Jeffries calls Miller a ‘dangerous xenophobe’ after promotion: ‘Fire him today’

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries is sounding off on Stephen Miller, President Trump’s pick to replace outgoing White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.

“Stephen Miller is a dangerous xenophobe and reckless extremist who has American blood on his hands,” Jeffries said in a post to the social platform X. “His presence in government should be eradicated like a malignant tumor. Fire him today.”

Miller’s promotion is not likely to be well-received by Democrats, who view the new chief of staff as inflammatory and a hardliner. Miller is a primary architect of Trump’s strict immigration enforcement agenda, having pushed some of the president’s tougher policies over the years.

Last year, Miller said the Trump administration would seek to triple its daily immigration arrests to 3,000. He said the administration was actively looking into suspending habeas corpus rights, which allow those in custody to challenge their detention. And after two American citizens were shot and killed in Minneapolis by federal immigration agents, Miller referred to the victims as domestic terrorists .

Jeffries, the likely next Speaker of the House, is one of several Democrats who blasted the move Friday. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Trump had “learned nothing” from the results of the midterms, in which Democrats stormed back into control of both chambers of Congress.

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the incoming chair of the House Oversight Committee, said Democrats would “continue to investigate” Miller.

“Oversight Democrats will continue to investigate Miller for his misconduct,” Garcia said in a statement posted to X. “Stephen Miller should lawyer up.”

Trump elevated Miller to the chief of staff role Friday, announcing in a post to Truth Social that Wiles would be leaving the role, just days after calling a report that Wiles may depart “TOTAL FAKE NEWS.”

Since Republicans’ midterm losses, some in the party, including former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, said Wiles should be fired . One former Trump aide, however, previously called the idea of Miller being chief of staff “terrifying.”

“The idea that in the last two years of Trump’s administration, when he’s going to be spiraling because he’s a lame-duck president,” former Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Matthews told MeidasTouch . “The idea of someone like a Stephen Miller in charge is a very scary thing.”