President Trump announced Friday that Stephen Miller, one of his longest serving and most loyal advisers, will become his next White House chief of staff. Miller replaces Susie Wiles, who has held the job since Trump returned to office. The promotion of the immigration hardliner proved highly controversial among Democrats and even some Republicans, who see Miller as partly responsible for midterm losses that cost the GOP control of the House and Senate and handed Democrats large majorities.
Miller began his Washington career in 2007 as a press secretary for Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and later worked for Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.). In 2009 he became press secretary to Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, eventually rising to communications chief. Miller pushed Sessions to be more outspoken and combative, especially on immigration, and helped him kill a bipartisan immigration reform bill in 2013 by writing a handbook to help lawmakers defeat it. Behind the scenes, he built a reputation as a hard-charging press aide who frequently battled reporters.
When Trump launched his first presidential run in 2015, Sessions became the first senator to endorse him and went on to serve as attorney general, though he later fell out with Trump after recusing himself from investigations into the 2016 campaign. Miller, by contrast, joined Trump's inner circle and remained a confidant through the rest of the first term, Trump's years out of office and his second term.
Miller is considered the architect of much of Trump's immigration agenda, most recently the administration's mass deportation efforts. As deputy chief of staff for policy, he pushed the administration to suspend habeas corpus rights, which allow people in custody to challenge their detention, and to triple its daily immigration arrest goal to 3,000. During Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis, one of the second term's most high-profile immigration blitzes, federal agents fatally shot two American citizens; Miller at the time called both victims "domestic terrorists." In the first term, he was also a primary advocate of the family separation policy.
Miller is one of the only aides from Trump's first term now serving in a high role in his second. His background as a Senate aide gives him a strong understanding of how Congress works and how executive authority can be used to assert presidential power. He is known as a detail-oriented adviser who reads briefs, asks questions and demands results, and during legislative fights over immigration he was seen as having a major influence on the Republican stance.
The chief of staff works closely with the president on day-to-day operations, manages the White House staff and can act as a gatekeeper for who sees the president. The job, historically seen as the second most powerful in the White House behind the president, does not require Senate confirmation. Wiles was viewed by some as a brake on Miller, and her exit removes that check just as he takes the post.
Miller's wife, Katie Miller, is a GOP political adviser and podcaster who served as communications director and press secretary to then Vice President Pence during the first term. When Trump returned to office, she became an adviser to the Department of Government Efficiency, the Elon Musk-led initiative to slash government spending and shrink the workforce. She now hosts The Katie Miller Podcast, directed at conservative women.
After Trump's 2020 defeat, Miller co-founded America First Legal, a conservative nonprofit advocating for dismantling diversity, equity and inclusion programs, enforcing immigration laws and protecting election integrity. He rejoined Trump's 2024 campaign and returned to the White House right away as deputy chief of staff for policy and a homeland security adviser. Many in Trump's orbit have come and gone, including Wiles, who had a brief falling out with Trump before returning to run his 2024 campaign, but Miller has stayed loyal since the 2016 race.
The loudest Republican critic of the promotion is Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who urged the president to "rethink" the decision and has repeatedly accused Miller of giving Trump bad advice on immigration. "It is a colossal mistake," Tillis told CNN on Friday, pointing to the drubbing Republicans took in Tuesday's midterms. Sarah Matthews, a former deputy White House press secretary, called the notion of replacing Wiles with Miller "terrifying." Another former Trump administration official told The Hill the move was "exactly the opposite" direction from what voters demanded, adding, "Susie was the best thing that happened to President Trump." A former Trump chief of staff said the choice is unlikely to help the president forge a working relationship with the new Democratic majority.
