3 times Trump's new chief of staff, Stephen Miller, proved himself a MAGA asset — and a terror to the left

President Donald Trump announced on Friday that Stephen Miller — one of his and the MAGA movement's most stalwart defenders — would be replacing Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff.

A White House official told Blaze News that "with this new appointment, the White House will be an extremely fine-tuned machine that will implement the President’s policies and represent the populist movement he created with MAGA."

'Stephen Miller has been a key player.'

While welcomed by influential voices on the right, news of Miller's promotion has enraged Democrats and other radicals.

Michigan Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed complained to ABC's "This Week" about the decision, claiming Miller is a "broken man" whose contributions work "to make us more angry, to stoke the worst kind of fear and vitriol, to weaponize ICE in our streets, to take American lives."

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) called Miller a "dangerous xenophobe and reckless extremist" whose "presence in government should be eradicated like a malignant tumor."

"Stephen Miller is the architect of Trump’s cruel mass deportation campaign — a strategy that Americans resoundingly rejected at the polls on Tuesday," tweeted Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). "For Trump to promote this hatemonger shows he has learned nothing."

RELATED: Stephen Miller has the keys. Now what about the deportations?

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"Everything is going to get worse. Much worse," said the so-called "pro-democracy" group Republicans Against Trump.

Miller has said and accomplished a great deal in recent years to earn the ire of the American left. There are, however, three actions that undoubtedly contributed to leftists' current panic.

'Muslim ban'

President Donald Trump infuriated the usual suspects in January 2017 by issuing an executive order titled "Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States."

The order — dubbed a "Muslim ban" by twice-failed presidential candidate Kamala Harris and other critics — temporarily suspended the entry of certain aliens from various Islamic terrorism hotbeds, including Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Yemen.

Miller reportedly helped develop the order — the Guardian credited him as the order's "architect" — and vigorously defended it on historically hostile liberal media networks.

Days after the order was issued, Miller told "CBS This Morning," "It only makes sense that we engage in some kind of selections process that prioritizes the entry of people who, as the order stated, don’t hold bigotry, hatred, or violence against any sexual orientation, against any race, or against any particular class of people."

The order, like its replacements, faced numerous legal challenges but was upheld in its third iteration by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018.

The ultimately successful effort exemplified Miller's eagerness to tear up the old status quo with regard to immigration.

Beef up those numbers!

As he did during President Trump's first term, Miller has continued to help the administration protect America from various foreign threats and lock down the nation's borders — especially in the role of the president's homeland security adviser.

Sources familiar with a May 21, 2025, meeting at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's headquarters told Axios that Miller castigated officials for not arresting enough illegal aliens and demanded that agents seek to arrest 3,000 foreign nationals a day.

Miller subsequently publicized his expectation, telling Fox News' Sean Hannity, "We are looking to set a goal of a minimum of 3,000 arrests for ICE every day, and President Trump is going to keep pushing to get that number up higher each and every single day so we can get all of the Biden, the illegals that were flooded into our country for four years out of our country."

The 3,000 figure not only evidenced Miller's seriousness about delivering on promises of mass deportations but managed to capture the attention of the American left — including a Biden-appointed judge who referenced the idealized figure when she ruled against expedited deportations for immigrants with parole status.

Fighting back, legally

Following the 2020 presidential election, Miller co-founded America First Legal, a conservative legal group that "fights for the American people, defends the Constitution, and works to save this nation," according to its website.

"Those who believe in America First must not shy away from using our legal system to defend our society and our families from any unlawful actions by the left," Miller said in a statement at the time. "Those looking to hold the new administration in Washington to account finally have their answer. Our self-imposed policy of legal disarmament is now over."

Miller's outfit has enjoyed enormous success on the legal front.

For instance, AFL secured judgment late last year on behalf of a female student who sued Fairfax County Public Schools over its bathroom and pronoun policies; secured a hefty settlement in July on behalf of parents who sued the School District of Philadelphia over its race-based admissions policies; and got Ohio Northern University professor Scott Gerber reinstated in July 2025 after his apparent termination for criticizing DEI.

Miller stepped away from his role at AFL when he joined the second Trump administration in January 2025.

Deputy White House press secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement to Blaze News on Monday, "Stephen Miller has been a key player in delivering on President Trump’s America First agenda since day one."

"He has spearheaded the administration’s crime crackdown including in D.C. and Memphis, record setting deregulation, unleashed American energy, dismantled drug cartels, and secured our border," continued Bis. "In his new role, he will continue to deliver historic successes for the American people.”

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