Three days after voters handed both chambers of Congress to the Democrats, Donald Trump has reshuffled the top of his White House. Stephen Miller, the deputy chief of staff best known as the engine behind the administration’s immigration crackdown, will run the West Wing from Monday, November 9. Susie Wiles, who had held the job since the first day of Trump’s second term, is moving to the president’s political operation.
According to CBS News, Wiles handed in her resignation on Thursday night, and several people familiar with the matter tied the decision to the election losses. She had reportedly intended to stay through the lame-duck session; Trump brought the date forward. Only last month he had insisted there was “zero chance” she would leave.
Explaining the choice, the president said of his aide: “Stephen’s been with me since the beginning. He gets it.” He also praised the 41-year-old as a strong manager. Miller first joined Trump as a speechwriter on the 2016 campaign after years working for Senator Jeff Sessions, and he has shaped travel bans, border family separations and deportations to third countries.
The appointment reads as a statement of defiance rather than a pivot toward the center. Wiles, 69 and the first woman ever to hold the post, had a reputation for imposing order and cutting down on the leaks and staff churn that dogged his first administration. In a farewell message she called the job “the honor of a lifetime”.
Democrats reacted with fury. Robert Garcia, expected to chair the House Oversight Committee next year, said his inquiries into Miller would continue, while Hakeem Jeffries, who leads the Democrats in the House, labelled him a “reckless extremist”.
The change comes amid a wider wave of post-election departures, including several senior Justice Department officials. With a hostile Congress arriving in January, Trump appears to be preparing for two years of trench warfare, and he has picked his most combative lieutenant to lead it.
