Stephen Miller, Trump’s ‘Wartime Consigliere,’ Takes Over the White House

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Instead of easing off after his party’s election drubbing, President Trump is preparing for war: Starting Monday, Stephen Miller will run the White House as chief of staff. The 41-year-old believes in almost limitless presidential power, considers the Democratic Party an extremist organization and dreams of ruthless crackdowns on immigration and foreign adversaries, according to Axios. “Stephen is Trump’s wartime consigliere,” said Roger Stone, one of the president’s oldest friends and advisers.

Wiles Out, Miller In

Mr. Miller replaces Susie Wiles, the longest-serving White House chief of staff of Mr. Trump’s presidencies. She submitted her resignation on Thursday night, according to The Associated Press, two days after midterm elections in which Republicans lost control of Congress. Mr. Trump praised Ms. Wiles for doing a “great job,” adding, “Sometimes in life, you have to make moves.” Of Mr. Miller, he said: “Stephen has been with me from the beginning.”

Mr. Miller has little in common with Ms. Wiles. According to Axios, he is unlike anyone who has held the job under Mr. Trump, and unlike anyone to occupy the position in the modern era. Mr. Trump spoke after the election about finding ways to work with Democrats, but his choice of Mr. Miller signals confrontation: It sets the stage for two years of partisan warfare with the new Congress, which is likely to open investigations into the administration and its allies.

The Man Trump Calls ‘Weird Stephen’

The nickname comes from the Trump biographer Michael Wolff. “And even Trump calls him ‘Weird Stephen,'” Mr. Wolff said last year on The Daily Beast’s podcast, describing Mr. Miller as avoiding eye contact and speaking in a monotone. The White House called Mr. Wolff a fraud at the time. Others are less restrained: Gov. Gavin Newsom of California has compared Mr. Miller to Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter, while the former congressman Matt Gaetz cheered: “It’s Miller time.”

Mr. Miller grew up in Santa Monica, Calif., and drew attention early as a provocative columnist for Duke University’s student newspaper. He went on to work for hard-line Republicans in Congress, including Senator Jeff Sessions. He joined Mr. Trump’s campaign in 2016 and became a speechwriter and senior adviser in the first term. He was a driving force behind the travel ban on people from several predominantly Muslim countries and the separation of migrant families at the border. In 2019, the publication of more than 900 of his emails to the right-wing site Breitbart caused an outcry, and Jewish organizations called for his dismissal.

After Mr. Trump’s 2020 defeat, Mr. Miller founded the legal group America First Legal, which sued over diversity programs and the Biden administration. In the second term, he became deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security adviser, set a target of 3,000 arrests a day for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and joined the small circle that signs off on every executive order. He is married to Katie Miller, a podcaster and former spokeswoman for Elon Musk’s cost-cutting effort, DOGE.

The Miller Doctrine

Mr. Miller has laid out his worldview over the years in speeches, interviews and policies. Axios sums it up as the “Miller Doctrine”:

• Presidential power: The president’s powers are “very substantial and will not be questioned,” Mr. Miller said of the travel ban in 2017. To him, that applies far more broadly.
• The courts: When judges blocked parts of the deportation policy in May 2025, Mr. Miller blamed “radical rogue judges” who were “at war” with the executive and legislative branches.
• The opposition: “The Democrat Party is not a political party. It is a domestic extremist organization,” Mr. Miller told Fox News in August 2025. He also warned that if Democrats won Congress, “it’s game over.” They just did.
• Homeland security: National security “begins at home, begins in our neighborhood, begins in our home region,” he said in March.
• Hard power in the Americas: Drug cartels are “the ISIS and the al-Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere, and should be treated just as brutally and just as ruthlessly,” Mr. Miller told foreign leaders at the Shield of the Americas conference.

Greenland, Venezuela, Cuba

That makes Mr. Miller a force in foreign policy, too. According to Axios, he was a driving force behind the military action that led to the ouster of Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, and has a keen interest in Mexico. “We’re a superpower, and under President Trump, we are going to conduct ourselves as a superpower,” he told CNN in January. Mr. Miller works closely with Marco Rubio, the secretary of state and national security adviser, and has friendly relations with President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador. “Stephen makes Marco more aggressive on policy, in a good way,” a White House official told Axios. The next target may already be in sight: “If people thought regime change in Cuba was going to fall by the wayside, Stephen Miller should make them think twice,” the official said. “Today is a bad day for the Cuban regime.”

Europe has already felt Mr. Miller’s approach. In January, he asked, “By what right does Denmark assert control over Greenland?” He did not rule out a military option and called the United States “the power of NATO.” The Greenland dispute led to tariff threats against eight European countries and to plans for an E.U. trade bazooka against the United States. Mr. Miller also strongly backed the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran.

Why Trump Has Nothing Left to Lose

Mr. Trump cannot run again in 2028, and Democrats will control Congress from January. He will hardly be able to pass new laws for his agenda. But Democrats lack the two-thirds majorities needed to override his vetoes, and Mr. Trump has already promised to “veto, veto, veto.” That leaves executive orders, legal battles and foreign policy, where presidents have the most leeway. Those are exactly Mr. Miller’s specialties. Since April, he and the budget director, Russell Vought, have been working on actions that require no approval from Congress, covering tariffs, visas and housing costs. Mr. Trump himself has said he is prepared to use “tremendous powers.”

Mr. Trump’s advisers also see Mr. Miller as a way to reenergize the president’s populist base, which, according to Axios, failed to turn out for the midterms and in some cases voted for Democrats. They point to Mr. Trump’s handling of the Epstein files and his decision to attack Iran, which drove up fuel prices. Without those voters, Republicans say, they will have no chance in 2028. For the rest of the world, that means a president with no re-election pressure, no majority in Congress and a chief of staff who believes in hard power could show even less restraint abroad than before.

A Risk for His Own Party

Whether that bet pays off remains to be seen. Critics worry that Mr. Trump could make Mr. Miller’s hard-line immigration agenda the centerpiece of his final two years, further alienating independent and moderate voters as it appeared to do in the midterms, Axios reported. According to AP VoteCast, about six in 10 voters said immigration enforcement had gone too far. Voters’ perceptions of corruption in the administration have also weighed on Republicans.

Democrats are promising resistance: Representative Robert Garcia, the incoming chairman of the House Oversight Committee, called Mr. Miller “the architect of the unconstitutional ICE raids” and said he “should lawyer up.” Hakeem Jeffries, the incoming majority leader, called him “a dangerous xenophobe and reckless extremist.” There are doubts within his own party, too: Senator Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina, had previously called Mr. Miller’s remarks about Greenland “stupid,” and according to The Wall Street Journal, even Mr. Trump has not always been comfortable with how extreme Mr. Miller’s views on immigration are. Mr. Miller’s allies dismiss questions about his management experience, noting that he has overseen the Department of Homeland Security, runs regular morning meetings with White House staff and leads one of the administration’s largest policy teams. The Trump camp is unfazed by the criticism. “It’s Miller Time,” another adviser said. “Buckle up.”