But White House spokesperson Steven Cheung called him a “Trump OG” in a post on X.

“There is no bigger advocate for the Trump agenda than Stephen, and he will help the Administration deliver on monumental victories for the rest of this historic second term,” he said.

An adviser to the president since his first term, Miller has garnered a reputation as a fierce political operator willing to push the boundaries of the law to enact Trump’s sweeping agenda.

He was a driving force behind the White House’s aggressive immigration policy, including the administration’s deadly enforcement surge into American cities that saw federal agents kill two US citizens in Minnesota early this year.

Miller has also been a driving force behind efforts at the White House to crack down on what the Trump administration has framed as left-wing political extremism. He was a chief architect behind a presidential national security memo known as NSPM-7, which laid out the groundwork to designate left-leaning groups as domestic terrorists.

Source: Huffington Post 7 Nov 2026

Some background to Katie Miller:

Katie’s career spans from her first role as press assistant to the National Republican Senatorial Committee to press secretary for the former U.S. Senator from Montana Steve Daines, according to her LinkedIn.

She was deputy press secretary for the Department of Homeland Security from 2017 to 2019, affiliating herself with controversial DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who implemented Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy and family separation at the border. Katie then became communications director for the former U.S. Senator from Arizona Martha McSally.

Katie began her role as press secretary for Pence in the fall of 2019, before transitioning to communications director the following year — a position that she held until 2021, after falling out with Pence over disagreements, per an X post.

In December 2024, Katie was one of the first advisers named to Trump’s Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). In a statement to The New York Times, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt praised her role in the initiative, saying that Katie was “a critical reason DOGE was able to get off the ground.”

She held the position with DOGE until May 2025, when she left the advisory position to work full-time in the private sector for Musk — who left DOGE around the same time — CNN reported.

They met through work and mutual friends

………..

Stephen and Katie were introduced when they were both working at the White House in the spring of 2018; Stephen was Trump’s senior policy adviser and Katie was press secretary for the Department of Homeland Security.

At the time, ICE and DHS were working on a “zero tolerance” policy at the border — leading to widespread family separation — and Stephen and Katie often spoke over the phone about their work, but never met in person, per The New York Times.

One former DHS official told Vanity Fair in August 2020 that Stephen often tried to get involved in communications with DHS, and “He had this thing about calling everyone and trying to get the answer he wanted,” which is how he reportedly met Katie.

“It was very on brand, the relationship,” Stephen told Lara Trump, Trump’s daughter-in-law, on Fox News in May 2025. “We were on conference calls every day on border security.”

They later met in person through mutual friends in the spring of 2018, per The New York Times, and were engaged just over a year later in the fall of 2019.

They married in 2020 at a Trump hotel in Washington, D.C.

https://people.com/who-is-katie-miller-stephen-miller-wife-11960283

The Democratic perspective on this choice of Stephen Miller to Chief of Staff:

“In a way, the president did a great favor to Democrats, as now they know there is little value to extending an olive branch to the White House next January,” he said. “If Trump wants to pass things, this is a terrible choice. If he wants to engage in combat with Congress, then Stephen Miller fits the bill.”

Republican strategist Matt Klink told Newsweek the choice reveals that Trump “plans to fight.”

https://www.newsweek.com/stephen-millers-6-key-priorities-as-white-house-chief-of-staff-12679769