Since President Donald Trump tapped him as White House chief of staff, Stephen Miller has dug into the granular details of West Wing operations, down to assigning staffers’ parking spots and badge access.
The moves are part of a broader effort by the longtime Trump adviser to route decision-making directly through himself, according to four people with direct knowledge of Miller’s first days in the job who spoke with MS NOW and were granted anonymity to speak candidly about a quickly evolving West Wing.
Miller wants to implement a more hierarchical structure inside the White House, leaning into an organizational chart with more direct lines coming to him, according to multiple people familiar with his plans. The problem, one of those people said, is that Trump prefers an informal atmosphere in which advisers and aides have direct access to him without a traditional gatekeeper.
Miller has yet to hold an all-staff meeting, according to one source familiar with the matter.
Instead, in coordination with his wife, Katie Miller, they have begun reaching out to a few individuals about joining the White House after several staffers departed along with his predecessor, Susie Wiles, according to three of the sources.
The sources familiar with internal deliberations tell MS NOW that Miller is not seeking to further purge the office beyond his initial moves that he outlined in a new restructuring memo sent to staff this week.
To streamline his policy operation, Miller plans to leave two senior roles unfilled, according to that memo obtained by MS NOW and confirmed by one of those sources with direct knowledge of the plans. Richard Walters, the deputy chief of staff for legislative political and public affairs, who announced his departure earlier this week, will not be directly replaced. Neither will Meghan Bauer, the White House Cabinet secretary, who is leaving her role, in which she served as an intermediary between the president and Cabinet secretaries seeking West Wing meetings.
According to those sources, for access to the president, cabinet secretaries will now go through Miller and Chamberlain Harris, the director of outer Oval operations. Harris, a key aide who sits with Natalie Harp and Margo Martin just outside the Oval Office, will stay on in her role.
Katie Miller’s involvement is a turnabout. In 2025, Wiles ordered her White House badge access to be cut off, according to two sources with direct knowledge. Katie Miller had previously been an adviser to Elon Musk while serving as a special government employee with the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, and later left the administration to work for Musk at SpaceX.
According to a source with direct knowledge, she will not join the administration in an official position but has played a significant role in helping restructure staffing. She is also stepping away from several contracts and her podcast as her husband takes over the president’s staff.
Miller’s previous responsibilities will now be split into two roles. Caleb Orr, a policy adviser, will take Miller’s old post as deputy chief of staff for policy. Tony Salisbury, currently the deputy homeland security adviser and head of Homeland Security Investigations at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, will be elevated to homeland security adviser.
The White House did not immediately respond to MS NOW’s request for comment.
Laura Barrón-López contributed to this report.
The post Stephen Miller wants to be Trump’s gatekeeper. Trump may not want one. appeared first on MS NOW.
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