It seemed to take Donald Trump a few days just how to react to midterm election results that were such a widespread repudiation of his presidency, his policies and the multi-pronged MAGA campaign to burn down trust in U.S. institutions.
Indeed, a subdued Trump had sounded almost conciliatory about working with the Democratic opposition for his last two years before apparently exploding with fury within his own circle to find a scapegoat or two for how he had suffered such an embarrassing loss.
Trump ousted Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff, somehow blaming her for his choices of refusing to engage voters on their issues of anger, and appointed the arsonist – Stephen Miller, the guy most responsible and associated with war in Iran, war on immigrants and unrelenting war on Trump political enemies.
While Trump can pick whom he likes as advisers without approval of Congress, it’s a sign to the rest of us that Trump is thumbing his nose at the overwhelming clear messages of the midterms to stop high costs, war and chaos, and the widely perceived corruption of the Oval Office for personal, family and friends’ financial gain.
Politicians across the aisles, media reflecting different points of view, the many voices of the internet immediately blossomed with singular agreement – choosing Miller was putting the fox in charge of the hen house. Whether Wiles, certainly a Trump enabler of the highest order, deserved to be shown the door is hardly at issue. Choosing Miller was a signal that the disorder and executive authoritarianism that Trump has chosen will be the path.
Criticizing the Appointment
Trump has praised Miller as a “great manager” and a trusted adviser, despite continuing reports and observations that Miller, a hyper-focused and intensely loyal strategist, is extremely abrasive, tactless, and married to MAGA core beliefs about resorting to personal cruelty in pursuit of a white America of privilege.
If the midterm’s overall message was for a kinder, humanitarian approach to everything from war to health care access, for recognition that mass deportation has run amok, that tariffs, service cuts, elimination of food and health supports are creating loads of problems, selecting Miller was a sign that we should expect more of the same from the White House.
Rather than any attempt to re-think, this appointment alone is a call to arms for the bevy of congressional investigations about to launch, for legislative fights over restoration of health, social service, education and environmental cuts, and for acceleration rather than slowdown of deportation and political prosecution attempts by this government.
Choosing Miller is a clear signal that Trump still thinks the Congress irrelevant, and that his path will be through executive order first, and delay and appeal of any interference by lawmakers or judges later.
The New York Times summarized that the “clear signal” Trump is sending is “how little he intends to alter his approach in response to the most decisive political rout in half a century. . . People close to Miller said he had shown no interest in compromising with congressional Democrats and was ready for a fight over subpoenas and investigations.” Miller’s top propriety is to rebuild the fractured MAGA coalition.
Miller is loathed by most Democrats, said The Hill.com, as “xenophobic and racist,” resistant to compromise and “preferring a combative approach to pushing the Trump agenda.”
Across the internet, news sites and social media posts saw the move as noteworthy that Trump is refusing to look anew at any of his choices despite the overwhelming rejection at the polls.
NBC News Chief Washington Correspondent Garrett Haake said, “The chances of President Trump working with the incoming Democratic congress on anything of substance just went down dramatically.” Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier said Miller’s elevation “signals that the president is girding for a battle” rather than reaching out to negotiate with Democrats.
Choosing Miller
Miller, 41, worked for conservative Republicans, including former Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., where he helped craft anti-immigration positions. He joined Trump as a policy adviser and speechwriter, where he helped shape Trump’s anti-immigration policies and the travel ban targeting predominantly Muslim countries. He is the guy calling for quotas of arrests by Homeland Security and advising Justice against prosecuting agents involved in shootings, including of U.S. citizens.
Miller’s appointment was immediately endorsed by War/Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who is facing his own crisis with Trump, who is seeking to blame someone other than himself for launching the war with Iran. Miller, who pushed the war but now wants a way out to assuage voters, is a Hegseth supporter.
Weirdly, the inside reporting by several news outlets has been that it was Wiles who had advised Trump to pay attention to what voters were saying and to open his plentiful campaign coffers to help save Republicans in trouble. Instead, Trump reportedly ended up yelling at Wiles before others and blaming her for the huge losses. She quit before she was dismissed, but after multiple statements from the White House that her job was not in jeopardy.
By contrast, Miller’s immigration turned a Trump positive into a Trump negative in the campaign, losing 20 points of Hispanic voter support from 2024. Miller’s promotion of the war with Iran helped push Trump to launch U.S. forces but drew boos from voters.
MediaMatters.org noted that within hours of the midterm wipeout, right-wing media began airing fearful reports about more migrant caravans forming in Honduras for the long trek to a closed U.S. border now that a Democratic-majority Congress has been elected.
Anyone thinking that the election was an emphatic, enforced end to Trump policies might want to reconsider that the signals are for dug-in resistance on all sides.
Terry H. Schwadron retired as a senior editor at The New York Times, Deputy Managing Editor at The Los Angeles Times and leadership jobs at The Providence (RI) Journal-Bulletin. He was part of a Pulitzer Gold Medal team in Los Angeles, and his team part of several Pulitzers in New York.