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The people behind the power

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White House · Current role

Stephen Miller

White House Chief of Staff

Appointed November 6, 2026, succeeding Susie Wiles; a central architect of Trump’s immigration agenda.

Explore the record ↓

October 26–27 · Cast update

Pete Hegseth. The approval Ukraine is waiting for.

Zelensky says Patriot and NASAMS interceptor deliveries, funded by Ukraine’s allies, have spent nearly a month awaiting Hegseth’s approval. His October 26 statement places the delay at the top of the Pentagon while Russian attacks continue. Read the account and watch the footage from Kyiv

The record · Stephen Miller

Decisions. Words.
Consequences.

Chief of staff appointment announced November 6, 2026.

Read the dossier7 dated entries · 0 recordings · decisions & sources

November 6, 2026

After the defeat, a promotion.

Trump chose Miller to replace Susie Wiles as chief of staff after Republicans lost Congress. The aide who helped drive the immigration crackdown moved to the top of the White House staff.

May–June 2025

The drive for 3,000 arrests a day

Reuters reported that Miller demanded 3,000 daily ICE arrests, tripling the previous target. Its reporting also documented a sharp rise in detention of people without criminal charges or convictions. That distinction matters when the public justification emphasizes dangerous criminals.

May 9, 2025

Considering suspension of habeas corpus

Miller said the administration was actively considering suspending habeas corpus in response to immigration. This is the protection that allows someone detained by the government to challenge detention in court. His statement was a proposal, not evidence that a suspension had taken effect.

January 2026

Policy power without a department

The Atlantic described Miller’s central role in policy calls and the deportation drive. His influence runs through the White House: formal responsibility for individual enforcement actions still has to be traced to the relevant department, agency and officials.

First-term context · 2018

Family separation was a policy choice

Miller defended the administration’s zero-tolerance approach. FactCheck.org explained why officials’ claims that the law required family separation were misleading: the administration’s prosecution policy drove the separations. This earlier record provides context for his return to power.

June 2025

Calling anti-ICE protests an insurrection

Miller publicly characterized the Los Angeles protests against immigration raids as an insurrection. That language supported the administration’s military response. The initial National Guard deployment used a separate statutory authority: it was not itself an invocation of the Insurrection Act.

June 15, 2026 reporting

The push to suspend habeas corpus

Reporting by The New York Times, summarized by Common Dreams, described Miller pressing to suspend migrants’ ability to challenge detention through habeas corpus. White House lawyer Will Scharf opposed it. The same reporting attributed the proposal to invoke the Insurrection Act against Minnesota protests to JD Vance; those were distinct proposals.

November 12, 2026 · The people in power

The testimony. The gifts. The decisions behind closed doors.

Cast updates · October 13, 2026

Katie Zacharia

Former White House Press Secretary

Katie Zacharia spent years defending Trump on conservative television and social media. Her turn as his White House press secretary lasted five days. After questions about her legal credentials overtook her first week, Trump urged her to reconsider the job and her dismissal was reported on October 16. Her dossier follows that exit, the professional claims and her earlier conspiracy posts and false health claims.

Read the connected story

Kimberly Guilfoyle

Former U.S. Ambassador to Greece

Kimberly Guilfoyle moved from television and Trump’s political circle into diplomacy. The former prosecutor and Fox News host, once engaged to Donald Trump Jr., represented the United States in Greece. Her tenure ended amid disputed allegations about money and access. She denied wrongdoing when she announced her resignation.

Read the connected story

Katie Zacharia · statements and evidence

October 16, 2026

Five days in the job. Then Trump showed her the door.

Katie Zacharia started work on October 12, 2026. By October 16, the president who picked her was suggesting she reconsider the job. The Independent reported on October 16 that a White House official had confirmed her dismissal; Axios, citing two senior administration officials, said she was expected to leave in the coming days. Before leaving for Georgia, Trump told reporters what he had said to her: ‘if I were you, I’d reconsider.’ He blamed the coverage of her first week, adding: ‘maybe it’s not for her.’ His own choice of spokeswoman had become, in his telling, a story about the press treating her badly. Her departure followed a brief first briefing and days of questions about the legal credentials she had promoted on television. Her five days were shorter even than Anthony Scaramucci’s eleven-day stint as White House communications director in 2017.

Watch: Zacharia answers questions about her legal background · Fox News · 7:05

October 15–16, 2026

The lawyer claim meets the bar-exam answer.

