U.S. President Donald Trump is swapping out his chief of staff, naming immigration hardliner Stephen Miller to the post just days after Republicans suffered a heavy defeat in the midterms, CBC reports.
Trump announced Susie Wiles's exit in a post on Truth Social on Friday and said Miller, currently a deputy chief of staff, would step into the top job on Monday. Speaking to reporters outside the White House on Friday afternoon, the president described the move as a deliberate decision. "I wanted to make a change," he said, adding that Miller has been at his side since the start and understands his agenda.
Trump praised Miller as one of his most trusted advisers. Miller has been the driving force behind the administration's mass deportation campaign, a policy that CBC notes has reached well beyond its stated target of removing the most serious criminals.
Why it matters
The shake-up comes as Trump confronts a Washington where Democrats now control Congress. According to CBC, political observers read Miller's promotion as a signal that the president does not plan to soften the policies that have shaped his second term, immigration enforcement chief among them.
The timing places the change directly in the shadow of the midterm results. Backlash over Immigration and Customs Enforcement detentions of undocumented immigrants with long, law-abiding histories in the U.S. was among the factors that pushed many Hispanic voters away from Republicans, CBC reports — a shift that helped Democrat James Talarico win a Senate seat in Texas.
A combative posture toward a Democratic Congress
Marc Short, who directed legislative affairs in Trump's first term, told CNN on Friday that he expects Miller to bring a confrontational style to the new balance of power. Short said it would be difficult for the president to find anyone more loyal than Miller, and predicted a coming clash between the executive branch and the legislature — one he suggested the White House welcomes.
Democratic leaders responded sharply. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement that Trump had drawn no lessons from what Schumer called a historic defeat, describing Miller as the architect of the administration's most severe immigration policies and calling the appointment a poor choice. Tommy Vietor, a former spokesperson in the Obama administration, criticized the move in a post on X, framing it as a doubling down on the president's base rather than a pivot.
The White House offered a contrasting view. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on X that no one is more loyal, hardworking or closely aligned with the America First movement than Miller, and that the moment called for reinforcing policies already in place.
Wiles's exit and a pattern of departures
Trump said Wiles had performed excellently and would move to what he called the "Trump Political Operation." CBC notes it is not immediately clear what that means; the phrase could refer to MAGA Inc., the fundraising committee that held hundreds of millions of dollars for Republican candidates this cycle and could carry influence into the 2028 presidential race.
CNN reported Friday, citing unnamed administration sources, that Trump holds Wiles partly responsible for the size of the midterm losses. For much of the past year, CBC reports, Wiles had indicated the president would campaign on affordability — a message he did not consistently deliver, often brushing aside cost-of-living concerns while devoting rally time to his construction projects in Washington, D.C.
Wiles's departure continues a run of high-profile women leaving the administration. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Labour Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard either resigned or were removed earlier this year, according to CBC.
What to watch: whether Miller's arrival produces the executive-versus-legislative confrontation Short predicts, and how the White House adjusts its immigration messaging ahead of the 2028 campaign.
