Trump Elevates Stephen Miller, a Fiery Hard-Liner, to Chief of Staff
The promotion of Mr. Miller, who has led the administration’s immigration crackdown, signals a doubling down by the president on policies that voters decisively rejected in the midterm elections.
November 6, 2026
New York Times
Here’s the latest:
President Trump is elevating Stephen Miller, his powerful domestic policy adviser, to be his next chief of staff in the wake of shattering Republican losses in the midterm elections. The decision to replace Susie Wiles, set to take effect on Monday, will fundamentally shift the circle of advisers around the president.
Mr. Miller, a deeply ideological Trump loyalist, has been the architect of some of the most polarizing domestic policies in Mr. Trump’s second term. His promotion signals an aggressive doubling-down by Mr. Trump days after voters delivered a decisive rebuke of his handling of a range of issues, including the economy, the war with Iran and the aggressive deportation campaign directed by Mr. Miller.
The Republican wipeout has inflamed tensions within the administration, as officials brace for congressional investigations by Democrats and further turnover in the West Wing and the cabinet. Mr. Miller’s pitch for the job as the gatekeeper to the president, according to people who heard it, was that Mr. Trump needed to wind down the Iran war, a conflict that the president’s core supporters viewed as a betrayal.
People familiar with Mr. Miller’s views say he is also likely to steer the president away from his early instinct after Tuesday’s losses to seek deals with Democrats. That could involve leaning even more into culture war issues, such as hard-line immigration enforcement and efforts to target diversity initiatives.
Democrats immediately criticized the decision, and Mr. Miller. Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the New York Democrat who is poised to be the next House speaker, called Mr. Miller “a dangerous xenophobe” who should have been fired instead. Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader, said that handing Mr. Miller an even more powerful role showed that Mr. Trump had “learned nothing” from Republicans’ losses on Election Day.
Ms. Wiles, who said Friday would be her last day, is the highest-ranking White House official to leave in the wake of the midterm elections, which cost Republican majorities in the House and Senate. The first woman to hold the top staff job in the West Wing, she helped steer Mr. Trump to his election victory in 2024 but now joins a recent exodus of high-profile women from the administration in his second term.
Here’s what else to know:
Miller’s move: For weeks, Mr. Miller had been making known his interest in the job if Ms. Wiles left, and Mr. Trump had been asking people privately in recent days what they thought about him for the job.
Loyal ally: Mr. Miller, 41, has worked for President Trump since his first presidential campaign, served all four years in the White House during the president’s first term and has amassed immense power since Mr. Trump retook office.
Internal criticism: Before the departure of Ms. Wiles was announced on Friday, a former Trump health official, Calley Means, accused her of bowing to “unrelenting” pressure from industry lobbyists while prioritizing political fund-raising over Americans’ health.
In Elevating Stephen Miller, Trump Doubles Down on Hard-Line Agenda
The new White House chief of staff is responsible for some of the most provocative policies of President Trump’s second term, as well as an aggressive approach to executive power.
Listen · 8:13 minutes
VIDEO:
https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/politics/100000011269719/trump-stephen-miller-chief-of-staff.html?smid=url-share
Stephen Miller has replaced Susie Wiles as President Trump’s White House chief of staff. Miller is the hard-line policy adviser responsible for many of Trump’s most aggressive immigration policies. Credit: Alex Kent/The New York Times
by Maggie Haberman Jonathan Swan and Tyler Pager
November 6, 2026
New York Times
In the initial days after the staggering rebuke Republicans suffered in Tuesday’s midterm elections, President Trump appeared subdued — almost conciliatory.
He said he would work with Democrats, claiming as he has over the years that he could forge a deal with them on immigration, perhaps the most polarizing domestic issue of his second term.
But near the week’s end, instead of ceding to the clear evidence of voter displeasure, Mr. Trump pivoted to a familiar move: more MAGA.
On Friday, the president ousted his onetime close adviser, Susie Wiles, from the role of White House chief of staff, replacing her with Stephen Miller, his deputy chief of staff. More than any other top adviser, Mr. Miller encouraged an aggressive flexing of executive power when Mr. Trump returned to office.
