Donald Trump replaces his chief of staff with the most radical of his advisors after the election debacle

After the debacle of the midterm legislative elections, President Donald Trump today announced the dismissal of his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, who will be replaced by Stephen Miller, the most radical of his advisors and the brain of immigration policy and mass deportations.

"I am pleased to announce that Mr. Stephen Miller, current Deputy Chief of Staff of the Trump Administration and one of my most trusted advisors, will assume the role of Chief of Staff effective Monday, November 9, 2026. Susie Wiles, who has done an exceptional job, will join Trump's Political Operations team. I want to thank her for her service as Chief of Staff; she has done a magnificent job!" the president wrote on his social networks.

The decision is not a surprise but it is a declaration of intent. Wiles, who in March announced that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and in September announced that she had overcome it, had been questioned for some time. There has been a very strong underground campaign to weaken the person who is the lock on the Oval Office and the electoral disaster has been the trigger. In the last 72 hours, the biggest cracks in Trumpism had begun to be seen, with crossed attacks, settling of scores and many voices airing their discomfort in the media. There was talk of terminations and departures. This is the most important step.

Susie Wiles has been one of the central figures of Trumpism and the woman who led, along with Chris LaCivita, the campaign that returned Donald Trump to the White House in 2024. A long-time Republican strategist, she came to the office of chief of staff with a reputation for being pragmatic, disciplined and much less ideological than other members of the presidential circle. She was considered a kind of internal counterweight, the person who might be able to order the chaos, filter decisions, impose some discipline and, above all, moderate Trump's impulses. Not to control Trump but perhaps to appease his volcanic character.

Trump's first term was chaotic, full of resignations, dismissals, and changes of direction. In this second, Willes managed to maintain control of that part during the first year, but in 2026 and after the war in Iran, and the ICE disaster, the dismissals and resignations began, the concatenation of scandals and improvisations, as in the spokesperson. It is not that the chief of staff, the most important position in the entire administration, is exactly a moderate, but she did represent a more institutional style, less doctrinaire than that of some of the movement's ideologues. Like Miller.

Broken balance

That balance has just been broken. Trump has decided that the main architect of his restrictive immigration policy, the most aggressive and ideological of his advisors, be in charge. Miller represents the hardest and most ideological wing of Trumpism: defender of a policy of mass deportations, of an expansive conception of presidential power and of a confrontational nationalist agenda.

Starting next week he will take charge of Trump's political operation when it also enters its most delicate phase, which is known in the US as 'lame duck'. Without being able to repeat his mandate (unless he wants to violate the Constitution), with a Congress against it and the country's vote showing fatigue. With his appointment, Trump shows that he is looking for a fight, that he has no intention of lowering his tone, quite the opposite. And far from being self-critical, he redoubles his most ideological commitment.

Wiles' problems have been aggravated since the summer by the activities of those closest to him, particularly those of his daughter, Katie Wiles, a partner in a lobbying firm that represents the Government of the Republika Srpska, in Bosnia. Her appearance on a visit to that territory, coinciding with political consulting work carried out there by two of Wiles' collaborators, the aforementioned LaCivita and James Blair, fueled suspicions about possible conflicts of interest. Nothing that the president's entire entourage does not do. But there were people interested in his downfall.

The most delicate episode came after the Republican defeat on Tuesday. According to some chronicles. Wiles would have tried to divert responsibilities towards Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth and fuel the rivalry between the two, two figures with presidential aspirations for 2028. The complicated story points rather to the internal settling of scores that seek to point it out. A few weeks ago, the media reported, for example, that the president's top assistant. Natalie Harp, who manages her social networks and even answers calls on her personal mobile phone, would have deliberately shown the president the negative news about Wiles and her family in an attempt to destroy her, since the chief of staff was not at all comfortable with the prominence of Harp, the president's most fervent devotee on her team. Along with Miller.