Trump’s chief of staff, Stephen Miller, has been at the center of his immigration crackdown; here’s what we know about his close association with the president

After facing a drubbing at the hands of the Democrats in the midterm elections, President Donald Trump said on Friday (November 6, 2026) that Stephen Miller was replacing Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff.

Miller, a close aide of Trump, has been a member of Trump’s inner circle for a long time. He played an instrumental role in building the administration’s hard-line immigration policies. He has had a long association with Trump, having joined him during the 2016 presidential campaign as a speechwriter.

He was recently serving as White House deputy chief of staff for policy under Wiles. During his stint, he oversaw a broad portfolio. Miller, 41, has been a dogged defender of Trump's presidency. The biggest highlight about Trump’s association with Trump is his role in immigration policy. The 41-year-old is one of only a few who served throughout his first and second terms in office. He is apparently known for driving Trump's aggressive immigration crackdown.


As a part of action against immigration, the Trump administration had set a goal of ​3,000 arrests a day, according to news agency Reuters. To achieve the target, masked US immigration officers were sent into communities around the country, increasingly arresting people with no criminal records and who had been living in the country for decades.

Miller has been a major part of the Trump administration’s anti-fraud task force targeting benefit programs and a decision to suspend Microsoft and others from a green card program, as reported by news agency AP. He also served as homeland security adviser at the White House, giving him a perch from which to coordinate with other agencies across the government. He joined Trump on Friday for his trip to Florida.

The president had noted to reporters that "Stephen has been with me from the beginning," as quoted by AP. He gets it; very good politically," Trump said as he departed the White House. "He’ll do a great job. Great manager.”

Did immigration policies backfire on Trump in midterm polls?

Miller is closely linked to Trump administration’s immigration policies, but the AP Voter Poll in midterms suggested that the policies went too far and apparently turned out to be a major liability for Republicans in the recently concluded midterm elections.

The AP poll found that the majority of voters, about 6 in 10, said the administration’s immigration enforcement actions had gone too far and they “somewhat” or “strongly” disapproved of how Immigration and Customs Enforcement had handled its responsibilities.

Besides the AP poll, the immigration crackdown also received poor ratings from Americans on the Reuters/Ipsos poll, with just 36% of respondents approving it, while 54% disapproved.

Wiles steps down

Wiles, a longtime adviser to Trump, gave Trump her resignation on Thursday night (November 5, 2026), a person familiar with the events told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the private conversation.

Trump praised Wiles and said she’d continue to work for his political organization. On Friday night, the president denied that he made the change because he was unhappy with his team after the deep losses his party suffered.

“Not because of the election. It’s just time," Trump said. "Sometimes you change. The election wasn’t my election. I wasn’t on the ballot.” Wiles was the first woman to ever serve in that post and the longest-serving White House chief of staff for Trump.