Live Updates: Stephen Miller to Replace Susie Wiles as Trump’s Chief of Staff

 

Updated 

Nov. 6, 2026, 3:18 p.m. ET1 minute ago

Live Updates: Stephen Miller to Replace Susie Wiles as Trump’s Chief of Staff

Mr. Miller, a domestic policy adviser, has driven the administration’s immigration crackdown. The staff shake-up follows sweeping losses for Republicans in the midterm elections.

Stephen Miller with President Trump in the Oval Office in August.Credit...Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

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Nov. 6, 2026, 3:18 p.m. ET1 minute ago

Maggie HabermanJonathan Swan and Tyler Pager

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/11/06/us/trump-miller-wiles-chief-of-staff

 

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 he announced Friday to replace Susie Wiles 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, and his promotion comes days after voters delivered a decisive rebuke of the president and his actions. Mr. Trump’s choice elevates the driving force behind a federal crackdown on immigration that cost his party significant political support, especially along the southern border, just as Democrats take control of Congress.

Democrats immediately criticized Mr. Trump’s move. 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 Mr. Miller’s elevation showed that Mr. Trump “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 and served as a rebuke of Mr. Trump’s handling of the economy and the war with Iran.

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 the president needed to wind down the Iran war, a conflict that the president’s core supporters viewed as a betrayal.

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. In departing, she joins a recent exodus of high-profile women from the administration in Mr. Trump’s 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.