Trump Names Stephen Miller Chief of Staff, Replacing Susie Wiles

President Donald Trump said on Friday, November 6 that Stephen Miller will become White House chief of staff, replacing Susie Wiles in the first big personnel change since Democrats swept the midterm elections on Tuesday, November 3. Trump announced the move in a post on Truth Social. He said Miller, now a deputy chief of staff, will start in the job on Monday, November 9, 2026, and that Wiles will move over to the Trump Political Operation.

"I am pleased to announce that Mr. Stephen Miller, the current Deputy Chief of Staff of the Trump Administration, and one of my most trusted advisors, will become the Chief of Staff starting Monday, November 9, 2026," Trump wrote. "Susie Wiles, who has done an outstanding job, will be moving over to the Trump Political Operation. I want to thank her for her service as Chief of Staff. She has done a great job."

Wiles said Friday would be her last day as chief of staff, according to the Wall Street Journal. She took the job when Trump returned to office in January 2025 and was the first woman to serve as White House chief of staff. Before that, she managed Trump's 2024 election campaign. CNN reported that Wiles recently announced she had completed treatment for breast cancer.

Why it matters

The chief of staff controls who reaches the president, which fights get his time, and how fast decisions move through the West Wing. Miller, 41, is not a new face being brought in from outside. He already serves as deputy chief of staff for policy and as homeland security adviser, and CNN reported that he has widened his portfolio over the past year to cover wide parts of domestic policy. He is best known as the main architect of Trump's hardline immigration agenda, in both of Trump's terms in office. Putting him in the top staff job gives that agenda the office that runs the building.

The midterm fallout

The timing is the story around the story. Republicans lost control of the House and the Senate on Tuesday, a result the Wall Street Journal put at a net loss of at least 41 House seats and at least seven Senate seats, including seats in deep red states. The Times of London reported that Trump came under growing pressure to remove Wiles after the losses. Trump did not criticise Wiles in his post. He praised her twice and gave her a named next job inside his political operation rather than pushing her out of his circle entirely.

Wiles ran the 2024 campaign that returned Trump to the White House, and her move to the political operation puts his most trusted campaign manager back on political work as the new Democratic majorities prepare to take over Congress and both parties start looking toward 2028.

What happens next

The handover takes effect on Monday, November 9. Miller steps up from the deputy job he has held since January 2025, and no replacement for his policy and homeland security roles has been announced. Wiles starts at the political operation after a final day in the West Wing on Friday. The new Congress, now under Democratic control in both chambers, is the test both moves point to: Miller will run a White House that has to deal with a hostile legislature, and Wiles will run political work for a president whose party just lost both chambers.