Trump Responds to a Historic Midterm Rebuke by Promoting Stephen Miller to Chief of Staff
Three days after voters handed Democrats control of the House and the Senate in one of the biggest midterm routs in modern history, Donald Trump has made his response clear. He's not changing course. He's doubling down.
On Friday afternoon, Trump announced on Truth Social that Stephen Miller, his deputy chief of staff and the architect of his mass deportation agenda, will become White House chief of staff starting Monday. Trump called Miller "one of my most trusted advisors." Susie Wiles, who has served as chief of staff since the start of Trump's second term, "will be moving over to the Trump Political Operation," according to the president, who said she had done "an outstanding job."
Let's be clear about what this means. Miller is the person most closely associated with the immigration crackdown that voters just punished at the ballot box. Counties that are 80 percent or more Hispanic, a group that helped elect Trump in 2024, swung to Democrats by 40 points on Tuesday. Voters in South Texas told reporters they turned on Republicans because ICE deported their family members, their neighbors and their workers. Even Republicans in Texas and Florida had quietly complained to the White House about how far the deportations had gone.
And just yesterday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had told aides Miller's agenda went "too far," after Melania Trump complained that people she knew were being deported. Today, Trump gave him the most powerful staff job in the White House.
The timing could not be more striking. Democrats take over Congress in January, and incoming Oversight Chair Robert Garcia has already named DHS and ICE abuses as one of his top four investigative priorities. Rep. Delia Ramirez has told Miller directly to make himself available. Now the man at the center of those policies will be running the White House as those investigations begin.
This is the same week Trump blamed voters for the stock market drop, declared the Oval Office a national monument and insisted Republicans would have won if he'd been on the ballot. Faced with a clear message from the American people, Trump has chosen to elevate the most hardline voice in his administration.
The midterms were a referendum on Trump's agenda. With this move, he's telling the country he heard the verdict and doesn't care.
This story was originally published by MeidasTouch on Nov 6, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add MeidasTouch as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