Mr. Miller has been the driver of the president’s most muscular actions, including the use of increasingly hostile tactics to capture immigrants across the country and the bombing of small boats in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean that he and Mr. Trump declared constituted a foreign invasion.
The president’s choice sent a clear signal about the posture he intends to strike in his final two years in office and how little he intends to alter his approach in response to the most decisive political rout in half a century. He also put on center stage a figure who had already been a galvanizing target for Democrats intent on using their new powers in Congress to check the administration.
In a social media post, Mr. Miller praised Mr. Trump as “the most transformative political leader” in U.S. history, saying that he had “single-handedly saved America from those who would destroy it.”
“The mission now is more clear than ever: Fight with all of our soul to support our president and defend this magnificent Republic,” he added.
People close to Mr. Miller said he had shown no interest in compromising with congressional Democrats and was ready for a fight over subpoenas and investigations that are expected to emanate from the Hill. His top priority, they said, is rebuilding the fractured MAGA coalition and pursuing policies that will energize the voters who elected Mr. Trump in 2024.
“Stephen is and always has been the eternal flame of the MAGA movement — putting the president’s words and policy into action,” Hunter Morgen, who worked as a deputy to Mr. Miller during the president’s first term and is now a lobbyist at Ballard Partners, wrote in a text message.
While Ms. Wiles made clear she did not consider her job to be protecting the country from the president, as some of his first-term senior aides did, Mr. Miller is far more willing than she ever was to push legal boundaries.
He knows how the levers of government function. He is one of two top West Wing staff members who were part of the first administration when the House majority flipped in 2018, prompting a blitz of subpoenas from Congress.
Mr. Miller spent the years between Mr. Trump’s two terms recruiting a team that would help him put in place a sweeping agenda once back in power. Today, he has allies among the lawyers in key agencies across the executive branch, as well as a running dialogue with Attorney General Todd Blanche and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Mr. Hegseth celebrated Mr. Miller’s promotion with several posts on social media. “Huge CONGRATS,” he wrote, calling Mr. Miller “a true patriot and America First fighter.” He followed that with a post that declared: “Patriots in control,” and a subsequent one that included a picture of himself and Mr. Miller.
Still, Mr. Miller’s allies have indicated that he understands the Iran war has been a political disaster, and believes the president needs to get back to policies that are popular with the MAGA base.
While Ms. Wiles may be staying in Mr. Trump’s orbit by moving to the president’s outside political operation in a still undefined role, her departure and the ascent of Mr. Miller will fundamentally shift the circle of advisers around the president as the White House absorbs the shock of the midterm elections.
“I wanted to make a change,” Mr. Trump told reporters as he departed the White House for a trip to Florida. Ms. Wiles did a “great job,” he said, but added: “Sometimes in life, you have to make moves.”
Asked what he wanted Mr. Miller to do differently than Ms. Wiles, who he had previously claimed wasn’t going anywhere, the president said, “Just run things well.”
The new White House chief of staff is responsible for some of the most provocative policies of President Trump’s second term, as well as an aggressive approach to executive power.
Listen · 8:13 minutes
VIDEO:
https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/politics/100000011269719/trump-stephen-miller-chief-of-staff.html?smid=url-share
Stephen Miller has replaced Susie Wiles as President Trump’s White House chief of staff. Miller is the hard-line policy adviser responsible for many of Trump’s most aggressive immigration policies. Credit: Alex Kent/The New York Times
by Maggie Haberman Jonathan Swan and Tyler Pager
November 6, 2026
New York Times
In the initial days after the staggering rebuke Republicans suffered in Tuesday’s midterm elections, President Trump appeared subdued — almost conciliatory.
He said he would work with Democrats, claiming as he has over the years that he could forge a deal with them on immigration, perhaps the most polarizing domestic issue of his second term.
