President Donald Trump on Friday announced White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller will be promoted to chief of staff, replacing Susie Wiles.
Trump revealed the stunning shake-up just three days after Democrats won a landslide victory in the midterm elections, gaining majority control in the House and Senate and scrambling the trajectory of Trump’s last two years in office.
Elevating Miller, an architect of Trump’s controversial mass-deportation efforts, is bound to raise the hackles of the incoming class of congressional Democrats, who have already vowed to investigate the government’s immigration policies.
Miller will take over starting Monday, Trump said in a Truth Social post, praising his longtime aide as “one of my most trusted advisors.”
Wiles, “who has done an outstanding job, will be moving over to the Trump Political Operation,” the president wrote.
Asked about the move later Friday afternoon, Trump said, “I wanted to make a change.”
“I think Susie’s done a very good job, great job. But I just wanted to make it,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House for an event in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
“Stephen’s been great,” Trump said, adding, “Sometimes in life you have to make moves.”
Wiles resigned Thursday night, a senior White House source told MS NOW. Wiles told Trump, who was said to be angry with her following the GOP’s huge election losses, “let me make this easy on you — I am going to resign,” MS NOW reported.
“Today is my last day as White House Chief of Staff,” Wiles said in an X post Friday afternoon. “Serving President Trump in the White House has been the honor of a lifetime.”
“While my role may be changing, my commitment to the President and the mission never will,” she wrote.
Senior administration officials were quick to congratulate Miller.
“Patriots in control,” read an X post from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, whose job security has come into question after some Republicans, including Vice President JD Vance, blamed the midterm results on the Iran war.
Vance also praised Miller on X, saying he “will do great things.”
The official X account for Trump’s political operation celebrated the announcement by posting a black-and-white photo of Miller under the caption, “It’s Miller time.”
Democrats and other critics, meanwhile, filed in to denounce the pick.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who could be elected House speaker next year, called Miller “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,” Jeffries wrote on X.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote that 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,” Schumer wrote.
Others took Miller’s promotion as a sign that Trump, who seemed to express some willingness to negotiate with a blue Congress, will instead remain combative.
“For those who hoped the @POTUS might pivot to work with the incoming Congress, the appointment of Miller is a bucket of ICE cold water,” wrote David Axelrod, a former senior advisor to President Barack Obama.
The White House reshuffle follows multiple resignations of senior staff in the Department of Justice since Election Day. They include Civil Harmeet Dhillon, a leader in the DOJ’s civil rights division, John Eisenberg, who headed the national security division, and Jason Reding Quiñones, who had been in charge of conspiracy investigations related to Trump’s foes.
Wiles oversaw Trump’s winning 2024 presidential campaign and has wielded major influence in his second administration, while largely staying out of the spotlight. She drew focus in late 2025, when Vanity Fair reported that Wiles admitted that Trump had pursued “retribution” as president and that he had an “alcoholic’s personality.”
Trump, and many other top administration officials, defended Wiles at the time, underscoring her status in the White House.
While Wiles is not fully leaving Trump’s orbit, her resignation follows a pattern of other top female officials who have left or been fired from Trump’s second administration, and then replaced by men.
