Trump Names Stephen Miller Chief of Staff, Replacing Susie Wiles

President Donald Trump has picked Stephen Miller as his new White House chief of staff, only days after Republicans lost control of Congress in the midterm elections. Susie Wiles, the first woman to hold the job, is stepping down.

A change announced on Friday

Trump announced the appointment on Friday. Miller, 41, begins on Monday. Wiles, 69, reportedly handed in her resignation on Thursday night.

Trump described Miller as one of his most trusted advisers and said Wiles had done an outstanding job. Leaving the White House for a trip to Florida, he told reporters: "I wanted to make a change."

Wiles said in a social media post that serving Trump had been the honor of a lifetime. She added that she will stay committed to Trump and the work of the administration.

Who Miller is

Miller has been deputy chief of staff since Trump returned to the presidency in January 2025. He joined the 2016 presidential campaign as a speechwriter and is a former aide to Jeff Sessions, the senator who became Trump's first attorney general.

In the first term, he was the main force behind the separation of migrant families and a travel ban aimed at Muslim-majority countries. More than a hundred Democratic lawmakers signed a letter to Trump that demanded Miller's removal. Miller has also been highly influential in hardline immigration policy and in calls to end birthright citizenship.

The Guardian reads the appointment as the first sign of change at the White House after the midterm defeat. It takes Miller's record to suggest that Trump expects a hard confrontation with the oversight and investigations of congressional Democrats.

Wiles' record

Wiles is the longest-serving chief of staff Trump has had. He cycled through four in his first four-year term. She ran his winning 2024 campaign. Credit went to her for bringing order to a chaotic effort and for tightening control over leaks inside his second administration.

She generally avoided the spotlight. Last year, Vanity Fair published interviews with her and other top officials, and her candour made headlines. Her departure comes months after she indicated that, after treatment, no trace of breast cancer remained. She made the diagnosis public in March.

Reaction from critics

Chris Whipple, author of a book on White House chiefs of staff, told CNN the move was "almost a declaration of war by Trump." David Axelrod, a veteran Democratic strategist, wrote on X that the pick dashes hopes of a pivot toward working with the incoming Congress.

Becca Balint, a Democratic congresswoman from Vermont, called Miller the architect of some of the administration's worst decisions. Critics argue that Trump drew the wrong lessons from Tuesday's election results.

Source: the Guardian