But near the week’s end, instead of ceding to the clear evidence of voter displeasure, Mr. Trump pivoted to a familiar move: more MAGA.
On Friday, the president ousted his onetime close adviser, Susie Wiles, from the role of White House chief of staff, replacing her with Stephen Miller, his deputy chief of staff. More than any other top adviser, Mr. Miller encouraged an aggressive flexing of executive power when Mr. Trump returned to office.
Mr. Miller has been the driver of the president’s most muscular actions, including the use of increasingly hostile tactics to capture immigrants across the country and the bombing of small boats in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean that he and Mr. Trump declared constituted a foreign invasion.
The president’s choice sent a clear signal about the posture he intends to strike in his final two years in office and how little he intends to alter his approach in response to the most decisive political rout in half a century. He also put on center stage a figure who had already been a galvanizing target for Democrats intent on using their new powers in Congress to check the administration.
In a social media post, Mr. Miller praised Mr. Trump as “the most transformative political leader” in U.S. history, saying that he had “single-handedly saved America from those who would destroy it.”
“The mission now is more clear than ever: Fight with all of our soul to support our president and defend this magnificent Republic,” he added.
People close to Mr. Miller said he had shown no interest in compromising with congressional Democrats and was ready for a fight over subpoenas and investigations that are expected to emanate from the Hill. His top priority, they said, is rebuilding the fractured MAGA coalition and pursuing policies that will energize the voters who elected Mr. Trump in 2024.
“Stephen is and always has been the eternal flame of the MAGA movement — putting the president’s words and policy into action,” Hunter Morgen, who worked as a deputy to Mr. Miller during the president’s first term and is now a lobbyist at Ballard Partners, wrote in a text message.
While Ms. Wiles made clear she did not consider her job to be protecting the country from the president, as some of his first-term senior aides did, Mr. Miller is far more willing than she ever was to push legal boundaries.
He knows how the levers of government function. He is one of two top West Wing staff members who were part of the first administration when the House majority flipped in 2018, prompting a blitz of subpoenas from Congress.
Mr. Miller spent the years between Mr. Trump’s two terms recruiting a team that would help him put in place a sweeping agenda once back in power. Today, he has allies among the lawyers in key agencies across the executive branch, as well as a running dialogue with Attorney General Todd Blanche and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Mr. Hegseth celebrated Mr. Miller’s promotion with several posts on social media. “Huge CONGRATS,” he wrote, calling Mr. Miller “a true patriot and America First fighter.” He followed that with a post that declared: “Patriots in control,” and a subsequent one that included a picture of himself and Mr. Miller.
Still, Mr. Miller’s allies have indicated that he understands the Iran war has been a political disaster, and believes the president needs to get back to policies that are popular with the MAGA base.
While Ms. Wiles may be staying in Mr. Trump’s orbit by moving to the president’s outside political operation in a still undefined role, her departure and the ascent of Mr. Miller will fundamentally shift the circle of advisers around the president as the White House absorbs the shock of the midterm elections.
“I wanted to make a change,” Mr. Trump told reporters as he departed the White House for a trip to Florida. Ms. Wiles did a “great job,” he said, but added: “Sometimes in life, you have to make moves.”
Asked what he wanted Mr. Miller to do differently than Ms. Wiles, who he had previously claimed wasn’t going anywhere, the president said, “Just run things well.”
I
Ms. Wiles, the first woman to hold the top staff job in the West Wing, played a central role in President Trump’s return to power. Credit: Doug Mills/The New York Times
Mr. Trump, in his private conversations as well as his public remarks, has not accepted blame for the election results.
Instead, he repeatedly blasted Ms. Wiles and his other political advisers, insisting he was poorly served in the lead-up to the midterms. He criticized Ms. Wiles in front of several people at an East Room election watch party Tuesday night, according to people with knowledge of the incident, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal conversations.
Mr. Trump has also been privately critical of James Blair, Ms. Wiles’s ally, who ran the president’s outside political operation, people with knowledge of the comments said.
