Miller is ‘the worst of all possible choices’: Reactions to Trump’s new chief of staff

It's good to see you. What's your reaction to Trump naming. Stephen Miller, the new white House chief of staff? The worst of all possible choices. I mean, look, Jake, the last Tuesday, this past Tuesday, Republicans lost because we lost the narrative. on the border, a success that the president should have been heralding. by shutting off the border, ending the open borders policies of Biden. We lost a Hispanic vote, in large part because of the mismanagement.

of that policy and homeland security policy, which are the two majors. that Stephen Miller has declared in his time in the white House. Now we're talking about putting one of the most Partizan. polarizing figures and not only polarizing in terms. of Republicans and Democrats, but even among Republicans. How do we think somebody as divisive. of a background as Stephen Miller is going to be? The olive branch. we need to the new Democratic majorities in Congress to get things done.

You know, I've. criticized a lot of the president's advisors for bad advice. that I think he authorized, created some of the environment on Tuesday. But the president made this decision, and the president needs to rethink it. It is a colossal mistake. And the last thing we need, 72 hours. after the ass woman we got on Tuesday. After Republicans suffered those historic losses in the midterm elections, Trump said he was willing to work with Democrats.

You alluded to this a second ago, but what does this appointment. Miller as chief of staff, signaled to you about. how Trump's going to deal with this incoming. Congress? I think they're going to learn. very quickly that they had an accommodating, maybe almost two accommodating Congress under Republican control. And they're not. I use the term, but they're not in Kansas anymore.

They're going to be at a very different world starting in January, and they need to govern that way, or we're going to see disruptions. and positioning that, that the Democrats will use against us in 2018. I've had several phone calls over the last two days. preparing to make the Republicans stronger in 28. This takes us a step in the wrong direction. It's got to be fixed. So, as you know, Stephen Miller was the architect. of Trump's wildly unpopular immigration policy. What became unpopular? It started off popular,

as you know, closing the border as a popular achievement. But the excesses or perceived excesses by immigration enforcement. agents, the deaths of Renee Good and Alex, Minnesota, etc. turned a lot of people off, especially Latino voters in Texas. Now, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that even though. that even Trump thought Miller's aggressive campaign had gone too far. So I can't square this, really. He thinks that Miller has gone too far, and then he makes him his chief of staff.

You can't square it. It doesn't make sense what it it is. I think it was a I have a lot of respect for. Certainly. Wiles. But, but I thought it was appropriate for her to move on. We had a disastrous political consequence. I've been warning people about since April of 2025. But it was appropriate for her to move on. I think what was inappropriate. is to take a guy who made us lose on the immigration issue. People have forgotten that the president secure the border. This is the guy that went on TV and said, it's the position.

of the American government that Greenland should be a part of the United States. When I went off and said, you don't speak for the American people, you speak for the executive branch. And that was another what we've got there. And Stephen Miller is probably claiming credit for that. We finally got a new basing and a Greenland. We've had that since 1951, guys. We gained nothing through that drama except damaging some of our relationship. with some of our most important allies. So he spelled, domestic policy.

He spelled on immigration policy. He spelled on interior enforcement, slowing us down, not deporting the dangerous people that we should because of the reputation. he's in part responsible for creating. And he's also damaged our relationship, with some of our most important allies. And, in Europe. So, no, he doesn't get a passing grade for me. Even judging on the kind of curve that I made with some people among his advisors. It seems to me that the white House chief of staff role is one that requires. the person to be able to tell the president, no,

I have a difficult time, and I've known Stephen Miller for a long time. I've had I have a difficult time imagining him. not only telling the president no, because he thinks it's best. for the country, but never actually even disagreeing with President Trump on anything. What are you hearing from your colleagues on the Hill, your fellow senators, about this? I'm hearing, you know, it's, you know, the book I published, I wrote about a series of WTF moments.

There's a lot of WTF text that I'm receiving from other people wondering. what's going on here. And a part of that is because upstate myself out of Stephen Miller. years ago, I mean, this is a guy who worked for Jeff. Sessions, who ended up turning the other way. and riding the truck like when Jeff Sessions did the right. and honorable thing to recuse himself from the Russian investigation. He's a political opportunist. And believe me when I tell you he's not going to be the curator. at the Trump, library when it ultimately gets done.

