November 7, 2026

Marie: So Wait! I leave the house for two hours and I come home to find out Trump has fired the last woman standing & replaced her with Count Dracula's More Sadistic Brother?? ~~~

Stephen Miller is the architect of the most barbaric, inhumane policies of this administration. Trump couldn’t have made a worse choice. Our Democratic majorities will fight him every step of the way. -- Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY)

~~~ Natalie Allison, et al., of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump has removed his long-serving and top aide Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff, replacing her with Stephen Miller, the president announced Friday. The staffing shake-up comes as Trump remains angry over Tuesday’s midterm losses and represents a turn further to the right for his policy agenda. Miller, another longtime Trump aide and the architect of many of Trump’s immigration policies, has worked for him since the first Trump administration. Miller has most recently served as the White House deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security adviser. He begins the role Monday.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times ran a liveblog of developments; this is a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So here's the logic. As Michael Gold writes on the liveblog: Donald “Trump has chosen to elevate the architect of his administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown just days after it was clear that those policies cost Republicans significant political support.” This is a gift link. How the hell does that make sense? It is simply a big middle finger to the voters who rejected his draconian policies and Republican officerholders who supported them. ~~~

     ~~~ Okay, Akhilleus & Ken W. thought of some explanations. See yesterday's Comments. ~~~

~~~ Dasha Burns & Will Steakin of Politico: “... Donald Trump’s decision to make Stephen Miller the White House chief of staff followed a weeks-long lobbying effort from Katie Miller, his wife. Katie Miller told people to call the president on her husband’s behalf if they believed that he was better than other potential successors to Susie Wiles, according to two people....” ~~~

~~~ Chris Cameron of the New York Times: “Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff who stepped down on Friday, was one of the most powerful women to have served in Mr. Trump’s second term. The first woman to hold the top staff job in the West Wing, she helped steer Mr. Trump to his election victory in 2024, playing a central role in his return to power. On election night on Tuesday, Mr. Trump blamed Ms. Wiles for the historic Republican midterms defeat in front of others. Now, she is also the latest in a wave of women who have left the Trump administration in the past year, as The New York Times reported last month, and one of the first to depart since Tuesday’s elections. On Thursday, Harmeet Dhillon, a top official in the Justice Department, resigned after conflicts with department leaders. Four of Mr. Trump’s eight female cabinet-level officials resigned or were fired earlier this year: Attorney General Pam Bondi; Lori Chavez-DeRemer, the labor secretary; Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem; and Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence. Like Ms. Wiles, all four were replaced by men.” The link is a gift link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: How many people do you suppose looked over the Great GOP Collapse of 2026 and said, "Well, this is all Susie Wiles' fault"? Or, as Akhilleus put it yesterday, "This is like Captain Ahab blaming the Pequod's bos'n for going after Moby Dick." ~~~

~~~ Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: “In the initial days after the staggering rebuke Republicans suffered in Tuesday’s midterm elections..., [Donald] Trump appeared subdued — almost conciliatory.... But near the week’s end, instead of ceding to the clear evidence of voter displeasure, Mr. Trump pivoted to a familiar move: more MAGA.On Friday, the president ousted his onetime close adviser, Susie Wiles, from the role of White House chief of staff, replacing her with Stephen Miller, his deputy chief of staff. Mr. Miller has been the driver of the president’s most muscular actions, including the use of increasingly hostile tactics to capture immigrants across the country and the bombing of small boats in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean that he and Mr. Trump declared constituted a foreign invasion. The president’s choice sent a clear signal about the posture he intends to strike in his final two years in office and how little he intends to alter his approach in response to the most decisive political rout in half a century. He also put on center stage a figure who had already been a galvanizing target for Democrats intent on using their new powers in Congress to check the administration.” The link is a gift link. ~~~