Mr. Trump publicly expressed his confidence in Ms. Wiles in recent months. But behind the scenes, there were signs that her standing with the president was shaky, according to officials with knowledge of the dynamics.
He has berated Ms. Wiles in front of other staff members about his frustrations that his administration has not moved faster to find people he brands as “leakers,” as well as the stalled prosecutions of his perceived political enemies, they said. In front of several advisers, he would accuse her of being among the leakers.
Mr. Trump began cutting Ms. Wiles out of hiring decisions, including when he chose an inexperienced television pundit to replace the departing press secretary, Karoline Leavitt.
Allies of Ms. Wiles described her as prepared to leave her role, and uninterested in fighting to stay in it. Her supporters saw the criticism of her as an effort to assign blame for a political and policy strategy largely driven by Mr. Trump himself. And they faulted her detractors inside and outside the administration for spreading information meant to undercut her with Mr. Trump, including stories about her daughter’s lobbying work.
In her own statement posted on social media, Ms. Wiles described working for Mr. Trump in the White House as the “honor of a lifetime.”
“While my role may be changing, my commitment to the President and the mission never will,” she added.
Ms. Wiles, the first woman to hold the top staff job in the West Wing, helped steer Mr. Trump to his election victory in 2024, playing a central role in his return to power four years after his loss to Joseph R. Biden Jr.
She was diagnosed with breast cancer in early 2026. Ms. Wiles stayed in her role as she started treatment and recently announced that she was cancer free.
Ms. Wiles came into the job having established a rapport with Mr. Trump and a level of trust that none of his four first-term chiefs of staff had enjoyed.
She tried to influence his decisions on core issues including his immigration crackdown, even if only on the margins, according to people with knowledge of her role. She pushed for the appointments of Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and both have been seen by many outside the government as stabilizing figures.
But Mr. Trump has relied primarily on his own instincts this term, and few advisers have engaged him in the kind of direct confrontations over policy that characterized his first administration.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Maggie Haberman is a White House correspondent for The Times, reporting on President Trump.
Jonathan Swan is a White House reporter for The Times, covering the administration of Donald J. Trump. Contact him securely on Signal: @jonathan.941
Tyler Pager is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration.
A version of this article appears in print on Nov. 7, 2026, Section A, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Miller Promoted To Top Trump Aide In Staff Shakeup
Mr. Trump, in his private conversations as well as his public remarks, has not accepted blame for the election results.
Instead, he repeatedly blasted Ms. Wiles and his other political advisers, insisting he was poorly served in the lead-up to the midterms. He criticized Ms. Wiles in front of several people at an East Room election watch party Tuesday night, according to people with knowledge of the incident, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal conversations.
Mr. Trump has also been privately critical of James Blair, Ms. Wiles’s ally, who ran the president’s outside political operation, people with knowledge of the comments said.
Mr. Trump publicly expressed his confidence in Ms. Wiles in recent months. But behind the scenes, there were signs that her standing with the president was shaky, according to officials with knowledge of the dynamics.
He has berated Ms. Wiles in front of other staff members about his frustrations that his administration has not moved faster to find people he brands as “leakers,” as well as the stalled prosecutions of his perceived political enemies, they said. In front of several advisers, he would accuse her of being among the leakers.
Mr. Trump began cutting Ms. Wiles out of hiring decisions, including when he chose an inexperienced television pundit to replace the departing press secretary, Karoline Leavitt.
Allies of Ms. Wiles described her as prepared to leave her role, and uninterested in fighting to stay in it. Her supporters saw the criticism of her as an effort to assign blame for a political and policy strategy largely driven by Mr. Trump himself. And they faulted her detractors inside and outside the administration for spreading information meant to undercut her with Mr. Trump, including stories about her daughter’s lobbying work.
In her own statement posted on social media, Ms. Wiles described working for Mr. Trump in the White House as the “honor of a lifetime.”
“While my role may be changing, my commitment to the President and the mission never will,” she added.
Ms. Wiles, the first woman to hold the top staff job in the West Wing, helped steer Mr. Trump to his election victory in 2024, playing a central role in his return to power four years after his loss to Joseph R. Biden Jr.
