The Chief of Staff Who Must Not Be Named

When your party loses both chambers of Congress, you might spend a day wondering what voters were trying to tell you. Donald Trump spent three days and came up with Stephen Miller.

Miller, who replaces Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff, helped design Trump’s mass deportation campaign and has long pushed for a presidency with fewer restraints. The AP’s midterm voter survey found that about six in ten voters thought the administration’s immigration enforcement had gone too far. In most workplaces, that kind of feedback would earn you a difficult conversation. In Trump’s White House, it earns you a promotion.

The timing matters. In January, Democrats will be able to call officials to testify and demand answers about how federal agencies use their power. Trump could take the election as a reason to deal with Congress. By promoting Miller, he’s betting he can get more done by going around it. The country will spend the next two years finding out how much of that bet the courts and Congress will let him get away with.

Trump brushed off the results by pointing out that he wasn’t on the ballot. That’s precisely what should worry Republicans. Voters were willing to punish the party for his record even when they couldn’t vote against him. In 2028, the Republican nominee will have to explain why, when voters said the administration had gone too far, Trump handed the keys to the man who’d spent years telling him he hadn’t gone far enough.