In classic Donald Trump fashion, the president is sending out mixed signals after his party was completely trounced in this year’s Midterm elections.
Democrats have overwhelming majorities in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, and have turned multiple deep-red states, such as Texas, blue.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller speaks to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Special Agents in Charge and Field Operations Directors from around the country at ICE Headquarters in Washington, D.C., May 20, 2025. (DHS photo by Tia Dufour)
In fact, the defeat was so profound for President Trump and the Republican Party that the Senate might not even be in play until 2032, given how unfavorable the 2028 map is for Republicans.
Speeding Toward a Constitutional Crisis
After the election, Trump indicated he’d be willing to work with Democrats. He even implied he’d be open to getting an amnesty bill through the Legislative Branch, a clear break from one of his most consistent stances since the 2016 election (the issue that catapulted him to the top of the Republican field that year).
At the same time, however, the president has fired his more establishment White House Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, and replaced her with the Right-wing gonzo figure, Stephen Miller.
Of course, Miller is much more in line with Trump’s original policies and worldview.
He’s hawkish on immigration, for example, and is widely seen as enabling Trump’s political impulses.
Yet, Miller is also so extreme that First Lady Melania Trump allegedly had to pressure her husband earlier this year to abandon Miller’s preferred immigration policies because some of her personal friends, who were immigrants, were being harmed by those hardline immigration enforcement policies.
What’s more, Attorney General Todd Blanche has threatened to have his Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors investigate any incoming Democratic Party lawmaker who dares to open their own investigations into the Trump administration or family on corruption charges.
Even as the president talks about being more conciliatory with Democrats, he’s also making moves that suggest he will be more hardline and vicious than ever.
Further, Trump is either firing people or letting people leave who he thinks are too soft with the Democrats. Another indicator that he’s taking a more warlike stance toward the incoming Democratic majorities on the Hill.
President Donald Trump speaks during the 136th Coast Guard Academy commencement exercise in New London, Conn., May 17, 2017.
The ceremony was the President’s first service academy graduation as commander-in-chief.
Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Patrick Kelley.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, likely the next Speaker of the House, has made it clear he sees little hope in working with Stephen Miller.
In fact, Jeffries described Miller’s appointment as irresponsible, given Miller’s past support of hardline immigration.
Jeffries and the Democrats believe that the elevation of people like Miller at this time, when the American people overwhelmingly made clear their opposition to President Trump, creates a major impediment for Trump, who will need cooperation and support from the Democrats in Congress to advance any legislation, negotiate spending deals, and prevent government shutdowns.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the current minority leader in the Senate, the man who is expected to be the next Senate Majority Leader (although there is considerable opposition to this among his own side in the Senate, many of whom want someone like Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland instead), is criticizing the Miller appointment.
Democrats say Trump’s decision to promote Miller to serve as his White House gatekeeper suggests the president has learned nothing and forgotten nothing after the Midterms.
Who Is Stephen Miller?
Stephen Miller has been one of Donald Trump’s most influential advisers since the 2016 campaign.
Miller has always been a gonzo figure inside the Republican Party, having started as a creation of the Right-wing media universe in his high school years in Santa Monica, Calif., and then as a student journalist at Duke University.
Miller later became press secretary for Rep. Michelle Bachman (R-MN) and eventually worked for Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), where he was soon integrated into the Tea Party and proto-MAGA elements of the GOP as Trump rose.
During the 2016 Midterm election, Miller initially worked on Dr. Ben Carson’s campaign.
After Carson dropped out of the Republican primary in 2016 and endorsed Trump, Carson made sure Miller had a seat at Trump’s table.
Once on the Trump Campaign in 2016, Miller became Trump’s chief speechwriter and, in many cases, an extension of Trump’s brain.
Having been an immigration hawk his entire life, Miller is widely seen as the architect of Trump’s most extreme policies in this domain.
Whatever one thinks of Susie Wiles, she was an organizer and a bit of a bureaucratic taskmaster. Miller brings none of that acumen to his job.
Stephen Miller is a partisan warrior who brings aggressive policy (and self) promotion with him into the White House Chief of Staff’s office.
He has never demonstrated the ability to organize or manage, which is the chief of staff’s key function.
And if he’s busy getting into battles with the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, while encouraging the president to go more extreme, one can anticipate that life inside the White House is about to get very bleak and very small.
To be clear, many elected Republicans don’t like Stephen Miller any more than their Democratic colleagues do.
Given how much of a minority Republicans will be in Congress, and how hated Miller is on the Democratic side, it strains credulity that Trump would want to further antagonize his few remaining allies in the Legislative Branch by placing such a controversial figure as his political consigliere.
An End to Trump’s Presidency
But it’s par for the course with Trump, who cannot help but relish controversy and drama (the two things the American people overwhelmingly voted against in November).
Democrats have already made clear their intention to enforce all manner of anti-corruption laws aimed at the Trump administration, pursue investigations related to those charges, and effectively neuter the president’s power for the next two years, since Trump will have little protection in the Legislative Branch.
Sure, Trump retains veto power, but that only gets him so far.
And that doesn’t help the GOP, which will not want to be viewed by an American electorate that absolutely hates the GOP right now as being more obstructionist than they are already viewed as being.
What’s more, the Democrats plan to effectively gut the Trump administration by waging one impeachment of key personnel after the other.
While they may not impeach Trump, the Democrats can absolutely damage his administration’s ability to govern as Trump wants it to by removing those key players off the board.
Trump faces a divided government, a seriously weakened political position, and an opposition party convinced his promises are not believable.
Stephen Miller taking the top slot at the White House only worsens ties with Democrats in Congress at a time when Trump needs to mend them.
About the Author: Brandon J. Weichert
Brandon J. Weichert is the Senior National Security Editor. He also manages The Weichert Brief on Substack. Weichert is the co-host of The Mario Nawfal Show on Twitter/X. He is the author of four bestselling national security books, most recently A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine (Encounter Books). His next book, Fortress Americas: A New Monroe Doctrine (Tucker Carlson Books), is due out December 8. Follow him via Twitter/X @WeTheBrandon.
