement if they considered him better suited to the job than other potential candidates, Politico reported.
By Friday, Stephen Miller had landed the top job. President Donald Trump announced that Wiles — his longest-serving chief of staff — would step down and be replaced by Miller, her deputy and the architect of Trump’s hardline immigration policies.
Trump’s frustration with Wiles had reportedly been building for months and her fate was sealed when Democrats romped to victory in the midterms, reclaiming both the House and the Senate.
“He started telling people he was done with Susie,” a source told Politico. “This is what happens when you get creamed.”
Katie Miller — a podcast host and former adviser to Elon Musk — did not push for Wiles’ ouster, sources told the outlet. She began making the case for her husband only after it became clear that Wiles was on her way out.
Miller made roughly six calls to people close to the president, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and people with ties to Vice President JD Vance. She argued that her husband should succeed Wiles if she departed. “I would appreciate if you could share that message,” Miller said, according to one source.
Miller declined to comment to Politico but she responded on X after the story was published.
“BREAKING: Wife supports husband,” she wrote. “If your wife doesn’t do this, find a new one.”
A mother-of-four, Katie Miller recently acknowledged she did not cast a ballot on Election Day. “You see that moms are too busy raising their children and taking care of them to go to the polls,” she told CBS News Wednesday. Vanity Fair reported last month that she is known to throw lavish parties for administration officials in her home on a military base.
When approached by Politico, the White House characterized Stephen Miller as a central figure in the Trump administration.
“Stephen Miller has been a key player in delivering on President Trump’s America First agenda since day one,” spokesperson Lauren Bis said. “He has spearheaded the administration’s crime crackdown including in D.C. and Memphis, record setting deregulation, unleashed American energy, dismantled drug cartels, and secured our border. In his new role, he will continue to deliver historic successes for the American people.”
Stephen Miller is widely seen as a more polarizing figure than Wiles, having helped shape some of the administration’s most controversial initiatives, including its deportation crackdown and push to end birthright citizenship.
A source close to the White House told Politico that the staffing change signaled to the president’s MAGA base that “the White House hears you.”
Meanwhile, Democrats on Capitol Hill widely condemned his promotion.
“Stephen Miller is a dangerous xenophobe and reckless extremist who has American blood on his hands,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wrote on X. “His presence in government should be eradicated like a malignant tumor. Fire him today.”
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