Stephen Miller era begins in Trump’s White House

▪ Dana White meeting about press secretary offer

▪ Eisenkot gets chance to form government

A new chapter starts today in the White House as hard-liner Stephen Miller takes over as President Trump ‘s chief of staff in the aftermath of the GOP’s sweeping midterm losses.

Having served as the deputy chief of staff for policy, Miller has arguably been a driving force behind strict immigration enforcement policies, including the deadly crackdown in Minneapolis earlier this year.

Now, he’s taking over for the much less vocal Susie Wiles , who seemed comfortable working as a behind-the-scenes operator for the past two years. Miller’s appointment has been widely perceived as a message that the White House is preparing for combat with the incoming Democratic majorities in Congress.

However, Trump said he’s hoping to be able to work with Democrats during a sit-down interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday. One of the key areas he pointed to was immigration — the issue that Miller has for years known to be a hard-liner on.

Trump said he believes his administration’s deportation policy was “too tough.” He noted the argument that those who entered the country illegally who have jobs and are paying taxes should be allowed to stay in the U.S. in some form.

“The deal would be we would work something out, and I think that’s something that’s actually doable,” Trump said.

Following the GOP’s losses last Tuesday, Trump surprised some with a congratulatory message to Democrats, saying he looks forward to working together “for the good of our country.”

But The Hill’s Julia Manchester reports many political observers see Miller’s promotion as a clear signal that Trump has no intention of backing down.

“They are not going to slow down on executive power, executive orders, and regulations,” Joe Grogan , the former director of Trump’s Domestic Policy Council in his first administration, told Manchester. “Stephen is going to move aggressively on all of that.”

Democrats have widely slammed Miller’s promotion, saying it undermines the possibility of working together with the president.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) said Friday in a post on the social platform X that Miller becoming the chief of staff shows Trump has “learned nothing from his historic defeat.”

“Stephen Miller is the architect of the most barbaric, inhumane policies of this administration. Trump couldn’t have made a worse choice,” Schumer said. “Our Democratic majorities will fight him every step of the way.”

Michigan Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed (D) called Miller the “most broken man.”

“I don’t know what Stephen Miller has actually contributed to our culture, our society, in any real way, except to make us more angry and stoke the worst kind of fear and vitriol,” he said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”

Even some Republicans expressed concern about Miller.

Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind.) called Miller’s promotion a “bad mistake” during an interview Sunday with CNN’s Manu Raju .

“If your team takes a beating as badly as we took this last week, you have to fire people. You don’t promote those who are, who were in charge of what was supposed to be delivered,” he said, adding that Midwesterners don’t like his “tone.”

Wiles, who was the first-ever female White House chief of staff, is one of the first in what is likely to be a growing list of administration figures exiting after the bruising midterms.

Deputy chief of staff Richard Walters , a close ally of Wiles, is also leaving the administration .

▪ The Hill : Bernie Sanders ‘not worried’ about Miller.

▪ The Hill : Katie Miller pauses podcast after husband’s promotion.

Nvidia’s board of directors announced it’s opening an investigation into CEO Jensen Huang following reports that he had an intimate relationship with a woman that U.S. intelligence officials believe was spying for China . The company’s stock is set to drop when trading opens on Monday.

Trump said he’s “highly unlikely” to attack Iran if upcoming peace talks yield progress on Tehran’s nuclear program and reopening the Strait of Hormuz. He told CNN that he believes Iran wants to make a deal. Trump previously ruled out striking Iran before the midterms happened.

World leaders will gather on Monday in Antalya, Turkey for the U.N. climate summit, called COP31. Delegates will face pressure to negotiate new pledges but also make good on past commitments meant to slow the rise in global average temperatures.

The Capitol is seen under gray skies after American voters this week flipped control of both chambers of Congress from Republican control to the Democrats, in Washington, on Nov. 6, 2026. (J. Scott Applewhite, Associated Press)

BACK IN TOWN : The House and Senate are returning to Washington today after weeks away ahead of last week’s elections, facing a packed agenda for the lame-duck session.

The most high-profile item for this week is deciding who will lead House Republicans in the next session of Congress.

With Speaker Mike Johnson (La.) not seeking the role, Majority Leader Steve Scalise (La.) is facing off against House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (Ohio). The vote, scheduled for Tuesday.

Some members argue a total revamp of leadership is needed, while others say Scalise is better positioned for the top spot. Contested elections for minority whip and conference chair are also taking place.

At the same time, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) plans to reintroduce articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth . Democrats are widely expected to support it. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said he’s a “hard yes” on the resolution in an interview on Sunday.

And the clock is ticking for lawmakers to make progress on extending government funding before it runs out on Dec. 11.

Insiders can read more from The Hill’s Sudiksha Kochi here on what to expect as Congress returns.

▪ The Hill : Can Democrats stop Trump’s tariffs?

▪ The Hill : Do the midterms change the calculus for permitting reform?

WAITING GAME : Final votes are still being tallies in the two remaining uncalled Senate races.

Even as Democrats have already clinched a comfortable majority in the Senate, the results of Mississippi and Alaska’s contests could be critical in padding their edge and determining what the 2028 Senate battle will look like.

Democrat Scott Colom ‘s lead in Mississippi’s race ticked up to close to 3,000 votes to end last week, boosting Democratic hopes that he will oust incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R). If Colom holds on, he will be the first Democrat elected to the Senate from Mississippi since the 1980s.

