WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said on Friday that Stephen Miller will replace Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff, days after Republicans lost control of both chambers of Congress.
A promotion, not a reset
Trump announced the move on Truth Social. He praised Wiles for doing an outstanding job and said she would move to the Trump Political Operation. Miller, currently deputy chief of staff, starts Monday.
The choice points to continuity rather than a course correction. Miller is one of Trump's longest-serving advisers, having joined the 2016 campaign as a speechwriter. He is the architect of the administration's hard-line immigration policy and its mass deportation campaign.
Wiles leaves after a historic loss
Wiles, 69, was the longest-serving chief of staff across Trump's two terms. He went through four of them in his first four years. She was widely described as one of the most powerful people in the administration and close to the president.
In her own statement, Wiles called working for Trump the honor of a lifetime and said her commitment would not change even as her role did.
Her exit follows a midterm election in which Democrats won the House and the Senate. The losses were driven in part by Latino voters drifting away and by anger over the cost of living along the southern border and in industrial states.
What changes on Monday
A chief of staff controls access to the president, runs the staff and pushes the agenda through Congress and federal agencies. Miller's experience sits in immigration and domestic policy messaging, not in legislative bargaining.
That matters now. Trump faces a Congress controlled by the opposition, a stalled agenda and a party arguing about whether to moderate. Some Republicans had hoped the result would push the White House toward the center. The Miller appointment suggests the opposite.
Democrats signaled they will use hearings and subpoena power to press the administration on immigration enforcement and on the National Guard deployments in Washington. Miller, who has spent a decade arguing for tougher enforcement, will be the official standing between the president and those fights.