The Democrat Party is not a political party, It is a domestic extremist organization. -- Stephen Miller, 2025 ~~~

~~~ Jonathan Chait of the Atlantic: "Wiles, though reputed for her professionalism and competence, held her job for nearly two years by facilitating Trump’s impulses without questioning them. Miller, however, has driven and shaped those impulses.... [Miller] is especially driven by his belief that immigration is a plot directed by left-wing elites to destroy traditional America.... Miller, more than any other person, is responsible for unleashing violent havoc on American streets.... He has also virtually shut down legal immigration.... Trump dwells in a zero-sum world, divided between winners and losers. His instinct in a moment of defeat is to empower an aide who he himself recognizes has at times gone too far. But Trump cannot admit he has failed, or bring himself to show any weakness. Better to go too far than not far enough." Thanks to akaWendy for this gift link.

Buh-Bye. Devlin Barrett, et al., of the New York Times: “The U.S. attorney who had overseen a centerpiece of ... [Donald] Trump’s retribution campaign, the so-called grand conspiracy inquiry of Obama-era officials, has resigned amid growing dissatisfaction with his performance, people familiar with the situation said. Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the departure of the prosecutor, Jason A. Reding Quiñones of the Southern District of Florida, on social media. He joins a succession of departures at the Justice Department after the midterm elections on Tuesday, including those of John Eisenberg, the head of the national security division, and Harmeet Dhillon, the chief of the civil rights division.... Mr. Reding Quiñones presided over an office in deep crisis. The Southern District had more than 200 lawyers when he arrived, but by the fall it fell by about half, after a spate of firings and resignations.... Mr. Reding Quiñones is at least the third U.S. attorney in the Trump administration to step down after being assigned to investigate all or part of the 'grand conspiracy.'” The link is a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.)

Jennifer Bahney of Mediaite: “... Donald Trump hinted at multiple Cabinet-level firings in a 60 Minutes interview he taped before he announced Stephen Miller was being tapped to replace Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff. In a clip of the interview played on CNN Friday, Jake Tapper said, 'The president talked about potential changes in administration, including the future of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.'” Read on for the details. ~~~

~~~ Felicia Schwartz, et al., of MS NOW: "It didn’t take long for Pete Hegseth to start praising his boss’s new right-hand man. Stephen Miller’s appointment as chief of staff could be a lifeline to the embattled defense secretary, who has mounted an aggressive public campaign to save his job. Hegseth was quick to congratulate Miller on Friday, posting a photo of himself alongside the new White House chief of staff with the caption: 'Stand. Fight. Defend the Republic.' He shared two other posts, offering 'Huge CONGRATS' and asserting 'Patriots in control.' [Ousted chief of staff Susie] Wiles had soured on Hegseth in recent months as his management of the Iran war and the Pentagon — including a string of firings of top military officers — came under increasing scrutiny, according to an administration official familiar with the White House dynamics. A senior administration official, granted anonymity to discuss sensitive internal staffing changes, said Miller and Hegseth 'have been extremely close since the beginning of the administration.'” ~~~

~~~ Tara Copp of the Washington Post: “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of government employees and taxpayer-funded resources to create a self-promoting video attacking Democrats and other political opponents probably violated federal law, government watchdogs said Friday. The video is part of a highly unorthodox Defense Department messaging campaign that debuted on social media Thursday, as Hegseth stepped up efforts to save his job after Republicans’ historic collapse in this week’s midterm elections. It shows him outside the Pentagon as he criticizes former president Joe Biden along with members of Congress from both political parties who have called for him to resign or be fired. Over roughly six minutes, Hegseth also defends the unpopular Iran war, extols perceived accomplishments in office and heaps praise on his boss ... Donald Trump.... The video also has raised questions among lawmakers, including Republicans, about the Pentagon’s use of government staff and taxpayer money to create and promote it. ”

~~~ Noah Robertson of the Washington Post: “One of ... Donald Trump’s fiercest defenders in Congress criticized Pete Hegseth on Friday, marking the latest Republican lawmaker to distance themselves from the polarizing defense secretary after the GOP’s massive losses in the midterm elections. In an interview with News Nation, Rep. James Comer (Kentucky), chair of the House Oversight Committee, declined to say whether he wanted Trump to replace Hegseth....Comer emphasized that lawmakers have 'a lot of questions about Hegseth' and want to know how the administration will end the Iran war, now in its ninth month.... Hegseth faces a likely impeachment vote over the war next week when lawmakers return to Washington.”

Kathianne Boniello of Mediaite: “Online critics were in overdrive Friday night after the State Department’s Rewards for Justice announced a $20 million reward for information on Iran’s nuclear program — the same one President Donald Trump has insisted the United States 'obliterated.'”

Kathianne Boniello of Mediaite: “The Department of Justice has dropped its bid to sequester 20,000 ballots it claimed may have belonged to noncitizens in California, claiming a Nov. 13 court date in the case made the entire thing pointless. The DOJ sued the Golden State in October, claiming 20,0000 noncitizens were on the state’s voter rolls after alleging local officials were refusing to work with them on the issue. But it later became clear the Justice Department’s data was [MB: were!] flawed, and numerous courts rejected the DOJ’s arguments. According to court papers filed Friday in California Federal Court, the DOJ was willing to drop its case because the court didn’t move fast enough[.]... The dismissal came after the DOJ had gone all the way to the Supreme Court in its bid to have the ballots segregated, and lost.”

