You know how after millions of people make clear that they despise not just your political project but also you personally, the logical response is to triple down on the specific things they hate?
That’s Donald Trump’s signature move. Three days after Democrats flipped seven Senate seats—nine if you feel bullish on Mississippi and Alaska—and secured a House majority, winning 253 seats and counting, the president announced that his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, would be replaced by Stephen Miller.
“I am pleased to announce that Mr. Stephen Miller, the current Deputy Chief of Staff of the Trump Administration, and one of my most trusted advisors, will become the Chief of Staff starting Monday, November 9, 2026,” he wrote on Truth Social. “Susie Wiles, who has done an outstanding job, will be moving over to the Trump Political Operation. I want to thank her for her service as Chief of Staff — She has done a great job!”
Even though polls indicating a blue wave proliferated before the election, this particular outcome still comes as a surprise. After all, Wiles had apparently proven her ability to ride out storms before—including everything that rocked Trump’s 2024 campaign, which Wiles managed, and her choice to sit for 10 interviews with Vanity Fair’s Chris Whipple in 2025, during which she discussed Elon Musk’s drug use and JD Vance’s true motives for embracing Trump. “Despite his travails, Trump needs Wiles and almost everyone around him knows it,” Whipple recently wrote in a follow-up story tracing rumors of Wiles’s imminent axing.
But now Wiles’s luck has finally run out. Why? Perhaps because she is, in the end, a woman.
