Stephen Miller Replaces Susie Wiles as Trump’s Chief of Staff

Stephen Miller will become White House chief of staff on Monday, Nov. 9, President Donald Trump announced on Friday. Miller, 41, replaces Susie Wiles and has been Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy. Wiles moves to Trump’s political operation after 21 months in the job.

The change comes three days after Republicans lost both chambers of Congress. It puts the aide most associated with Trump’s immigration agenda in charge of who and what reaches the president. It also lands just as Democrats prepare to investigate the administration from January. Our explainer covers what changes when Democrats take over Congress.

What Trump posted, and what Wiles said

Trump announced the move on Truth Social at 1:51 p.m. ET on Friday. We read the post on the Trump’s Truth archive of his account. It reads in full:

“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. Susie Wiles, who has done an outstanding job, will be moving over to the Trump Political Operation. I want to thank her for her service as Chief of Staff — She has done a great job!”

Later, Trump told reporters the timing was not about the vote. “Not because of the election. It’s just time,” he said, according to the Associated Press. We read the AP story on NBC Washington, since apnews.com blocks our fetcher. Trump called Miller a “Great manager” who “gets it; very good politically.”

Wiles posted her own statement on X. “Today is my last day as White House Chief of Staff,” she wrote, Fox News reported. “While my role may be changing, my commitment to the President and the mission never will,” she added, according to NPR.

CBS News reported that Wiles resigned on Thursday night. Three sources tied her exit to the midterm losses, CBS said. She had planned to stay through the lame-duck session, but Trump moved her exit forward.

Hours before the announcement, Trump told 60 Minutes he expected some firings after the midterms. “I do, yeah. Little bit,” he told correspondent Ross Douthat, CBS reported. The interview airs Sunday at 7 p.m. ET.

Who Stephen Miller is

Miller joined Trump’s 2016 campaign as a speechwriter and is one of his longest-serving aides, the AP reported. In the second term he was White House homeland security adviser, then deputy chief of staff for policy. CBS calls him “the architect of the president’s immigration enforcement and deportation program.”

CBS News traced his record through both terms. In the first, he helped develop and defend the travel ban on several Muslim-majority countries. The Supreme Court upheld a later version in 2018.

He also backed the 2018 zero-tolerance border policy, which separated thousands of families. Refugee admissions fell to a 15,000 ceiling for fiscal 2021, which he had pushed for.

In May 2025, he pressed for at least 3,000 immigration arrests a day. He championed deportations under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act and supported sending migrants to third countries, CBS reported. The AP adds that he has been a major part of an anti-fraud task force on benefit programs. In the midterm campaign, he called Democrats “extremists, freaks and America-hating lunatics” on social media, the AP reported.

What a White House chief of staff controls

A chief’s power is whatever the president hands over. The nonpartisan White House Transition Project wrote a 2021 brief on the job for incoming staff. Its authors, political scientists Charles Walcott and David Cohen, split it into managing and advising.

In most White Houses, nearly the whole staff reports to the president through the chief’s office. The staff secretary runs the flow of decision memos, “though the chief will ultimately determine what goes into the Oval Office,” the authors write. The chief also decides who gets meetings with the president.

The brief says the ideal chief is an “honest broker” who presents every relevant view “without spin.” Cohen told NPR on Friday that the chief is often “the last person talking to the president.”

That is the real change for Miller. The aide who has pushed hardest for one set of policies will now run the process that decides which competing views reach Trump.

Wiles outlasted every first-term chief

The AP calls Wiles the longest-serving chief of staff of Trump’s presidency, and the first woman in the post. We counted 655 days from Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, 2025, to her last day on Nov. 6, 2026. That is about 21.5 months.

The first-term years below come from the Transition Project’s appendix.

In 2021 the Transition Project wrote that Trump “chafed at being ‘managed'” in his first term. A chief who takes over mid-term, it says, needs some of his own people in key jobs. He also needs the president’s promise of power to hire and fire. Watch for both from Miller.

Reactions split along party lines

Administration Republicans praised both moves, Fox News reported. Vice President JD Vance said he was “very grateful to Susie for her friendship and service.” Communications director Steven Cheung called Miller “a Trump OG.”

Not every Republican has backed Miller. In March, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina told CNN that Miller is “a big problem in this administration.” The Guardian reported the remark in a story we read on The Irish Times.

Democratic leaders condemned the pick. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called Miller “a dangerous xenophobe and reckless extremist who has American blood on his hands.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said, “Donald Trump learned nothing from his historic defeat.”

Rep. Robert Garcia, in line to chair the House Oversight Committee, said Miller “should lawyer up,” CBS reported.

Fox News, citing Reuters, reported that Miller has worked since April on executive actions with budget director Russell Vought and White House lawyers. They cover immigration, tariffs, housing costs and spending. Those actions matter more once Democrats take both chambers at noon on Jan. 3, the date set by the 20th Amendment. Our results story has the seat counts.

Miller starts on Monday, the day after the 60 Minutes interview airs.