With Stephen Miller pick, Trump readies for a battle

In the aftermath of the Republican Party's sweeping defeat in Tuesday's midterm elections, Donald Trump said he would be willing to work with the newly ascendent Democrats in Congress.

On Friday, however, he elevated Stephen Miller, his bare-knuckled political operative and longtime adviser, to replace Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff.

Far from an olive branch to Congress, Miller's promotion could be a sign that the president is girding for political battle by installing a partisan firebrand in the top White House job.

"The mission now is more clear than ever: Fight with all of our soul to support our president and defend this magnificent republic," Miller posted on X, adding that he was "honored beyond words" to be Trump's pick for the job.

One of the most powerful positions in Washington, the chief of staff is gatekeeper to the president, agenda-setter in the White House and chief negotiator with Congress and other outside political interests.

"Stephen Miller's been with me since the beginning," Trump said in comments to reporters after announcing the move on his Truth Social website. "He gets it."

Miller is best known for being the driving force behind the Trump administration's aggressive immigration enforcement policies, which has included ramping up funding for enforcement operations across the US.

He made headlines when he called Alex Pretti, who was shot and killed by federal immigration officials during a massive deportation operation in Minneapolis, a "domestic terrorist" and an "assassin". He would later walk back those words, saying federal agents "may not have been following" proper protocol.

He has also reportedly played a leading role in the US military operations in Venezuela and against suspected drug trafficking operations in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, which critics have condemned as extra-judicial killings.

Miller joined Trump's political operation early in his 2016 presidential bid as a strategist and incendiary warm-up speaker at his raucous campaign rallies.

He was one of the few senior White House staffers to persevere through the entirety of his first term. He stayed loyal to Trump during his political exile following attempts to overturn his ballot-box defeat in 2000 failed. He then returned in the influential role of deputy chief of staff for policy in Trump's second term.

Wiles, who co-managed the president's successful 2024 re-election campaign, developed a reputation as a cool professional who avoided the White House staffing upheavals, dramatic policy reversals and personality clashes that typified Trump's first presidential term.

The president, however, began souring on Wiles in recent months, as his political standing in the US declined, culminating in Tuesday's electoral rout. He also reportedly chaffed at news stories indicating that those in Wiles' orbit were landing lucrative consulting jobs through their connections to the president.

While Trump praised Miller's effectiveness as a manager on Friday, working with Congress could prove to be a challenge.

It is difficult to overstate how disliked Miller is by most Democrats – and some Republicans.

"Stephen Miller is a dangerous xenophobe and reckless extremist who has American blood on his hands," Democratic House leader Hakeem Jeffries wrote on X. "His presence in government should be eradicated like a malignant tumor."

Earlier this year, Miller posted on social media that James Talarico, who had just secured the Democratic nomination to run for Senate in Texas, was "their first transgender Senate candidate".

The Democratic Party offered a terse, obscenity laced reply, telling Miller to shut up.

Now Miller will have to negotiate with a US Senate that includes a newly elected Talarico as one of its rising stars, after an election in which polls found that 58% of voters believe the administration's immigration enforcement actions had "gone too far" and Hispanics decisively turned against Republican candidates.

On Wednesday, in a social media post attempting to explain the Republican midterm defeats, Vice-president JD Vance - who is an early frontrunner for the Republican 2028 presidential nomination - wrote that he was "open to the idea that we should change enforcement- by focusing more on businesses that hire illegal labor, for instance".

That now seems less likely with an immigration hardline taking the White House helm.

Thom Tillis, the North Carolina Republican senator who is retiring at the end of the year, has been particularly vocal in condemning Miller. He has called him "incompetent" and "the architect of some of the dumbest proposals from the Trump White House".

Other Republicans, however, have sung his praises.

"Stephen Miller has been a true conservative warrior since his days as a Senate staffer, a staunch defender of law and order against illegal invasions and leftist lawlessness, and a steadfast fighter for President Trump for over a decade," Utah Senator Mike Lee posted on X after Trump's announcement.

At a time when congressional Democrats are promising to launch new investigations and oversight into the Trump administration, it appears that a "warrior" and a "fighter" is the kind of person the president wants to have running his White House.

Follow the twists and turns of Trump's second term with North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher's US Politics Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.