Trump Replaces Chief of Staff Susie Wiles With Hard-Liner Stephen Miller
The president named his immigration architect to run the West Wing three days after Republicans lost both chambers of Congress. Miller takes over Monday.
President Donald Trump said Friday that Stephen Miller, his deputy chief of staff and the author of many of his hardest-line immigration policies, will replace Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff. Miller takes over on Monday, NPR reported.
The shake-up lands three days after Republicans were swept out of power in the midterm elections and loses Trump the aide widely seen as the steadiest hand in his orbit. Data from the election show voters backed Democrats in part because of the administration's aggressive immigration enforcement, the area Miller has driven since Trump's first term.
"Stephen's been with me since the beginning. He gets it," Trump told reporters later in the afternoon. On his Truth Social platform, the president said Wiles, the first woman to hold the chief of staff job, will keep working for him on political operations.
Wiles struck a gracious note. "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 said in a statement on X. "While my role may be changing, my commitment to the President and the mission never will."
Wiles ran Trump's 2020 campaign in Florida and has served as chief of staff since the first day of this administration. She built a reputation as a strict manager who cut the staff turnover and leaks that dogged Trump's first term. She was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year, and it was announced this fall that she was cancer free.
Miller is currently deputy chief of staff and an adviser to the Department of Homeland Security. He has been a fixture in Trump's circle since 2016 and has also advised on military operations in the Middle East. Known for his combative rhetoric, he is a frequent presence behind Trump in the Oval Office during media events, and he has defended the administration's most controversial actions without apology.
Democratic leaders reacted with fury. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is widely expected to become speaker, called Miller "a dangerous xenophobe and reckless extremist who has American blood on his hands" and demanded that Trump fire him. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said, "Donald Trump learned nothing from his historic defeat," and promised that the Democratic majorities "will fight him every step of the way."
Political scientists say the job carries unusual weight. David Cohen, a professor at the University of Akron who studies the chief of staff role, called the post a "very important gatekeeper of the president's time, and of their information and the people that are going in to see the president." Cohen noted that the chief of staff is supposed to act as a neutral broker so every voice is heard, though "oftentimes, though, the chief of staff is the last person talking to the president."
NPR said Miller is likely to exercise even greater influence over the president's time and attention in the new role. The change arrives as the White House enters a period of major transition, with the press secretary job also vacant and Democrats preparing to use their new majorities to launch investigations.
