Voters took Congress away from Donald Trump’s party on Tuesday. On Friday Trump gave the job that controls his door, his desk and his day to Stephen Miller, the aide behind the policies voters just punished. Miller replaces Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff on Monday, NPR reported, noting that voters backed Democrats this week partly over Trump’s immigration enforcement. “Stephen’s been with me since the beginning. He gets it,” Trump said.

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries called Miller “a dangerous xenophobe and reckless extremist.” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called him “the architect of the most barbaric, inhumane policies of this administration.” Here is the record behind those words.

Santa Monica to Capitol Hill

Miller was born in 1985 and raised in Santa Monica. As a high schooler he became a regular caller to Larry Elder’s radio show, according to Jean Guerrero’s 2020 biography Hatemonger. At Duke he wrote the “Miller Time” column for The Chronicle, and defended the accused lacrosse players on cable news.

By December 2007 he was press secretary to Rep. Michele Bachmann. In 2009 he joined Sen. Jeff Sessions, where he helped sink the 2013 bipartisan immigration bill. He joined Trump’s campaign in January 2016, warmed up crowds at rallies and wrote the convention acceptance speech.

The policy machine

The travel ban. Miller and Steve Bannon wrote Executive Order 13769, signed a week into the 2017 term. Two weeks later Miller told Face the Nation that the president’s powers “will not be questioned.”

Family separation. In a 2018 White House meeting, NBC News reported, officials voted for Miller’s position over Kirstjen Nielsen’s objection. A federal task force later counted 5,636 children separated from July 2017 to January 2021, 3,913 of them under zero tolerance.

Title 42. A senior CDC official told Congress the March 2020 expulsion order came from outside the agency’s experts and named Miller as involved. Emails obtained by American Oversight show Miller chairing “Covid-19 emergency border planning” meetings the week before it was signed.

Mass deportation. As deputy chief of staff and homeland security adviser in 2025, Miller told Hannity on May 28: “We are looking to set a goal of a minimum of 3,000 arrests for ICE every day,” per Fox News. DHS later said no quota existed.

The emails

In November 2019 the SPLC published its review of more than 900 emails Miller sent Breitbart editors in 2015 and 2016, provided by former editor Katie McHugh. More than 80 percent touched race or immigration, and Miller recommended coverage of The Camp of the Saints, a racist novel about migrants overrunning Europe, Axios reported. He did not resign.

The money

Between administrations Miller ran America First Legal, a nonprofit that does not disclose donors. Revenue rose from about $6 million in 2021 to $44 million in 2022, with $27 million from one donor, Bloomberg reported. Its Form 990s are public. In 2024 the board paid Miller a $75,000 bonus and a $100,000 “adjustment,” lifting his pay above $567,000 the year he left for a $195,200 White House salary, NOTUS found. His 2025 disclosure listed $100,001 to $250,000 in Palantir stock, held in an account for one of his children, POGO reported. Palantir builds software for ICE. The 2025 disclosure is the latest public one; NOTUS reported he sold seven figures of stock in August 2025, and what he holds now is not public.

More: the money behind America First Legal and Miller’s strangest moments on camera.

What changes Monday

A chief of staff decides who sees the president and which warnings reach him. Starting Monday, that filter belongs to the man who told the country the president’s power “will not be questioned,” and he will hold it against a Democratic Congress that says it will question everything.