Stephen Miller, the architect of Donald Trump’s hardline anti-immigrant policies, will replace Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff in the wake of midterm elections that saw Republicans lose control of the House and Senate as well as dozens of governorships and state legislatures.
Trump announced the personnel shakeup on Truth Social on Friday, writing that he was “pleased to announce” that Miller would take over Wiles’ role on November 9 and calling him “one of [his] trusted advisers.”
He explained the decision to reporters as he departed the White House for a weekend in Florida, telling them he had “wanted to make a change.”
“I think Susie's done a very good job, great job ... sometimes in life, you have to make moves,” he said.
He also called Miller a “great manager” and suggested he would be tasked with managing day-to-day policy work.
In a post on X, Wiles said Friday was her last day on the job and called her White House tenure “the honor of a lifetime.”
“I’m so proud to have been a part of what we’ve accomplished together from securing our border and cutting taxes to strengthening our economy and putting America First,” she added.
Miller, 41, is a longtime aide to the president who has spent much of the last two years implementing the administration's mass deportation campaign and pushing for harsh policies meant to make it more difficult for anyone from non-white-majority countries to immigrant to the United States.
He has also advocated for initiatives meant to use the entire weight of the federal government to punish jurisdictions where voters have elected Democrats, including by cutting off or denying them federal funds.
The California native has been singularly obsessed with stopping and reversing non-white immigration to the United States since his high school days when he was a regular caller into conservative radio shows.
Since Trump returned to office in 2025, he has also pushed for a maximalist view of presidential power that makes little to no allowances for the role of Congress — especially a Congress that will be controlled by Democrats starting Jan. 3.
And he advanced some of Trump’s more controversial foreign policy moves, including the president’s ill-fated push to acquire Greenland.
In January, he claimed the U.S. could seize the island, which is part of Denmark, by force and suggested that no country would oppose such a move because “we live in a world ... that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power.”
Miller’s influence has drawn criticism from even some Republicans such as outgoing North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis, who has called him “a big problem” who “should go.”
Tillis has also slammed Miller as the "architect of most of the dumbest proposals from the Trump White House" who has an "irrational way about going about things" and is “out of his depth.”
Trump’s decision to elevate Miller to the chief of staff position indicates a desire on the part of the president to escalate conflicts with an incoming Democratic Congress which is gearing up to resume oversight and investigations into the Trump administration’s conduct.
Wiles, who submitted her resignation to the president on Thursday, was the first woman to serve as White House chief of staff. She had been a co-architect of Trump’s 2024 election victory and had a reputation as one of the few people in Trump’s orbit who could talk him down from ill-considered decisions.
As recently as last month, Trump was denying reports that Wiles was on the outs and claimed she would be in her job as long as she wanted to be.
But a source familiar with the matter told The Independent that Trump had been souring on Wiles for some time as his popularity has waned and opposition to his administration’s policies has grown, with some in his circle suggesting that her family members were taking advantage of her position for their own financial gain.
The ascension of Miller as Wiles’ replacement is a clear signal that Trump’s policy agenda will not moderate in his lame duck period and could grow increasingly hard-line if Miller carries out what sources in the administration describe as a long-held desire to use the government’s full powers to target political opposition.
He has spent much of Trump’s second term leading efforts to turn the machinery of government against Democratic-leaning organizations and NGOs, a push that kicked into high gear after last year’s killing of MAGA activist Kirk.
Days after the September 2025 assassination, Miller told Vice President JD Vance — who was guest-hosting Kirk’s eponymous podcast — he wanted the administration “to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle and destroy” a “network” he blamed for Kirk’s death.
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