Five days after President Trump named Stephen Miller as his new White House chief of staff, the Democrat poised to become House speaker says he has no intention of working with him.
Hakeem Jeffries, who is set to take the gavel in January after Democrats' sweeping midterm wins flipped both chambers of Congress, told ABC News in a Sunday interview that the regular line of contact his office kept open with outgoing chief of staff Susie Wiles "will not carry over" under Miller. Working with him, Jeffries said bluntly, is "not going to happen."
"Lawyer up," Democrats warn
The reaction from Democratic leaders has been uniformly hostile since Trump announced the move on Truth Social last Friday, elevating Miller from deputy chief of staff after Republicans lost control of both the House and Senate in last week's midterms. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote on X that Trump "couldn't have made a worse choice," calling Miller "the architect of the most barbaric, inhumane policies of this administration" and vowing that Democratic majorities "will fight him every step of the way." Jeffries went further, calling Miller a "dangerous xenophobe and reckless extremist" who should be "eradicated" from government "like a malignant tumor."
Robert Garcia, the California Democrat in line to chair the House Oversight Committee once the new Congress convenes, told Miller to "lawyer up," saying Oversight Democrats intend to keep investigating his role in the administration's deportation operations, including the ICE raids and family-separation policies he has championed since Trump's first term.
Miller, for his part, said on social media that he was "honored beyond words" by the appointment and pledged his continued support for the president. Wiles, the first woman to hold the chief of staff post and the longest-serving in Trump's two terms, is moving to lead the separate Trump political operation; her office said serving in the White House "has been the honor of a lifetime."
The appointment lands at an awkward moment for the West Wing: with Democrats set to control subpoena power in both chambers come January, Miller is expected to face far more aggressive congressional scrutiny than he did as a behind-the-scenes policy adviser. Republican reaction has been more mixed than Democrats' — some Senate conservatives have privately groused for months that Miller wields outsized influence over the president's agenda, while a bloc of Trump-aligned senators has rushed to defend him publicly. Trump, in naming Miller, framed the pick as a sign of continuity rather than retreat after the party's midterm losses.