He's going to try and serve to the next opportunity. and figure out who he could be a sycophant for in the future. He's not right for the job. He's the last person that we can put on the. that they have the face of the white House when he's got to confront a leader. Schumer and a speaker. Jeffries it makes no sense on any level. To understand you have new reporting. What have you learned? Yeah. So we have a little bit of behind the scenes, from Politico at about how.

Stephen Miller's wife, Katie Miller, who of course, worked in the first Trump. administration and in the second Trump administration, she worked with Elon Musk on the DOJ's effort. She now has a podcast. where she hosts high ranking officials from the administration. And she really helped lobby. for her husband, Stephen Miller, to get this job. She, over the last couple of days, has been making phone calls. to at least half a dozen people. close to the president, including Treasury Secretary Scott Vincent.

Some folks in, Vice President Vance's inner circle, and even as far back as mid-October, when the rumors were first. started to swirl about a potential Susie ouster. She was fielding calls back then when different names were being floated. Names like Bill Pulte, like Steve Wyckoff and others saying, listen, if you think Stephen Miller is potentially better than some of the alternatives, you should make that known to to the president.

And, of course, Anderson, we reported in playbook back in mid-October. that the president had started to make phone calls to his allies. asking questions about Susie Wiles floating names of possible replacements. At the time, the white House pushed back pretty hard on those allegations. But, clearly this was the time the fever pitch. had had really come in the wake of the midterm election results. Yeah, David, I mean, Susie Wiles seemed to bring some order to the chief of staff's jobs.

How do you think the West Wing will work under Stephen Miller? Well, look, it feels like he's there to, to affirm the president's worst instincts. You know, sometimes in these situations and we saw it a little bit in the Biden. White House. Presidents shrink their circle, to to those who will, affirm their, their feelings rather than, trying to swayed them from their worst instincts. But, Anderson, this whole thing is so odd because.

when your house is on fire, you usually reach for a hose, right? You try and douse the flame. Not a can of kerosene. Stephen Miller is a can of kerosene. He's the most divisive, polarizing, figure in the whole white House. And, to, to put him in this role is such a misreading of what happened. And he is an author or a coauthor. of what happened after the war, after inflation. You'd have to say that the the way the immigration policy has been.

implemented was very instrumental in what happened. On Tuesday, we saw a huge shift among Hispanic voters. who had been part of Trump's coalition in 2024. He they almost broke even, which was unprecedented, better. than any Republican has. And now, they went back to 2 to 1. in favor of, of Democrats. Why? Some of it had to do with the economy. A lot of it had to do with the implementation. of this immigration policy of of Stephen Miller.

So, you know, this is a it's a, it's a very self-destructive decision, it seems to me, on the part of the president, but it doesn't bode well if you designate Scott may address this. He was talking about. Well, the president may want to make deals with Democrats. This is not the chief of staff who's going to broker. that kind of a white House. Yes. I think, you know, you've been talking about kind of the. you know, maybe a lot of times presidents, when as lame ducks. are thinking about their legacy, what they can get done.

What do you think this choice means? Well, I think that they view. Stephen as somebody who covers a bunch of different vectors. He knows the Hill, he knows the legal piece. He certainly knows how to deal with the media. And he's obviously been the president's most influential policy advisor. So as they deal with all these vectors, they view him as somebody who can be part. of all of that. You know, X was talking about, Stephen Miller's immigration policy. I just offer a slight correction. It's the president's immigration policy.

He's an immigration hawk. And Stephen Miller or Susie Wiles or anybody else is there to implement, you know, the president's wishes on that or any other policy. I also think that, they believe Stephen Miller has been effective in other areas. They view him as sort of the chief protector of the law and order agenda. They like what he's done with the fraud task force. They like what he's done on the deregulatory agenda. They like, what he did to work with, frankly, Democratic officials. in DC and in Memphis, where the Trump administration. sent federal resources to try to help work with the locals to clean up crime.