She was diagnosed with breast cancer in early 2026. Ms. Wiles stayed in her role as she started treatment and recently announced that she was cancer free.
Ms. Wiles came into the job having established a rapport with Mr. Trump and a level of trust that none of his four first-term chiefs of staff had enjoyed.
She tried to influence his decisions on core issues including his immigration crackdown, even if only on the margins, according to people with knowledge of her role. She pushed for the appointments of Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and both have been seen by many outside the government as stabilizing figures.
But Mr. Trump has relied primarily on his own instincts this term, and few advisers have engaged him in the kind of direct confrontations over policy that characterized his first administration.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Maggie Haberman is a White House correspondent for The Times, reporting on President Trump.
Jonathan Swan is a White House reporter for The Times, covering the administration of Donald J. Trump. Contact him securely on Signal: @jonathan.941
Tyler Pager is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration.
A version of this article appears in print on Nov. 7, 2026, Section A, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Miller Promoted To Top Trump Aide In Staff Shakeup
Trump’s elevation of Stephen Miller a middle finger to millions of voters
David Smith in Washington
Architect of Trump’s far-right immigration agenda is now most powerful unelected figure in government – it suggests White House is moving to a war footing
Saturday 7 November 2026
The Guardian
Architect of Trump’s far-right immigration agenda is now most powerful unelected figure in government – it suggests White House is moving to a war footing
Saturday 7 November 2026
The Guardian
PHOTO: Stephen Miller outside the White House in October. Photograph: Annabelle Gordon/Reuters
Donald Trump just gave the middle finger to millions of American voters.
Any other president who suffered the kind of drubbing at the polls that Trump did this week might have felt at least a sliver of humility – and perhaps even an obligation to work with the new opposition in Congress.
But not for the first time in his political career, Trump veered in the opposite direction. On Friday he made Stephen Miller, condemned by Democrats and civil rights groups as a white nationalist, one of the most powerful unelected officials in Washington by naming him White House chief of staff.
What happens after the ‘blue wave’? Your questions on the US midterm election results answered
Read more
Miller is the architect of Trump’s far-right, nativist immigration agenda. He is, therefore, arguably the architect of the blue wave that engulfed Republicans in Tuesday’s midterm elections as voters – including many Latinos – expressed their disgust. Yet instead of firing Miller, Trump promoted him.
It was a declaration of war. Miller, 41, is a longtime proponent of the presidential authority that Trump has spent the past two years expanding at the expense of Congress. In 2017 he declared: “The powers of the president to protect our country are very substantial and will not be questioned.”
Now Republicans’ catastrophic defeat is likely to leave Trump more reliant on unilateral executive action than ever to advance his domestic agenda.
“In a lot of ways Stephen Miller has been the id to Trump’s authoritarian impulses and machinations,” Kurt Bardella, an adviser to Democrats in Texas, said. “I have to imagine that anointing this person chief of staff – the most powerful non-elected position in all of government – is a signal that they intend to double down on that authoritarianism.
“You’re going to see a lot of executive orders, unilateral action and stress testing of the checks and balances system continue for the final two years of his presidency.”
Trump’s second term has presented a concerted effort to dismantle those checks and balances that have traditionally constrained the occupant of the White House. He has signed 292 executive orders in less than two years, more than in his entire first term and a record pace for a modern presidency.
He has bypassed Congress on military action and tariffs, withheld congressionally approved spending, deployed the National Guard against the will of state authorities, politicised the justice department, punished critics and challenged judicial independence. Congress, dominated by Republicans reluctant to confront him, offered little resistance.
But this week’s landslide, the biggest in a midterm election since Watergate, puts Democrats back in charge of the House of Representatives and Senate. That the elections were free and fair, and that Trump did not dispute the result, was itself a victory for democracy.
Democrats will now seek to rein in the president and block his legislative agenda, bringing them into direct conflict with Miller, who was already a hugely powerful deputy chief of staff at the White House and now takes over from Susie Wiles.
