Stephen Miller replaces Susie Wiles as Trump’s White House chief of staff after GOP’s midterm defeat

(AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday that Stephen Miller was replacing Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff, installing as his closest adviser a loyal, combative bulldog for his “America First” agenda as the president prepares to stare down a newly empowered Democratic Congress next year.

Incoming White House chief of staff Stephen Miller walks to board Marine One with President Donald Trump on the South Lawn of the White House, Friday, Nov. 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)

Miller, long a key member of Trump’s inner circle, is a key architect of the administration’s hard-line immigration policies. He is one of Trump’s longest-serving aides, joining his long-shot 2016 presidential campaign as a speechwriter. He most recently has served as White House deputy chief of staff for policy and oversees a broad portfolio, though he is best known for his role in Trump’s immigration policy.

The staff shuffle signals that Trump, whose Republican Party was handed monumental defeats in Tuesday’s midterm elections, is resisting a conciliatory approach to Democratic lawmakers who are eager to investigate the administration — including Miller himself as a top target. Miller, 41, is a dogged defender of Trump and has built a deep and sophisticated understanding of a president’s executive power and how the federal government operates, portending a potential burst of executive actions in the final two years of Trump’s presidency.

Wiles gave Trump her resignation on Thursday night, a person familiar with the events told the Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe the private conversation. Trump praised Wiles and said she’d continue to work for his political organization.

Wiles, the steely political operator and longtime adviser to Trump, was the first woman to ever serve in that post and the longest-serving White House chief of staff for Trump, who cycled through four of them during his first four-year term.

“Serving President Trump in the White House has been the honor of a lifetime. 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,” Wiles said in a social media post shortly after Trump’s announcement.

The departure also came months after Wiles indicated she no longer showed evidence of breast cancer after she underwent months of treatment for the disease, a diagnosis she went public with in March 2026.

Miller is tied to immigration policies that voters said went too far

During the midterm campaign, Miller took frequent partisan swipes at Democrats, calling them “extremists, freaks and America-hating lunatics” on social media and promoting unfounded theories about election fraud in California and Alaska.

He has been a major part of the Trump administration’s anti-fraud task force targeting benefit programs and a decision to suspend Microsoft and others from a green card program. He also served as homeland security adviser at the White House, giving him a perch from which to coordinate with other agencies across the government.

He joined Trump on Friday for his trip to Florida, and the president noted to reporters that “Stephen has been with me from the beginning.

“He gets it; very good politically,” Trump said as he departed the White House. “He’ll do a great job. Great manager.”

But the immigration policies that Miller is so closely associated with were a major liability for Republicans during the just-wrapped election. The midterm AP Voter Poll found that most voters, about 6 in 10, said the administration’s immigration enforcement actions had gone too far and that they “somewhat” or “strongly” disapproved of how Immigration and Customs Enforcement had handled its responsibilities.

“Just days after the American people rejected his corrupt and lawless presidency, Donald Trump is doubling down,” said Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., who is set to become chairman of the powerful House Oversight Committee. “Stephen Miller is the architect of the unconstitutional ICE raids that have terrorized our communities and kidnapped and killed American citizens and immigrant families.”

In a statement, Garcia added: “Stephen Miller should lawyer up.”

Wiles brought order to Trump’s campaign

Trump on Friday praised Wiles, the veteran Florida operative who joined Trump’s team during his 2016 presidential bid, as having done a “very good job, great job.”

But he added, “Sometimes in life, you have to make moves.”

Wiles, 69, is the second woman to lead Trump’s presidential campaign to victory, although she never embraced the formal title of campaign manager.

She has been credited with steering the most disciplined of his three presidential bids, and Trump himself has said he was often told that Wiles led his “best-run campaign.” Often called the “ice maiden” by the president, she was seen as the no-brainer choice to serve as White House chief of staff at the start of his second term.

Wiles stuck with the job even after her breast cancer diagnosis. Deep into the midterm campaign, six months after having revealed her diagnosis, she said she was “cancer-free,” indicating she no longer showed evidence of cancer after her pathology results came back clear.

In a rare interview, Wiles told Fox News Digital last month that she hadn’t been planning on getting the mammogram that ultimately detected her cancer. Her doctor suggested she do the exam anyway, because a mammogram machine was available that day and her schedule was too busy and unpredictable.

Wiles, the daughter of the late NFL player-turned-broadcaster Pat Summerall, cut her reputation as someone who brought discipline to the president’s chaotic style and shunned the spotlight, so much so that at Trump’s 2024 election night victory party, she repeatedly shook her head and avoided the microphone as Trump tried to coax her to speak to the crowd.

In addition to Trump, Wiles also ran incumbent Sen. Rick Scott’s 2010 campaign for Florida governor and briefly served as manager of former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman’s 2012 presidential campaign. She spearheaded Ron DeSantis ’ successful run for governor in 2018, but DeSantis would eventually urge the Trump campaign in 2020 to cut ties with Wiles, creating a rift that led to a particularly vicious effort by those in Trump’s orbit to mock DeSantis throughout his failed run for the Republican presidential nomination against Trump in 2024.

Wiles once said Trump had ‘an alcoholic’s personality’

But in December 2025, nearing the end of Trump’s first year back as president, Wiles became the headline when Vanity Fair magazine published a series of interviews with her and other top Trump administration officials conducted by the author Chris Whipple, an expert on White House chiefs of staff.

The Wiles interviews stuck out for their candor, which is unusual for a sitting White House chief of staff. She said Trump has an “alcoholic’s personality,” although the president does not drink, and said then-Attorney General Pam Bondi had “whiffed” in her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files while remarking that Vice President JD Vance has been a “conspiracy theorist for about a decade.”

Trump and other administration aides rushed to defend Wiles, who, in turn, disparaged Vanity Fair for publishing what she called a “disingenuously framed hit piece,” though she did not deny making the comments.

In the interviews, which were conducted over a period of several months, Wiles also revealed a bit of her management style, saying she was “not an enabler.”

“I try to be thoughtful about what I even engage in,” Wiles said. “I guess time will tell whether I’ve been effective.”