The US President Donald Trump has named White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller as one of the top contenders for the position of national security adviser following the dismissal of Michael Waltz.
Trump told reporters, Reuters reports.
Trump fired Waltz on May 1 and appointed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to the position on an interim basis. Although the president is in no rush to make a final appointment, according to US officials, a number of candidates have already emerged.
"Iʼm going to appoint someone soon," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on his return to Washington after a weekend at his club in Florida.
Trump said he expects to fill the position within about six months. As the American publication Axios previously reported, citing sources, it is quite possible that Miller will be the candidate.
"I think heʼs already fulfilling that role to some extent. He has a significant say in a lot of issues. Stephen is a very valuable person in the administration," Trump added.
Stephen Miller
Axios notes that Miller is the White House deputy chief of staff and the chief architect of Trumpʼs controversial tough immigration policy. He is one of the US presidentʼs most loyal and longtime aides.
One White House source said that Miller had made the Homeland Security Council "run like clockwork" and that it was "far more effective than the National Security Council, while having a fraction of its staff".
Trump has a habit of relying on a small circle of advisers and delegating a lot of authority to them, so it’s not surprising that Miller could hold multiple positions at once, according to Axios’ sources — as does Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is also currently acting as national security adviser.
What preceded
Michael Waltz was fired shortly after he became the center of a scandal in March 2025. He accidentally added a journalist from The Atlantic, a Trump-critical publication, to a chat with other members of the National Security Council. There, they discussed future strikes on Yemenʼs Houthis. The Atlantic later released several materials based on the officialsʼ correspondence.
The Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been particularly criticized. The entire circumstances of the scandal, dubbed “Signal” gate, are being investigated by the Office of the Inspector General of the US Department of Defense. Waltz admitted that he accidentally added a journalist to the chat, but the White House denies that classified information was posted there.
Initially, Trump did not fire Waltz and publicly supported him, calling him “a good guy who admitted his mistake”. However, CNN sources are convinced that Waltz failed to restore the lost trust in the presidential administration and Trump’s personal trust. On May 1, Waltz was dismissed from his position as an advisor and appointed as the US permanent representative to the UN. This is the first major personnel reshuffle since Trump’s inauguration in January 2025.
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