In wake of brutal midterms, Susie Wiles departs White House – Stephen Miller steps in as Chief of Staff
Chief of Staff Susie Wiles will depart the Trump administration and move back into the political campaign world. The announcement comes just days after Republicans were dealt crushing losses in the U.S. Senate and House, costing the GOP control of the U.S. Congress.
Opinion-analysis by Summer Lane | November 6, 2026
On Friday, President Donald Trump announced that his Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, the “ice maiden” of the White House, would be departing her role.
The move is a big one. Wiles has been the president’s longest-serving chief of staff, serving even amid a battle with breast cancer in 2026.
Nobody can deny that Wiles is a tough political operative, but in the aftermath of a devastating midterm election for the GOP, it is perhaps little surprise that her time at the White House has ended.
“I am pleased to announce that Mr. Stephen Miller, the current Deputy Chief of Staff of the Trump Administration, and one of my most trusted advisors, will become the Chief of Staff starting Monday, November 9, 2026,” President Trump said in his announcement.
The president said that Wiles would move over “to the Trump Political Operation.”
“I want to thank her for her service as Chief of Staff — She has done a great job!” he concluded.
Wiles’ departure can be viewed as a sign of the times, perhaps. The Republican strategy – to run President Trump across the nation at a jaw-dropping clip to drum up support among voters – just didn’t work.
Nobody can say President Trump didn’t leave it all on the field – he certainly showed up and put in a lot of work. But Republicans, for better or worse, couldn’t recapture the unequaled energy of the 2024 presidential campaign
And there are a few reasons why.
The war dilemma
There were plenty of reasons to vote for the Republican Party in the midterm elections – eight of them were catalogued here on LindellTV.
But even the wins from the White House on several key issues weren’t enough to stem the tide of dissatisfaction from voters who feel utterly betrayed by one singular item: the war with Iran.
This is a fact that Vice President JD Vance and even President Donald Trump have publicly acknowledged in the aftermath of the election.
“The reason we lost is the war,” the vice president said in a statement on Wednesday.
He continued, “The president himself said so last night. If you’d like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that’s at least honest. But everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there.”
The honesty in the vice president’s reflection, while politically savvy, is also admirable.
He’s right that people will debate whether the Iran war was worth it, especially when one considers that the U.S. Senate will be lost to Republicans for many years to come.
What would Charlie Kirk say? Would the U.S. even be in this position if Kirk were still here?
Tuesday’s election was a stinging and spiteful repudiation of the Republican Party. Americans who voted Republican for the first time in 2024 – low-propensity voters, Hispanics, Black men, and a good chunk of female voters – felt betrayed by the war and by the rising gas and diesel prices.
They voted for political change and revolution in 2024. They voted to drain the Washington swamp, put the people first, and focus on the home front.
Unfortunately, since February 28, 2026, the political oxygen has been sucked out of the room by the Iran conflict. There’s simply no other way to say it.
“Israel and, in fact, the entire Middle East, WOULD NOT EXIST TODAY if I did not stop Iran from having a Nuclear Weapon,” President Trump said on Friday, defending the war.
He continued, “Nobody wants to say that, but everybody knows it’s true!”
On this point, American voters view the issue very differently than the president: they were never concerned about the Middle East. They were concerned about housing, food, electricity, and jobs.
Republican candidates need to up their game
It’s hard to compete against the high-energy and youthful factor of someone like James Talarico and Abdul El-Sayed. Their policies, from a conservative standpoint, might be abhorrent, but their campaigns were slick, quick, and addressed the issues that Republicans broadly would not.
Young people in America who cannot make ends meet, cannot afford a mortgage, and can barely afford to buy groceries voted for two reasons: out of anger, and out of desperation.
Anger, because Americans – especially young voters – cast ballots in 2024, hoping for no new wars, cheap gas, and affordable housing.
Desperation, because the war with Iran has rocked the world, spiked prices, and housing and living costs are still sky-high.
This is not an admonishment of the Trump administration. No, the midterm election results provided plenty of that. It is simply an analysis. The root problem here for the Republican Party is simple: the America First agenda was not prioritized.
Vice President Vance acknowledged as much in his own statement:
“I remain hopeful about our country,” he said. “To the people who are pissed off and want to say, ‘I told you so’: you’re right, you did tell us so. Take that energy into electing Republicans who share your worldview. To the people who are just pissed at the results, you should be. Let’s take that anger and get back to the work of saving our country.”
Vance’s attitude is pragmatic and helpful. He acknowledges the failures while attempting to learn from them, hopefully, so that the nation can move forward.
Certainly, if Vance wants to run for president in 2028, he will need to listen closely to the message Americans just sent in these midterm elections: nothing less than total follow-through on every promise made will be accepted.
The Republican Party lost because of the war, yes. But it also lost because Republicans in Congress refused to codify anything that was important to voters in 2024: election integrity, for example. The SAVE America Act would have been a crown jewel for the majority of Americans who are concerned about securing the U.S. election system.
Aside from the One Big Beautiful Bill in 2025, Republicans essentially passed nothing of consequence, legislatively, that could be signed into law.
This was a massive failure on the part of both Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune.
In President Trump’s defense, if the U.S. Congress won’t do its job, it forces him to rely heavily on executive orders. Unfortunately, EOs are temporary, and the American people recognize that.
How to move forward
How does the GOP move forward after this defeat? Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who has arguably been the most effective conservative governor in decades, correctly observed that Tuesday’s election was an “extinction-level event for Republicans.”
Certainly, the Republican Party will be licking its wounds for quite some time.
Can it recover from this? The answer is, not if it keeps doing the same thing.
The Republican Party, in 2024, with the coalition-building skills of geniuses like Charlie Kirk, was a diverse alliance of all Americans. It was a party of ideas and promises that was extremely simple: put America – and keep America – first.
It’s really that elementary.
Republicans, if they are to survive politically, will have to honestly assess why they lost, be willing to change, and understand that if they do not, Democrats will control the seats of power indefinitely.
The American people are after one thing: honesty from their leaders, and a priority on domestic needs. Deliver that, and to the winner go the spoils.
Photo: Pixabay
