Who is Stephen Miller, Trump's new White House chief of staff?

Donald Trump has named Stephen Miller as his new White House chief of staff, giving one of his longest-serving and most hardline advisers the most powerful staff job in Washington.

Trump announced the move on Friday, 6 November, on his social media site Truth Social, calling Miller "one of my most trusted advisors," Al Jazeera reported. Miller replaces Susie Wiles, who will keep working for Trump's political organisation, the Associated Press reported.

The change came days after Republicans lost control of both the House and the Senate in the midterm elections. Neither Trump nor the White House has said why Wiles is leaving.

Who is Susie Wiles?

Wiles ran Trump's 2024 campaign and became the first woman to serve as White House chief of staff. She is also the longest-serving of his chiefs of staff, according to the AP. Trump went through four in his first term.

Wiles called the job "the honour of a lifetime" and said her commitment to "the President and the mission" would not change.

Who is Stephen Miller?

Miller, 41, has worked with Trump since January 2016, when he joined his first presidential campaign. Before that, he was an aide to Republican members of Congress, including Senator Jeff Sessions, according to Al Jazeera.

He quickly became one of Trump's most important voices. "I think he helped Trump find his voice," former adviser Steve Bannon told the AP in 2017.

The architect of Trump's immigration policy

In Trump's first term, Miller was a senior adviser and speechwriter. Al Jazeera reported that he drove some of the administration's most controversial policies:

• the 2017 travel ban on several Muslim-majority countries, a revised version of which the Supreme Court later upheld
• the 2018 "zero tolerance" border policy, which separated thousands of children from their parents before Trump reversed it
• the push to end DACA, the programme protecting people brought to the US as children

In January 2025, he became deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security adviser, and helped lead the mass deportation drive. In May 2025, he told Fox News the administration had "set a goal of a minimum of 3,000 arrests for ICE every day," according to Al Jazeera.

What does a chief of staff do?

The chief of staff runs the White House staff, manages the president's schedule and advises on policy. The job is often called the "gatekeeper" to the president, because it largely controls who and what reaches the Oval Office.

It is not yet clear whether the new role will give Miller more influence over Trump, or pull him away from the immigration work he has led.

What happens next

Miller takes the job as Trump faces a Democratic Congress for the last two years of his term. Democrats take control in January and are widely expected to investigate Miller's role in the White House, Al Jazeera reported.