President Donald Trump announced that Stephen Miller, his hardline adviser on domestic issues including immigration, will become White House chief of staff starting Monday, November 9, 2026, replacing Susan Wiles, who moves to Trump’s political operations team. Wiles, the first woman to hold the top administrative post at the White House, resigned on the night of Thursday, November 5, and said Friday, November 6, would be her last day.
"It has been the honor of my life," she said on X. Trump, in a brief exchange with reporters, said he wanted to make a change: "Sometimes in life you have to make them," he said, adding that Miller knows how to administer and "is good politically." The changes come after Republicans lost control of Congress.
In the capital, Miller’s appointment is read as a rallying cry ahead of a next Congress with historic proportions in the House and larger-than-expected Democratic gains in the Senate. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, a potential next speaker, said Miller should have been fired rather than promoted, calling him "a dangerous xenophobe and a reckless extremist with American blood on his hands."
Senator Charles Schumer of New York said Miller is "the architect of this administration’s most barbarous and inhumane policies." Former Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger of Illinois said the pick shows Trump "didn’t learn the lesson" of Tuesday’s election defeat. Miller is among officials sued by the family of Renée Good, one of two U.S. citizens killed early this year by ICE agents during street operations in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Puerto Rico Governor Jenniffer González held a contract for a year and a half with the lobbying firm Continental Strategy, where Katie Wiles, daughter of the now former chief of staff, is a partner; the contract was not renewed.