Midterm polls found 58% of voters said immigration enforcement had gone too far
Stephen Miller called Alex Pretti a “domestic terrorist” and an “assassin” after federal immigration officials shot and killed Pretti during a massive deportation operation in Minneapolis. Miller later walked back the words, saying federal agents “may not have been following” proper protocol. The episode sits in the record Miller — President Donald Trump’s longtime adviser and the driving force behind the administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement policies — carried into the White House chief of staff job on Friday, after Trump named him to replace Susie Wiles following the Republican Party’s sweeping defeat in Tuesday’s midterm elections.
“Stephen Miller’s been with me since the beginning,” Trump said in comments to reporters after announcing the move on his Truth Social website. “He gets it.” Trump also said he appointed Miller “to make a change” and praised Miller’s effectiveness as a manager. Miller, in a post on X, called himself “honored beyond words” to be Trump’s pick for the job, writing: “The mission now is more clear than ever: Fight with all of our soul to support our president and defend this magnificent republic.”
The chief of staff is gatekeeper to the president, agenda-setter in the White House and chief negotiator with Congress and other outside political interests — one of the most powerful positions in Washington. The announcement came days after Trump said, in the aftermath of the midterm defeat, that he would be willing to work with the newly ascendent Democrats in Congress. BBC North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher wrote that the promotion was “far from an olive branch to Congress” and could be a sign that the president is girding for political battle by installing what he called a “partisan firebrand” in the top job.
Miller joined Trump’s political operation early in his 2016 presidential bid, serving as a strategist and warm-up speaker at campaign rallies. He was one of the few senior White House staffers to persevere through the entirety of Trump’s first term, stayed loyal during the president’s political exile after attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat failed, and returned in the second term as deputy chief of staff for policy.
Miller is best known as the driving force behind the administration’s immigration enforcement policies, which have included ramped-up funding for enforcement operations across the United States. He has also reportedly played a leading role in the US military operations in Venezuela and against suspected drug trafficking operations in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific — operations critics have condemned as extrajudicial killings.
Wiles, who co-managed Trump’s successful 2024 re-election campaign, had developed a reputation as a cool professional who avoided the White House staffing upheavals, dramatic policy reversals and personality clashes that typified Trump’s first presidential term. Trump began souring on her in recent months, however, as his political standing in the United States declined, culminating in Tuesday’s electoral rout. He also reportedly chafed at news stories indicating that people in Wiles’ orbit were landing lucrative consulting jobs through their connections to the president.
Working with Congress could prove a challenge. In Zurcher’s assessment, it is “difficult to overstate” how disliked Miller is by most Democrats — and by some Republicans. “Stephen Miller is a dangerous xenophobe and reckless extremist who has American blood on his hands,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries wrote on X. “His presence in government should be eradicated like a malignant tumor.”
Miller’s history with the incoming Senate could complicate those negotiations. Earlier this year, after James Talarico secured the Democratic nomination to run for Senate in Texas, Miller posted on social media that Talarico was “their first transgender Senate candidate.” The Democratic Party’s reply was terse and laced with obscenity, telling Miller to shut up. Talarico won the seat in Tuesday’s election, and Miller must now negotiate with a US Senate that includes him as one of its rising Democratic stars.
Miller takes the job after an election in which polls found 58% of voters believed the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement actions had “gone too far” and Hispanic voters decisively turned against Republican candidates. On Wednesday, Vice President JD Vance — an early frontrunner for the Republican 2028 presidential nomination — wrote in a social media post attempting to explain the Republican midterm defeats that he was “open to the idea that we should change enforcement — by focusing more on businesses that hire illegal labor, for instance.” Zurcher wrote that such a change now “seems less likely” with an immigration hard-liner taking the White House helm.
Some Republicans have been blunt as well. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, the Republican senator who is retiring at the end of the year, has been particularly vocal in condemning Miller, calling him “incompetent” and “the architect of some of the dumbest proposals from the Trump White House.”
Other Republicans, however, have sung Miller’s praises. “Stephen Miller has been a true conservative warrior since his days as a Senate staffer, a staunch defender of law and order against illegal invasions and leftist lawlessness, and a steadfast fighter for President Trump for over a decade,” Utah Senator Mike Lee, a Republican, wrote on X after Trump’s announcement.
Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, are promising to launch new investigations and oversight into the Trump administration. At such a moment, Zurcher concluded, a “warrior” and a “fighter” is the kind of person the president wants running his White House.