Trump appoints new White House chief of staff after midterm defeat
She will be replaced by Stephen Miller, long a key member of Mr Trump’s inner circle.
President Donald Trump said that Stephen Miller would replace Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff, days after Republicans lost control of Congress in the midterm elections.
Ms Wiles gave the president her resignation on Thursday night and on his social media, Mr Trump praised Ms Wiles and said she would continue to work for his political organisation.
Ms Wiles also released a social media statement Friday.
She said: “Serving President Trump in the White House has been the honour of a lifetime.
“I’m so proud to have been a part of what we’ve accomplished together, from securing our border and cutting taxes to strengthening our economy and putting America First.”
She added that her commitment to “the President and the mission” will not change.
Mr Miller, long a key member of Mr Trump’s inner circle, is a key architect of the administration’s hard-line immigration policies.
The staff shuffle signals that Mr Trump, now staring down a combative Congress that will soon be controlled by Democrats, is resisting a conciliatory approach after the Republicans’ midterm thrashing on Tuesday.
Mr Miller is a dogged defender of Mr Trump and his “America First” principles, and has built a deep and sophisticated understanding of a president’s executive power and how the federal government operates, portending a potential burst of executive actions in the final two years of Mr Trump’s presidency.
Ms Wiles, the steely political operator and long-time adviser to Mr Trump, was the first woman to ever serve in that post.
The departure also came months after Ms Wiles indicated she no longer showed evidence of breast cancer after she underwent months of treatment for the disease, a diagnosis she went public with in March 2026.
She is the longest-serving White House chief of staff for Mr Trump, who cycled through four of them during his first four-year term.
Mr Miller is one of Mr Trump’s closest and longest-serving advisers, jumping on board during his longshot 2016 presidential campaign as a speechwriter.
He currently serves as White House deputy chief of staff, and though he has a wide-ranging portfolio, Mr Miller is most closely aligned with Mr Trump’s immigration policy and rhetoric on immigration.
Mr Miller is a former aide to hardliner former Alabama senator Jeff Sessions, who would go on to serve as Mr Trump’s first attorney general.