Republicans called for President Trump to scale back the policies many blamed for their midterm blowout. Mr. Trump ruminated about deals with Democrats.
Stephen Miller was unfazed.
A day after the elections, as votes were still being counted and the Democrats’ victory margin seemed to increase by the hour, the longtime Trump aide and MAGA stalwart convened one of his regular calls with national security officials to get an update on immigration policy.
There was no talk of the results of the midterms or suggestion of scaling back the hard-line immigration approach that contributed to Republicans’ steep losses, according to people with knowledge of the call, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private discussion. Instead, Mr. Miller continued to push the officials to carry out an agenda that has in the past year included ramping up deportations, driving down border crossings and removing immigrants to faraway nations they were not from.
In other words, the architect of some of the administration’s most divisive policies demonstrated that he would aggressively pursue more of the agenda that many voters rejected on Tuesday.
Now, after being named Friday as White House chief of staff, Mr. Miller is poised to help oversee what is likely to be a combative final two years of Mr. Trump’s term. And as Democrats vow to investigate the very policies that Mr. Miller helped devise, Mr. Miller, the ultimate Trump loyalist, is in a prime position to continue his longtime pursuit of limiting checks on executive power.
If Mr. Miller’s predecessor, Susie Wiles, preferred to stay behind the scenes while trying to temper Mr. Miller’s brusque approach to issues like immigration, the president on Friday signaled that he was ready to more fully empower a hard-nosed lieutenant who had proved his loyalty and was happy to be a visible spokesman for the president and his agenda.
“He’s a great fighter,” Mr. Trump said on Friday after landing in Florida. “He’s been with me right from the beginning.” » | Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Hamed Aleaziz | Zolan Kanno-Youngs covers the White House, and Hamed Aleaziz covers the Department of Homeland Security. They have reported on Stephen Miller’s policymaking since the first Trump administration. | Saturday, November 7, 2026
