While Wiles has kept a low profile and has been seen as able to curb the president's impulsive outbursts, Miller is best known for his hardline immigration policies. He is considered to have effectively served as the political director of the aggressive and criticized immigration police ICE offensive.
The change of chief of staff after the Republicans' stinging defeat in the midterm elections has attracted a lot of attention and questions about the direction the Trump administration will now take.
His promotion, which has far from broad support within the Republicans, can be seen as a desire to return to "America first" and to Trump's original promises, says Tsiporah Fried, a visiting scholar at the conservative think tank Hudson Institute, in an analysis in Atlantico.
Raised in Santa Monica
Miller grew up in liberal Santa Monica, California, a state he later described as devastated by mass immigration. As a teenager, he learned to use the media to get his right-wing ideological messages out. The play led to appearances on Fox News and national attention.
The 41-year-old is one of the few who followed the president during both terms and has been consistently loyal to Trump. He was a driving force behind the travel ban from Muslim countries to the United States during Trump’s first year. And when Miller defended the US arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January, and Trump’s claim that the US would rule Venezuela, he responded that the US is a superpower.
And under President Trump, we will act like a superpower, Miller told CNN.
You can talk all you want about international courtesies and all that. But we live in a world . . . that is ruled by strength, that is ruled by military force, that is ruled by power.
White power environments
Miller is said to be inspired by the book “Le Camp des Saints,” which predicts the fall of Western civilization after mass immigration and is popular in white power environments.
Former Trump strategist Stephen Bannon has, according to The Washington Post, called Miller “the ideological alter ego of the Maga movement.” In connection with the appointment last week, Donald Trump said that Miller is “very good politically.” According to the newspaper, the chief of staff is called “the prime minister” by people close to the president.
Democrats are not pleased. After the appointment, the leader of the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, wrote on X that Miller is “a dangerous xenophobic and ruthless extremist who has American blood on his hands.”
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