Stephen Miller will take over as White House chief of staff on Monday, replacing Susie Wiles in the post directly below the president, according to Dagens Nyheter. The Swedish daily describes the 41-year-old as the second most powerful man in the United States, and possibly in the world, given his long-standing influence over Donald Trump's thinking and policy.
The appointment follows a midterm election in which American voters delivered what Dagens Nyheter characterizes as a forceful rejection of the president. The paper notes that some observers expected the result to push Trump toward softening at least parts of his agenda, including nationwide immigration enforcement raids by ICE and his attacks on the media and on real and perceived opponents.
Why it matters
Miller's promotion places the administration's most aggressive policy voice in its most senior staff role. Wiles was widely seen as an occasionally moderating influence inside the White House, Dagens Nyheter reports. Miller, by contrast, is described by many sources as having encouraged and fueled the president's most extreme instincts. His move to chief of staff signals a more loyalist administration rather than a more conciliatory one — a shift the paper suggests may not improve Republicans' chances in the next election.
The architect of hardline policy
Miller's influence is not new. During Trump's first term he was an influential adviser, and he remained aligned with Trump throughout Joe Biden's presidency from 2021 to 2025. Since Trump's second inauguration, his titles have been deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security adviser.
Dagens Nyheter reports that he is regarded as the architect behind much of Trump's most controversial policy: the mass deportations, the harsh tactics of ICE raids, the removal of immigrants to a prison in El Salvador, and the campaigns against media outlets, universities and lawyers that Trump views as enemies. In his earlier post he was also credited with shaping the first-term ban on immigration from a number of Muslim-majority countries and the practice of separating children from parents at the border.
In the current term, according to the paper, Miller personally drafted the text of many of Trump's most contentious orders. Talking points that describe immigration as "an invasion" and refer to Somalis in derogatory terms originated with him. It is this record that has earned him the label "Trump's brain."
A long record, traced to adolescence
Dagens Nyheter traces Miller's political convictions to his teenage years in Santa Monica, in southern California, where he grew up in a liberal Jewish family in a multicultural area. The paper describes his ideology as a kind of ongoing rebellion against that background.
As a high school student he provoked classmates and teachers with anti-immigrant views, demanded that all messages in Spanish be abolished, and gave a speech mocking the school's janitors — nearly all of them immigrants — for not earning their pay, according to the paper.
Jason Islas, a close friend in early adolescence, told NPR that Miller ended their friendship during the summer between eighth and ninth grade, presenting a list of reasons that included Islas being too strange and too short. The two had been part of a small group of friends who shared an interest in "Star Trek."
Before he turned 20, Miller was a regular guest on right-wing talk radio. A conservative newspaper editor recounted to the paper how a 16-year-old Miller walked into his newsroom and asked to write opinion pieces, carrying himself like a middle-aged man.
Much of his own Jewish and liberal family has since distanced itself from him. His uncle, psychologist David Glosser, published an article in 2018 disavowing his nephew, writing that he had watched with dismay and horror as a educated man fully aware of his origins became the architect of an immigration policy that would have undone their family's existence in the United States — a family that had found refuge there and so escaped the Holocaust.
How the decision was made
Trump publicly denied throughout the campaign that Wiles would be dismissed. White House sources told media outlets that he had already made the decision but hesitated for a long time over who should succeed her, according to Dagens Nyheter. Many observers believe the deciding factor was Miller's unbroken, fully committed loyalty to the president.
The paper reports that Wiles's departure was confirmed with the election result as backdrop, and that the choice of Miller has been read by some commentators — including Omni, which called it a long finger to voters — as a signal of contempt for the electorate. Dagens Nyheter also notes a parallel story from the same period: women around Trump are disappearing from prominent roles and being replaced by men.
What to watch
With Miller as chief of staff, Dagens Nyheter expects the mass deportation campaign could intensify, along with what the paper calls "revenge" against politicians, institutions and states Trump regards as adversaries. Because Miller now runs the president's staff, further purges among advisers are widely anticipated, producing an administration even more loyal to Trump than the current one. Watch whether the promised crackdowns accelerate — and how Republicans fare as the composition of Trump's inner circle narrows.
