His ascent signals little relief for those who hoped Trump would soften the policies that cost him support in the midterm elections.
In a Friday statement, President Donald Trump announced that Stephen Miller will take over from Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff. The move does not bode well for anyone who hoped that Trump, chastened by his party’s poor showing in the midterms, would moderate the hardline policies that estranged voters.
Miller, previously a deputy chief of staff, is the principal architect of the administration’s hard marching immigration crackdown, which has swept up many peaceful and productive U.S. residents, contrary to the pledge that it would concentrate on “the worst of the worst.” While Trump has at times voiced concerns about the toll of immigration enforcement on businesses and their longtime workers, Miller has made clear that he favors a broad, indiscriminate approach.
A January 2026 profile of Miller in The Atlantic captured a moment that epitomizes his stance on immigration. “Stephen, if you had it your way, everyone would look exactly like you,” Trump allegedly told Miller, who was arguing policy with another White House aide. “That’s correct,” Miller replied.
Since illegal immigration is an “invasion,” Miller told reporters in May 2025, the Trump administration was “actively looking” at suspending the writ of habeas corpus to facilitate its mass deportation campaign. “A lot of it depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not,” he said. It turned out that Miller was not merely speculating: The New York Times later reported that his remark reflected a serious internal debate about whether to unilaterally override the centuries-old principle that those detained by the government have the right to challenge detention in court.
Miller’s backing for aggressive immigration enforcement even extends to promoting violence against those who object to it. After immigration agents fatally shot Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti in January, Miller criticized the video evidence and labeled him a “domestic terrorist” and a “would-be assassin” who “tried to murder federal law enforcement.”
Last April, Miller described birthright citizenship as “the gravest and most preposterous of all constitutional abominations.” Two months later, after the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s bid to rewrite the 14th Amendment, Miller called it “one of the most destructive and outrageous decisions” in the Court’s history.
Miller also recoiled at judicial pushback against Trump’s “emergency” tariffs. After the U.S. Court of International Trade rejected them in May 2025, he implied that it had no legitimate role in determining whether the president had the authority he claimed. “The judicial coup is out of control,” he wrote on X. Last February, when the Supreme Court ruled that Trump’s tariffs were illegal, Miller denounced the decision as “cowardly” and “horrendous,” accusing the justices of “torturing” the law and the Constitution.
Miller’s hostility to judicial review mirrors Trump’s own posture. And like the president, Miller has shown little hesitation about punishing people for speech protected by the First Amendment.
In November 2023, after Media Matters for America reported that X was “placing ads for Apple, Bravo, IBM, Oracle, and Xfinity next to pro-Nazi content,” Miller urged “conservative state Attorneys General” to investigate the organization for “fraud.” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey adopted Miller’s counsel, launching probes that federal courts eventually blocked on First Amendment grounds.
Following conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination in September 2025, Miller attributed the crime to a broad domestic terror movement, arguing that “messaging designed to trigger [and] incite violence” — i.e., harsh political rhetoric — played a role. “In Charlie’s name,” he declared, “we will deploy every resource at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security, and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle, and destroy these networks.”
In short, Miller is likely to be the opposite of a calming influence on Trump. His promotion appears poised to reinforce the president’s worst instincts.
