Trump sacks his nanny. Stephen Miller takes control of the White House

Following the blunami, things are starting to fall apart inside Trump’s White House. The shake-up is no longer confined to ballrooms and gaudy gold decorations in the Oval Office. Susie Wiles, the White House Chief of Staff – the woman who, over the past two years, has maintained discipline – as far as possible – in presidential operations – has been sacked by her boss, Donald J. Trump. Wiles, matronly and quiet, who had managed Trump’s victorious 2024 election campaign, has served as a quasi-Montessorian babysitter for the capricious president over the past two years. Her strategy was ‘let Trump be Trump’ – that is, let Trump behave like Trump – whilst she, almost secretly, like a producer, a manager, a Miss Rottermaier from The West Wing, imposed order on her subordinates and planned operations behind the chaos. Not at all ideological, merely operational. She has been replaced by one of the most controversial figures in Trump’s inner circle, Stephen Miller, the master strategist behind ‘remigration’ and the iron-fisted approach to migrants, the organiser of deportations to prisons for Central American terrorists. A man of the shadows who grew up in the liberal-progressive Santa Monica, bullied for always being the only right-winger at secondary school, and who has now had his revenge. The 69-year-old former lobbyist, a former Reaganite, has been replaced by her deputy, the 41-year-old adviser with nationalist leanings, who will thus become the most senior official on Pennsylvania Avenue, responsible for ‘gatekeeping’ – that is, deciding who can and cannot approach the presidential desk – as well as being in charge of personnel and serving as chief adviser. Furious at the mid-term election results, Trump wanted to sack someone – so the rumour goes in the corridors – and Wiles is said to have pre-empted the move, perhaps sacrificing herself, by tendering her resignation. For some time, there had been discontent within the White House toward Ms. Wiles, and even publicly, some MAGA figures had called for her to leave, arguing that while she had managed the 2024 campaign well, this time around she had failed to recognize the issues that mattered to the electorate. But for many inside, it is also a way of getting rid of someone who was trying to rein in the chaos. Wiles is the latest in a long line of women to leave the administration, following in the footsteps of former Attorney General Pam Bondi, former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Labour Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer and various blonde press officers. 

Miller’s appointment, as well as being a reward for loyalty (he has been working with Trump since he entered the political arena), could signal an intention to focus on domestic issues rather than foreign policy over the next two years, having blamed Iran for the heavy electoral defeat on 3 November. Miller is reportedly indifferent to Iran, except in so far as he wishes to conclude all matters as swiftly as possible, even by force. His primary focus appears to be on deporting migrants, sealing the border, and restoring order on the streets. Some analysts suggest that Trump may be seeking to return to his original anti-globalist persona, the one favored by Steve Bannon. With the departure of his former adviser, he is now free to pursue that course.