Image source: Getty Images
In the wake of the crushing defeat suffered by the Republican Party last Tuesday in the US midterm elections, President Donald Trump announced his willingness to work with the Democrats who have gained control of Congress.
On Friday, Trump made the decision to promote Stephen Miller, his loyal advisor and policy architect, to replace Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff.
Instead of placating Congress, President Trump - by elevating the “unruly” Miller to White House leadership - signaled that he was ready for a political battle.
Miller wrote on his page on the
The position of "White House Chief of Staff" is considered one of the most important positions in Washington. Whoever undertakes this becomes an advisor to the president, who sets the agenda inside the White House, and heads the team of negotiators with Congress, and other foreign political tasks.
On his social media platform, “Truth Social,” Trump wrote a comment on his decision, saying, “Stephen Miller was with me from the beginning.”
Miller is best known as the driving force behind the Trump administration's tough immigration enforcement policies, including increased funding to enforce these policies across the United States.
Miller's name appeared in the headlines when he described Alex Peretti, who was shot dead by federal immigration agents during a mass deportation operation in Minneapolis, as a "domestic terrorist" and a "thug"; He later retracted those descriptions and said that federal immigration agents “may not have followed proper protocol.”
Most read end
An in-depth explanation of the most prominent events and topics, to help you understand the most important variables around you and their impact on your life
Episodes
End podcast
Reports indicate that Miller played a leadership role in US military operations in Venezuela, and in anti-drug trafficking operations in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, operations that some criticized as “extrajudicial killings.”
Miller joined Trump's political circle early, when the latter ran for the presidential elections in 2016, and Miller worked as a strategist and enthusiastic spokesman in this election campaign.
Miller was one of the few survivors among the White House staff from the dismissal decisions taken by Trump during his first term in office.
During the period of political exile that Trump experienced after his loss in the 2020 elections, Miller remained loyal to him. Upon his return to the presidency, Trump will appoint him to a stronger position as Deputy Chief of Staff for White House Policy.
As for Susie Wiles, who co-managed Trump's successful 2024 election campaign, she has developed a reputation as a "quiet professional." It succeeded in sparing the White House from falling into turmoil, political fluctuations, and personality clashes, similar to what happened during Trump’s first presidential term.
But Trump began to resent Wiles in recent months, coinciding with the decline in his popularity in the country, leading to his resounding defeat in the midterm elections.
Reports also indicated Trump's dissatisfaction with newspaper reports that people in Wiles' circle were earning consulting jobs based on their position in the presidency.
Miller's extreme views portend clashes in Congress
Trump on Friday praised Stephen Miller's performance as director, but working with Congress is another thing and may be seen as a challenge for Miller.
It is difficult to ignore the amount of hatred that most Democrats and some Republicans have for Miller.
In this regard, the leader of Democrats in the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, wrote on his page on the
Earlier this year, Miller wrote on social media describing James Talarico, who had just secured a Democratic Senate run in Texas, as “the first openly transgender Democratic Senate candidate.”
The Democratic Party responded with a brief response laden with embarrassing words, telling Miller: “Shut up.”
Now, Miller must negotiate with a US Senate that includes Talarico among its members as one of its rising stars, after an election in which opinion polls showed that 58 percent of voters believe that the immigration enforcement operations carried out by the Trump administration have “exceeded the limit,” and that Latinos have decided to vote punitively against Republican candidates.
On Wednesday, in a post on social media platforms, in an attempt to explain the defeats suffered by Republicans in the midterm elections, J.D. Vance, the US Vice President and strong candidate for the Republican Party to run in the 2028 presidential race, wrote that he was “open to the idea of the need to change the way immigration laws are enforced - by focusing more on companies that use illegal labor, for example.”
But the opportunity to implement this idea has become more unlikely, now that Miller has reached the position of chief of staff at the White House.
Among the voices criticizing Stephen Miller among Republicans, the voice of North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis, who will retire at the end of this year, stands out.
Senator Tillis called Miller "incompetent" and "the architect of many of the stupidest proposals to come out of the White House."
But other Republican voices praise Miller; Among these voices: Senator Mike Lee of Utah, who wrote on the
At a time when the Democrats, newly in control of Congress, threaten to embark on a new campaign aimed at investigating and monitoring the Trump administration, it seems that “warrior” and “fighter” represent the type of people that President Trump wants to run the White House.
Find out more
Short clips
End of short clips
