Stephen Miller, a confidante to President Donald Trump and the architect of his immigration crackdown, will take over the role of White House chief of staff from Susie Wiles, the president announced on Friday.
“I am pleased to announce that Mr. Stephen Miller, the current Deputy Chief of Staff of the Trump Administration, and one of my most trusted advisors, will become the Chief of Staff starting Monday, November 9, 2026,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Friday afternoon.
The change in White House leadership is the latest fallout from Republicans’ losses in the midterm elections — and one that suggests Trump has no intention of abandoning the hardline immigration policies some say hurt Republicans.
Tension among Republicans had been building since the midterm shellacking, with many eager to find a scapegoat. The president ultimately settled on Wiles.
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“I think Susie’s done a very good job, great job. But I just wanted to make it,” Trump said of the change Friday on the South Lawn. “Sometimes in life you have to make moves.”
A source close to the outgoing chief said that she submitted her resignation Thursday night. It came after many Republicans, including some with the president’s ear, publicly and privately blamed the election results on Wiles and the president’s political team, led by James Blair, a Wiles ally. Trump said Friday that Wiles will return to his outside political operation.
Even before the election, Trump had questioned to allies whether the current political team was up to the challenge, said one Republican familiar with the president’s thinking. Trump grew frustrated by some strategic moves made by his team and the at-times overwhelming deluge of negative headlines that tied his administration officials and people within his orbit to corruption, they said.
People within the president’s orbit had advocated for Trump to choose a more aggressive team should the midterm elections not go Republicans’ way, a GOP strategist said, given the likelihood of investigations and impeachment.
“If you’re trying to strike the most adverbial posture to what’s expected to be a bruising midterm election, I guess Miller isn’t a bad way to go,” the strategist said.
Trump told reporters on Friday that Miller is “a very good manager” who “gets it very good politically.”
“Stephen’s been with me since the beginning,” he added.
Miller said he was “honored beyond words.”
“The mission now is more clear than ever: Fight with all of our soul to support our President and defend this magnificent Republic,” he posted on X Friday afternoon.
Miller has been a significant voice in Trump’s corner and the “America First” movement.
He pushed the immigration policies that defined Trump’s first administration, including family separation. He also spearheaded the aggressive deportation operations that contributed to voters outright rejecting the Republican Party in the midterm elections.
Miller’s promotion left some of Trump’s allies stunned.
One Republican operative said they weren’t surprised by the move, but by the timing.
“They’re in Leeroy Jenkins mode from here on out,” the operative said.
Another Republican operative emphasized Miller’s combative nature as a potential benefit for Trump ahead of Democratic investigations into his administration.
“Miller is a wartime battler and the Democrats are gonna come for blood,” another operative said.
A source close to the White House said that other names considered for the role included Jay Clayton, the newly confirmed director of national intelligence; Environmental Protection Agency chief Lee Zeldin; and Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
Sergio Gor, the U.S. ambassador to India, also told the president he was interested in the role, the source said, though it’s unclear if he was under consideration. (Gor has also laid the groundwork for a promotion within the State Department, The Washington Sun previously reported.)
Wiles is the latest high-ranking woman to leave the administration this year, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and press secretaries Karoline Leavitt and Katie Zacharia.
Wiles’ run with Trump began in 2016 when she was his Florida campaign director, and she rose to chief of staff when he returned to the White House last year. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Vanity Fair last year that Wiles’ bond with Trump was “an earned trust.”
“I don’t think there’s anybody in the world right now that could do the job that she’s doing,” he said at the time.
Wiles recently came under scrutiny when pictures showed that she and her daughter separately met with senior leadership from a Bosnian pro-Russia group, the same party that two Trump advisers worked with, prompting Trump to distance himself from their work.
There were signs her influence was waning. Trump offered Zacharia the role of press secretary last month on the spot without a sign off from Wiles — although allies of Wiles say she was briefed about the possibility.
The first woman chief, who Trump nicknamed “Ice Maiden,” has long been a divisive figure in the president’s base. Though she is largely credited with being part of the reason for his return to office, she has has long received criticism from the president’s base as a tempering figure that lead to the president’s walk back of hardline immigration policies and other MAGA priorities.
“She tries to curb [Trump] from some of his rougher instincts, and she’s usually unsuccessful, but she tries. She’s been very loyal,” the source close to the White House told The Sun. “I suspect she will land on her feet as she has before.”
Wiles recently encouraged at least one of her own allies outside of the federal government to lawyer up, according to the GOP strategist, cognizant of the legal scrutiny that could come from her time with the president.
Wiles thanked Trump on Friday for her role in his administration and promised her commitment to the president will stay consistent despite her change in role.
“Serving President Trump in the White House has been the honor of a lifetime,” Wiles wrote on X. “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.”
Vice President JD Vance, who worked alongside Wiles since the 2024 campaign, thanked Wiles for her “friendship and service” and called Miller an “amazing patriot.”
Leavitt said in a social media post that Wiles is “one of the kindest and toughest people I’ve ever met” and credited her for leading “the most productive start to a presidency in decades.”Leavitt called Miller “the perfect choice.”
A senior GOP aide said that the Miller move marked a return to the glory days of Trump, when he wasn’t the dominant force in American politics, but the upstart underdog.
“It’s like when Rocky gets beat, what does he do? He returns to the training method that he knows works,” a senior Senate GOP aide told The Sun. “Stephen Miller is the tried and tested, and Trump is getting back to those basics.”
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