Miller has been a champion of the Iran war and prominent voice on many of the president’s other priorities, including countering diversity initiatives and targeting transgender rights. He is reportedly one of a small group of White House staffers who approve all executive orders.
He is best known for driving the immigration crackdown in Trump’s second term, setting a target of 3,000 arrests per day – far above levels under previous administrations. He has pushed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to target anybody in the country illegally, not just those with criminal records.
There are limits on what Democrats can do to stop the immigration drive since the One Big Beautiful Bill Act included major increases for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that will keep it funded for the rest of Trump’s term.
Even so, they will now chair House committees with the ability to launch investigations, issue subpoenas and hold high profile hearings. Along with ICE, they might scrutinise Jeffrey Epstein files and the department of government efficiency (Doge). They have also vowed to look at how Trump and his family have become wealthier since he returned to office.
The appointment of the pugnacious Miller as Trump’s consigliere suggests that the White House is moving to a war footing. He is likely to marshal a team of lawyers and attack Democrats by accusing them of weaponising the deep state against the president. As a frequent guest on the conservative Fox News network, he will also wage war in the court of public opinion.
“Trump’s decision to elevate Stephen Miller means that he’s spoiling for a fight with Democrats and they’re going to just rely on executive action to try and push their agenda through,” said David Cohen, a political science professor at the University of Akron in Ohio, who studies the American presidency and White House staffing.
Cohen added: “It’s a White House that doesn’t seek out cooperation with Congress. It’s their way or the highway, essentially, and it’s possible Stephen Miller is relishing this because he’s a believer in the unitary presidency and executive presidential action and he views this as a way where he can expand the powers of the presidency.”
Trump is not the first president to seek to consolidate authority. Arthur Schlesinger Jr’s 1973 book The Imperial Presidency warned that an accumulation of presidential power threatened the constitutional separation of powers.
In 1989 the American Enterprise Institute thinktank published The Fettered Presidency, a counterpoint arguing that legal and congressional constraints had unduly weakened the executive. It helped inspire a modern conservative drive to expand presidential authority, which accelerated under George W Bush and was subsequently exploited by Barack Obama as congressional gridlock made legislating increasingly difficult.
The combination of Trump and Miller, however, takes the concept of an American Caesar to a new extreme – and flies in the face of the verdict delivered by the electorate on Tuesday.
“It’s a step that I find hard to fathom except as the president giving the middle finger to the American public,” said Bill Galston, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution thinktank in Washington.
“In the same way that he ransacked the state of Texas for the very worst senatorial nominee imaginable, now he’s done the same thing with the chief of staff position. This is simply outrageous.”
Explore more on these topics
Donald Trump
Democrats
US politics
US midterm elections 2026
Trump administration
Republicans
analysis
Donald Trump just gave the middle finger to millions of American voters.
Any other president who suffered the kind of drubbing at the polls that Trump did this week might have felt at least a sliver of humility – and perhaps even an obligation to work with the new opposition in Congress.
But not for the first time in his political career, Trump veered in the opposite direction. On Friday he made Stephen Miller, condemned by Democrats and civil rights groups as a white nationalist, one of the most powerful unelected officials in Washington by naming him White House chief of staff.
What happens after the ‘blue wave’? Your questions on the US midterm election results answered
Read more
Miller is the architect of Trump’s far-right, nativist immigration agenda. He is, therefore, arguably the architect of the blue wave that engulfed Republicans in Tuesday’s midterm elections as voters – including many Latinos – expressed their disgust. Yet instead of firing Miller, Trump promoted him.
It was a declaration of war. Miller, 41, is a longtime proponent of the presidential authority that Trump has spent the past two years expanding at the expense of Congress. In 2017 he declared: “The powers of the president to protect our country are very substantial and will not be questioned.”
Now Republicans’ catastrophic defeat is likely to leave Trump more reliant on unilateral executive action than ever to advance his domestic agenda.
