Updated November 6, 2026 at 12:42 PM PST
White House chief of staff Susie Wiles is being replaced by Stephen Miller, President Trump said Friday.
The change comes after Republicans were swept out of power during this week's midterm elections and marks a defiant note from Trump. Miller has been the architect of many of Trump's most controversial policies, dating back to his first term, particularly on immigration. Data show voters this week supported Democrats in part because of Trump's aggressive immigration enforcement.
"Stephen's been with me since the beginning. He gets it," Trump told reporters later in the afternoon.
The president said in a post on his platform Truth Social that Wiles - who was the nation's first female White House chief of staff - would continue to work for him on political operations.
"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 statement on X, the social media site. "While my role may be changing, my commitment to the President and the mission never will."
Miller currently serves as deputy chief of staff in the White House, as well as an advisor to the Department of Homeland Security, and will take over on Monday.
Wiles worked with the Trump 2020 campaign in Florida and has served as chief of staff in this White House from day one. She built a reputation as a strict manager who has reduced the staff turnover and volatility of press leaks which plagued Trump's first term in the White House.
Wiles has not given many media interviews herself, but said in a profile for Vanity Fair magazine last year, that Trump "has an alcoholic's personality," but that she was accustomed to dealing with such temperaments. "I make a speciality of it," she told the journalist Chris Whipple.
She was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year, but it was announced she was cancer free this fall.
Miller has been a fixture in Trump's circles since 2016 with a focus on immigration but has also been involved advising military operations in the Middle East.
In his new role, he is likely to exercise even greater influence over the president's time and attention.
The speechwriter and advisor is known for his rhetorical pugnacity and frequently appears behind Trump in the Oval Office during media events.
Miller has been unapologetic for some of the administration's most controversial actions, particularly aggressive anti-immigration crackdowns that have been popular with Trump's core voting base.
Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill disparaged the move.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries - widely expected to become the new House speaker - said: "Stephen Miller is a dangerous xenophobe and reckless extremist who has American blood on his hands. His presence in government should be eradicated like a malignant tumor. Fire him today."
And Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer added: "Donald Trump learned nothing from his historic defeat. Stephen Miller is the architect of the most barbaric, inhumane policies of this administration. Trump couldn't have made a worse choice. Our Democratic majorities will fight him every step of the way."
The chief of staff is a "very important gatekeeper of the president's time, and of their information and the people that are going in to see the president," said David Cohen, a political science professor at the University of Akron who studies the role of the chief of staff.
"One of the things that they're supposed to do is kind of be a neutral broker to make sure all the voices get heard. Oftentimes, though, the chief of staff is the last person talking to the president," said Cohen.
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