Former Arlington resident Stephen Miller is President Donald Trump’s pick for White House chief of staff, and Rep. Don Beyer (D-8) says the news is cause for tears.
Beyer learned of Miller’s promotion during a live interview on BBC Newsnight today (Friday). Asked what it meant, he replied, “It means I’m going to go cry for the next half hour.”
He also called Miller “probably the single darkest force — the Darth Vader of this country.”
"Stephen Miller is probably the single darkest force – the Darth Vader of this country"
Democratic Congressman Don Beyer reacts to news that President Trump has appointed Stephen Miller as his new White House Chief of Staff.#Newsnight pic.twitter.com/6pnQ59vuz6
— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) November 6, 2026
Trump announced this afternoon that Miller, currently his deputy chief of staff, would replace Susie Wiles starting Monday (Nov. 9). The shakeup comes days after Republicans lost control of Congress in Tuesday’s midterm elections.
Beyer followed up with a longer statement on X, saying Miller’s elevation “doubles down on the politics of hatred, lawlessness, and failure that the American people soundly rejected three days ago.”
“Stephen Miller embodies the worst elements of the Trump presidency,” Beyer wrote. “His promotion shows that Trump has learned nothing from his electoral debacle and has no intention of even trying to work constructively with the next Congress.”
The statement also criticized Miller’s role in immigration enforcement and in military strikes abroad.
Beyer cruised to reelection Tuesday, winning about 82% of the vote in Arlington. In a press release the next day, he said “the American people have had enough” and described the results as “a historic tsunami that swept Republicans from power.”
Miller is a key architect of the administration’s hard-line immigration policies and one of Trump’s closest and longest-serving advisers, according to the Associated Press. He joined Trump’s 2016 campaign as a speechwriter after working for former Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), who went on to serve as Trump’s first attorney general.
Wiles, the first woman to serve as White House chief of staff and the longest-serving of Trump’s chiefs, submitted her resignation Thursday night, according to a person familiar with the conversation who spoke to AP. Trump praised her on social media and said she would continue working for his political organization.
Miller and his family lived in North Arlington until last fall, when they moved to military housing in D.C. after repeated protests outside their home.
Activism in the neighborhood also set off a legal fight over an activist’s seized phone involving Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti. It later prompted a House Judiciary Committee inquiry into her office, which Beyer called one of Chairman Jim Jordan’s “partisan fishing expeditions.”