Outstanding ballots can still be counted through the end of Tuesday as long as they were postmarked by Election Day. But with the final count likely to be razor-tight, a complicated legal situation could follow.

You can read more here from Morning Report’s Sarah Fortinsky on how Colom turned the race into a nail-biter.

Democrat Mary Peltola has maintained her narrow lead over incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan (R) in Alaska, but she’s short of a majority of the vote. As ballots can still be counted for 10 more days and Alaska uses ranked choice voting, the public might not know the winner until close to Thanksgiving.

▪ The Hill : Democrats see new path to expand Senate majority in 2028.

▪ The Hill : Alaska governor gives vote count update on Senate race.

JUST KIDDING : UFC President and CEO Dana White is meeting with Trump today to discuss his offer to become the next White House press secretary.

But Trump told reporters Sunday evening he was joking about making the cage fighting mogul his chief spokesperson.

“Of course, I was kidding. And you can see that, because they put all of the great fighters as his assistants, that they’re all gonna come with them. But it was, it was just a little fun,” Trump said.

The president has been without a press secretary since Katie Zacharia ‘s brief five-day stint in the job before she was dismissed following a widely criticized tenure.

Trump and White have been close friends for years, and they collaborated to host a UFC fight on the White House South Lawn in June as part of the country’s 250th birthday celebrations.

▪ The Hill : Trump shares cartoon of White as press secretary.

The president will meet with the Qatari prime minister at noon.

The U.S. Supreme Court is seen on Sept. 25, 2026, in Washington. (Mariam Zuhaib, Associated Press)

PATH OBSTRUCTED : The incoming Democratic Senate majority will cause the president to lose the glidepath he’s enjoyed to getting his judicial nominees confirmed.

Following last week’s results, pressure quickly rose on Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito to retire, but they haven’t indicated interest in imminently doing so.

Schumer has signaled that his party could serve as a roadblock if a vacancy arises on the high court during the next two years.

“The bottom line is we’re not going to allow a right-winger on the court,” he told The Associated Press.

The Hill’s Zach Schonfeld reports that this would mark a major shift in the dynamic after remaking the federal judiciary was one of Trump’s most lasting legacies from his first term.

Trump successfully nominated three justices to the Supreme Court during his first administration — Neil Gorsuch , Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett . He also helped remake the lower courts, nominating dozens of judges.

By this point in his first term, the Senate had confirmed 83 of Trump’s judicial nominees, according to data from the Federal Judicial Center. But the pace of confirmation has been slower during the second term, reaching 56 so far.

That’s led some Republicans to call for a quicker push to fill the current vacancies, Schonfeld notes.

The federal judiciary’s administrative office reports that there are 28 district court vacancies waiting to be filled, with nominees pending for 11 of them.

▪ The Hill : Prosecutor in office housing ‘grand conspiracy’ probe resigns.

▪ The Hill : Sonia Sotomayor hopes court overturns immunity decision.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog, right, tasks Yashar Party leader Gadi Eisenkot with forming a government at the president’s residence in Jerusalem on Nov. 8, 2026. (Ohad Zwigenberg, Associated Press)

FIRST UP : Israeli President Isaac Herzog has chosen opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot to have the first shot at forming a government following Israel’s parliamentary elections at the end of last month.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ‘s current coalition finished first in the elections but fell short of a majority, giving an opening to Eisenkot, who appears to have a clearer path to forming a government. Herzog is tasked as the president with choosing who to give a mandate to, and it doesn’t need to be the party leader with the most seats in the Knesset.

The pressure will now be on Eisenkot, a former Israeli military chief of staff, to gather enough backing from multiple parties to form a government. He has 28 days to do so, but the window can be extended by 14 more days.

Eisenkot can form a government with the parties currently in his coalition and the two major Arab party coalitions, but that’s easier said than done. He’s laid out four principles that anyone joining his government must agree to, but the Arab parties aren’t fully on board with them.

They all seem to recognize a shared goal of ousting Netanyahu, but the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu has signaled it would refuse to be in a government with the Arab parties.

One of the Arab-led parties, the Joint List, has offered to back Eisenkot from outside the government to get Netanyahu out.

▪ The Jerusalem Post : Antony Blinken says he warned Netanyahu about losing support.

▪ The Atlantic : Democrats’ fight over Israel is just beginning.

Democrats won — now they must clean house , David Wippman and Glenn C. Altschuler write in The Hill.

It was the economy, not the war , Mark Penn and Andrew Stein write in The Wall Street Journal.

James Talarico, the newly elected Democratic Texas senator, speaks at an election night event in Austin, Texas, on Nov. 3, 2026. (Eric Gay, Associated Press)

And finally … Texas Sen.-elect James Talarico (D) made a surprise appearance during “Saturday Night Live” over the weekend.

Talarico appeared during the open of the show’s first episode following the midterms, which started out featuring cast members playing Schumer and Jeffries celebrating the Democrats’ wins. They were then interrupted by James Austin Johnson playing Trump, who mentioned the president’s nickname for the incoming senator, “Talafreako.”

Talarico then interrupted by walking out from the wings and saying, “That’s Sen. Talafreako.” He introduced himself as “the guy who’s been texting you every day asking for $5″ and made a joke the frequent Trump bit before kicking off the show with,”Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night.”

The current state legislator is the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in Texas since 1988.