Katie Zacharia built part of her television authority on being a lawyer. During her brief tenure as the president’s chief spokeswoman, she acknowledged that she failed the bar exam and never retook it. Speaking to Sean Hannity on October 15, she said she had been preparing to marry and move to China, where she did not expect to need an American license. Her Pepperdine law degree is real. The unanswered question is what justified the professional titles that followed. Reuters reported that it could find no attorney-registration or bar-membership record for her in any US state or Washington, DC. An exam result can be a private setback. Calling yourself a lawyer on national television makes the credentials a public question.

Watch Zacharia defend her legal background · Hannity

Professional biographies · checked October 16, 2026

“General Counsel” was not a passing introduction.

The title appeared in a published biography and, according to Popular Information, on her LinkedIn profile and repeatedly in her X biography. California Globe still described Zacharia as General Counsel for Fix California, the advocacy organization founded by Ric Grenell. Popular Information reported that LinkedIn listed the role as full-time work from January 2024 to March 2025. Grenell gave Reuters a different description: she was a senior adviser whose responsibilities included leading the outside lawyers. Then there is NovaRed Mining. Its June 24 announcement introduced Zacharia as an attorney, but appointed her to an advisory board, with responsibilities including government relations and communications. Two organizations, two public descriptions of legal credentials. Neither description tells us exactly what legal work she performed; both help explain why the questions have outlasted a single television interview.

Beijing career · 2011–2013

The World Bank claim changes with the biography.

Zacharia’s China years carry much of the weight in her defense. She worked at Zhong Lun in Beijing after law school and says she practiced international transactional law with the appropriate credentials. But the descriptions of that work are not consistent. California Globe identifies her as outside counsel for the World Bank and IFC. NovaRed’s announcement describes transactions involving organizations associated with those institutions during her time at Zhong Lun. Personally representing an institution is a stronger claim than working on a transaction involving an associated organization. The public biographies leave that gap unexplained. Reuters reported that the firm had not answered its questions. Her work in China does not itself settle the American licensing question, but it is where the substance behind these impressive titles should be found.

Her response · October 16, 2026 reporting

Her defense turns on what “lawyer” means.

Zacharia says she consulted people in the legal profession and was advised she could describe herself as a lawyer, while avoiding attorney-at-law and Esquire. She also says she could offer legal analysis rather than legal advice. SBS reported that explanation alongside the point that foreign nationals can undertake certain legal work in Chinese firms without sitting China’s bar exam. Her Beijing employment therefore needs to be examined on its own terms. Back in the United States, however, the published General Counsel title and NovaRed’s attorney description are harder to reconcile with the narrower language she now says she used.

October 14–15, 2026

Two requests for an investigation. No announced finding.

Campaign for Accountability asked the State Bar of California to investigate Zacharia’s public claims and possible unauthorized practice. Democracy Defenders Fund and former White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter separately asked the bar and California’s attorney general to examine her work, particularly the General Counsel role. Both requests were dated October 14. Their central question goes beyond a failed examination: did she hold herself out as authorized to practice, and what services did she actually provide? The complaints put that question before the authorities. They do not establish that an investigation has opened or that wrongdoing has been found.

The conspiracy posts followed her to the podium

Before she spoke for the White House, Zacharia used her own account to spread baseless allegations about John Podesta. She also reposted claims about a satanic Democratic plot and Putin fighting a secret cabal in Ukraine. CNN KFile linked the posts in its investigation. Asked about them, she said she would amplify Trump’s agenda; the White House praised her without addressing their substance. Her dismissal was reported on October 16, five days after she started work. That swift exit does not erase Trump’s decision to give her the podium. Simon Marks’s video examines that record and her arrival at the podium. It is commentary, with the underlying posts and reporting linked below.

Health scares before the White House job

Zacharia shared a false miscarriage statistic and claimed abortion medication contained the chemical used in Nazi extermination camps. The Bulwark recovered the posts and linked the podcast clip. Neither claim survives the evidence: the pregnancy research found no increased miscarriage risk, and mifepristone is not Zyklon B. The health investigation sets out the findings. Trump’s decision to appoint her carried that record into the White House briefing room.

Elon Musk: Musk, Ukraine and the unanswered calls to Trump

New reporting puts Musk behind Ukraine’s satellite restrictions. Rubio denies that Washington directed the decision or knew beforehand; senators want the contracts and communications. Follow the new evidence and the earlier reporting in the Ukraine chapter.

Read the Ukraine chapter