They think he was a big part of that. So the Trump, Trump Museum has a good manager. Trump says, I believe thinks he's had really good in certain areas. And of course, above all, he views him as a loyal person who's been there. from the beginning, who knows his policy wishes better than just about anybody. And of course, we know him as a fighter, and there's no doubt they're going to be in some fights, with Democrats and, everybody else for the next two years. David, I want to play you something that the attorney general, Todd Bland, said a short time ago on Fox.

He was responding to incoming House oversight Chair Robert. Garcia's comment today that Stephen Miller should lawyer up. You have Garcia saying minutes after. Stephen Miller was promoted to be the chief of staff to the president. of the United States of America, telling him to lawyer up. Well, I'll tell you what. Stephen Miller has a lawyer. It's me. Is is the attorney general. I mean, he's not. The chief of staff's. lawyer is supposed to be the chief law enforcement officer of the United States,

traditionally independent of the West Wing. I'm wondering what you make of that. Well, you said traditionally, independent of the West Wing, but that is all gone now. I mean, the Department of Justice is an organ of the president's, of the white House, but also, it seems the president's, political operation. So I wasn't, surprised by that. Listen, you know, just on the point that Scott made. Yes, it's. the president's immigration policy, but Stephen Miller's the architect of it. He was the guy who reportedly told,

the folks over at DHS that he wanted a 3000 arrest, a day arrest quota, very angrily demanding it. And I think that's one of the things that led to the intensification, of their, of their dragnets that took in not just the worst of the worst, but often American citizens and often innocent people. This is what enraged folks. So, you know, there are there probably questions. that the Congress would like to ask him.

I don't know if he'll ever sit in front of them. I think he has some, immunity as a chief of staff, but we'll see. If Miller or any other administration officials want to defy. congressional subpoenas. All lawmakers can really do is make a contempt of Congress. referral to the DOJ, which is run by a by Terblanche. What does. oversight actually look like over the next two years? I mean, that is why there's this debate within the Democratic Party right now. and these incoming new lawmakers about how much time. to spend on this sort of thing versus the focus and the mandate.

that that voters sent Democrats to Congress with, which is to focus and prioritize issues of affordability and cost of living. Of course, the question of corruption was also an important one for. for the campaign trail. But yeah, it's going to be really tough to nail down somebody. like Stephen Miller and look to the point, that's got an ax we're making. Stephen Miller is a security blanket for the president. This is somebody that has been by his side from the beginning. He's intensely loyal and for those in the the white House,

there was concern that it could be somebody like Bill Pulte in that position. who has been sort of the devil on Trump's shoulder, whispering all kinds of, policy ideas and, potential, like kind of stoking the flame of, of Trump's in, in a way that while Stephen Miller can do that, too, he's a known quantity for a lot of the people in Trump's orbit. Again, he's been with him, for for such a long time.

And he is a policy mind now, whether people agree with that policy or not. Stephen Miller is is the main policy architect, not just of immigration, but a whole swath of issues that are important to President Trump. And so whether he decides he wants to work with Democrats or not, like Stephen. Miller is the executor and the implementer of a lot of what the president wants. This guy we mentioned, the president told. CBS that he expects to make a few, changes to his cabinet. Do you still think Pete Hegseth might be one of those?

Well, the. president was pretty firm in his, defense of Pete Hegseth today. But of course, they're going. to have to deal with some political problems in the House. next week when this, impeachment vote comes up. And I don't know if he's going to survive that vote. Not that that is, means he'll be out of office. That. Well, of course I have to go over to the Senate, which I think it will fail over there. But still, it is a political headache next week. But the president told CBS he expects to make some changes. Whether it takes after anybody else, it's not terribly surprising. One of my observations of, working, or being around the white House. when I wrote this book about Trump's first hundred days last year,

is the intensity of it, you know, working for him? Is there an around the clock thing? And, and, you know, he is firmly in control of his own government, the kind of a hub and spoke. the Oval Office is the hub and all these cabinet secretaries. and and everybody else who works there, essentially on the clock 24/7. So the intensity of it, combined with the perhaps the president has some, different. people he'd like to bring in. It would shock me at all. if he if he decided to put fresh eyes on, the War Department or anything else. Although I do think it should be noted.

He he gave a pretty big blow to confidence today.