WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump announced on Friday that Stephen Miller will become White House chief of staff on Monday, November 9, replacing Susie Wiles in the first major staff change since Republicans lost control of Congress in the midterm elections, according to the Associated Press and CNN.
Trump made the announcement in a post on Truth Social. He called Miller, 41, one of his most trusted advisers and said Wiles, who has done an outstanding job in his words, will move to the Trump Political Operation. Wiles, 69, was the first woman to serve as White House chief of staff. She confirmed in a statement on Friday that it was her last day in the job, and two people familiar with the matter told CNN she had submitted her resignation on Thursday evening.
Miller has served as deputy chief of staff for policy and as a homeland security adviser since the start of the second term in January 2025. He is widely described by news organizations as the main architect of the administration’s hard line immigration agenda, and his role has grown well beyond immigration to cover wide parts of domestic policy. On Friday he wrote on X that serving on the president’s team since the first day had been the privilege of his lifetime.
The change comes three days after voters gave Democrats control of both the House and the Senate. Republicans went into Election Day holding the White House and both chambers, and the scale of the loss has set off a public fight inside the party over strategy. In a preview of a 60 Minutes interview recorded on Friday morning and set to air on Sunday, Trump said he expected to make a few changes to his team, while adding that he loved his Cabinet. By Friday afternoon, the first change was announced.
Reaction in Washington split along party lines. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said the choice showed that Trump had learned nothing from his defeat, according to USA Today. Supporters of the president presented the move in the opposite way, as a sign that he intends to keep pushing the agenda he campaigned on rather than soften it for the new Congress.
Why it matters is simple. The chief of staff controls the flow of paper and people to the president, and the job will now be held by one of the most committed defenders of the policies that voters just judged at the ballot box. With a Democratic House and Senate arriving in January, the White House faces fights over spending, oversight and immigration in which the chief of staff will be a central figure.
What happens next starts on Monday, when Miller takes over the job. The 60 Minutes interview on Sunday may show whether more senior officials will follow Wiles out of the building. Democratic leaders, for their part, are preparing their own leadership elections and committee plans for the new Congress, which convenes on January 3, 2027.
Sources: CNN, USA Today and NPR reporting on the announcement.