“In a lot of ways Stephen Miller has been the id to Trump’s authoritarian impulses and machinations,” Kurt Bardella, an adviser to Democrats in Texas, said. “I have to imagine that anointing this person chief of staff – the most powerful non-elected position in all of government – is a signal that they intend to double down on that authoritarianism.
“You’re going to see a lot of executive orders, unilateral action and stress testing of the checks and balances system continue for the final two years of his presidency.”
Trump’s second term has presented a concerted effort to dismantle those checks and balances that have traditionally constrained the occupant of the White House. He has signed 292 executive orders in less than two years, more than in his entire first term and a record pace for a modern presidency.
He has bypassed Congress on military action and tariffs, withheld congressionally approved spending, deployed the National Guard against the will of state authorities, politicised the justice department, punished critics and challenged judicial independence. Congress, dominated by Republicans reluctant to confront him, offered little resistance.
But this week’s landslide, the biggest in a midterm election since Watergate, puts Democrats back in charge of the House of Representatives and Senate. That the elections were free and fair, and that Trump did not dispute the result, was itself a victory for democracy.
Democrats will now seek to rein in the president and block his legislative agenda, bringing them into direct conflict with Miller, who was already a hugely powerful deputy chief of staff at the White House and now takes over from Susie Wiles.
Miller has been a champion of the Iran war and prominent voice on many of the president’s other priorities, including countering diversity initiatives and targeting transgender rights. He is reportedly one of a small group of White House staffers who approve all executive orders.
He is best known for driving the immigration crackdown in Trump’s second term, setting a target of 3,000 arrests per day – far above levels under previous administrations. He has pushed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to target anybody in the country illegally, not just those with criminal records.
There are limits on what Democrats can do to stop the immigration drive since the One Big Beautiful Bill Act included major increases for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that will keep it funded for the rest of Trump’s term.
Even so, they will now chair House committees with the ability to launch investigations, issue subpoenas and hold high profile hearings. Along with ICE, they might scrutinise Jeffrey Epstein files and the department of government efficiency (Doge). They have also vowed to look at how Trump and his family have become wealthier since he returned to office.
The appointment of the pugnacious Miller as Trump’s consigliere suggests that the White House is moving to a war footing. He is likely to marshal a team of lawyers and attack Democrats by accusing them of weaponising the deep state against the president. As a frequent guest on the conservative Fox News network, he will also wage war in the court of public opinion.
“Trump’s decision to elevate Stephen Miller means that he’s spoiling for a fight with Democrats and they’re going to just rely on executive action to try and push their agenda through,” said David Cohen, a political science professor at the University of Akron in Ohio, who studies the American presidency and White House staffing.
Cohen added: “It’s a White House that doesn’t seek out cooperation with Congress. It’s their way or the highway, essentially, and it’s possible Stephen Miller is relishing this because he’s a believer in the unitary presidency and executive presidential action and he views this as a way where he can expand the powers of the presidency.”
Trump is not the first president to seek to consolidate authority. Arthur Schlesinger Jr’s 1973 book The Imperial Presidency warned that an accumulation of presidential power threatened the constitutional separation of powers.
In 1989 the American Enterprise Institute thinktank published The Fettered Presidency, a counterpoint arguing that legal and congressional constraints had unduly weakened the executive. It helped inspire a modern conservative drive to expand presidential authority, which accelerated under George W Bush and was subsequently exploited by Barack Obama as congressional gridlock made legislating increasingly difficult.
The combination of Trump and Miller, however, takes the concept of an American Caesar to a new extreme – and flies in the face of the verdict delivered by the electorate on Tuesday.
“It’s a step that I find hard to fathom except as the president giving the middle finger to the American public,” said Bill Galston, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution thinktank in Washington.
“In the same way that he ransacked the state of Texas for the very worst senatorial nominee imaginable, now he’s done the same thing with the chief of staff position. This is simply outrageous.”
Explore more on these topics
Donald Trump
Democrats
US politics
US midterm elections 2026
Trump administration
Republicans
analysis
