Stephen Miller replaces Susie Wiles as Trump’s White House chief of staff after midterm defeat

Updated 7 Nov 2026, 18:35 · First published 7 Nov 2026

Donald Trump has replaced his White House chief of staff. Susie Wiles, who ran his 2024 campaign and has been at his side since the first day of his second term, is stepping down, and Stephen Miller – the deputy chief of staff and the man behind the administration’s hard line on immigration – takes over on Monday 9 November 2026.

Breaking: Krakow shooting latest – six killed and 15 injured in Kraków’s Main Market Square

Read more: Kraków shooting latest: terrorism investigation opened as police confirm gunman’s parents and sister found dead

The President announced the change on his Truth Social platform on Friday, calling Miller “one of my most trusted advisors” and thanking Wiles, who he said “has done a great job!” She is moving to the Trump Political Operation rather than leaving his circle altogether.

Why now?

Neither the White House nor Wiles has given a reason. According to a US official quoted by CBS News, she handed in her resignation on Thursday night – just two days after Tuesday’s midterm elections, in which Republicans lost control of both the House and the Senate. It is the biggest shake-up of Trump’s team since that result.

Wiles, 69, was widely seen as the steady hand who kept Trump’s 2024 campaign on track. She was diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer in March this year and later said she was cancer-free.

Who is Stephen Miller?

Miller, 41, has been one of Trump’s closest and longest-serving aides. He joined the 2016 campaign as a speechwriter after working for Senator Jeff Sessions, who went on to become Trump’s first attorney general. In the second term he has been deputy chief of staff with a very broad brief – most visibly as the architect of the mass deportation programme and the hardline border policy that became a central issue in the midterms.

His promotion is being read in Washington as a sign that Trump will double down rather than soften his approach after the election defeat. With Democrats taking control of the House and Senate in January, Miller is also expected to become a prime target for congressional investigations.

What the chief of staff actually does

The chief of staff decides who sees the President, what lands on his desk and how the West Wing runs day to day. It is often called the second most powerful job in Washington – and Trump went through four different chiefs of staff in his first term. Wiles had lasted longer in the role than any of her first-term predecessors.

Stephen Miller formally takes over on Monday 9 November. We’ll update this story as more reaction comes in.