Jeff Cox of CNBC: “The U.S. economy added jobs at a much stronger-than-expected pace in October, while the unemployment rate moved lower as the labor market showed surprising strength. Nonfarm payrolls increased by a seasonally adjusted 165,000 for the month, compared with the Dow Jones estimate for 59,000, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. The unemployment rate nudged down to 4.1%, compared with the forecast for 4.2%. A more encompassing measure that includes discouraged workers and those holding part-time jobs for economic reasons rose to 7.9%, up 0.3 percentage point, amid an increase of 421,000 in the civilian labor force. In addition to the strong payroll gains for October, prior months were revised up substantially: The August figure moved to 186,000, an upward revision of 53,000, while the September count shifted to 60,000 following an upward revision of 31,000. 'You have to look pretty hard to find something to dislike in there,” Dan North, senior economist at Allianz Trade North America. “It’s a really, really good report, and all around I think you’d say it’s stronger than expected and the best one in a while...,' [said Dan North of Allianz Trade North America].” (Also linked yesterday.)

Marie: Here's a follow-up to a story I linked early Friday: ~~~

~~~ Ben Conarck of the Washington Post: “D.C. officials on Thursday announced their intent to lobby incoming Democratic governors in states that flipped blue to recall their National Guard troops from the District. At a D.C. Council hearing on the surge of federal law enforcement personnel and the presence of the National Guard, council member Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2), chair of the public safety committee, said that congressional leaders have been 'unsympathetic to what we’ve been dealing with and, in some cases, directly hostile.'... Pinto said there are about 630 National Guard members currently deployed in D.C. from five states that elected Democratic governors this week: Georgia, Iowa, Nevada, Ohio and Texas.” Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)

The Devil Sells Prada. Peter Jamison & Elizabeth Dwoskin of the Washington Post: “Once a symbol of superlative government competence, the nation’s weakened federal space agency has largely outsourced its extraterrestrial ambitions to the private sector.... Founded in 2016 by a longtime federal contractor and a former NASA engineer, Axiom [Space] embodies the flashy ethos and uncertain prospects of what is still a largely speculative space economy.... For [designing and producing] new spacesuits, it is teaming up with Prada, the Italian fashion house known for its luxury dresses and $3,000 leather purses. It is a fitting partnership for Axiom, whose business model has so far consisted in substantial part of outfitting the ultrawealthy for excursions into orbit — and which has drawn hundreds of millions in investment from venture capitalists bullish on commercial possibilities beyond Earth’s atmosphere. 

“Among Axiom’s financial backers is 1789 Capital, the investment firm in which the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., is a partner, and which has drawn congressional scrutiny for its relationships to defense-tech firms with federal contracts.... The story of Axiom, and of the generational changes at NASA and in the American economy that gave a relatively untested firm such a pivotal role in America’s next mission to the moon, is bigger than a single company, contract or presidential administration. It is, rather, a case study in the consequences of the U.S. government’s gradual relinquishing of the final frontier to eccentric billionaires, delay-prone contractors and hype-soaked tech start-ups.”

Theodore Schleifer of the New York Times: “Elon Musk spent nearly half a billion dollars during the midterm cycle, the most in any election period for a donor who wasn’t a candidate himself.... When the devastating [elections] result became clear, Mr. Musk deleted an X post that had encouraged Republicans to turn out, and tried to joke his way out of how badly the night had gone for him. 'Guess my election-interfering space lasers didn’t work this time,' he wrote early Wednesday. It was a stunning failure. Now the onetime trillionaire is all but certain to face investigatory scrutiny and financial pressure with newly empowered Democrats in control of Congress and top state offices in Texas, where he lives and operates many of his businesses. Mr. Musk ... will soon be represented by a senator who has said he wants to 'tax trillionaires out of existence.'... How [Mr. Musk] arrived at this point is a story of an unpredictable tycoon who was never in denial about Republicans’ predicament this year, but who was also characteristically starry-eyed about his ability to help the party beat the odds.” ~~~

~~~ A Fitting Coda to Elmo's Very Bad Week. Pras Subramanian of Yahoo! Finance: "So long, Tesla ... Cybertruck, we hardly knew ye. Yes, it is official. The Tesla Cybertruck will soon be no more, per a post from CEO Elon Musk on his X account. 'Tesla will be winding down production of the Cybertruck at Gigafactory Texas around the middle of next year to make room for increased Cybercab production,' Musk wrote early Friday morning. For many in the industry, this isn't a surprise even with Musk's grand pronouncements about the vehicle. Musk once boasted that Cybertruck demand was 'so far off the hook, you can't even see the hook,' and the company said it had over 1 million preorders. But ... Tesla and Musk had built out capacity for Giga Austin to pump out 250K Cybertrucks per year; Tesla was selling about one-tenth that amount." (Also linked yesterday.)

Here's the New York Times obituary for Jay Rockefeller (gift link). (Also linked yesterday.)

~~~~~~~~~~

Arizona Elections Results. Mack Liederman of the New York Times: “If you live in Arizona’s Maricopa County, Sebastian Matta will soon be in charge of your court records, restitution payments, child support, wills and marriage licenses, among other filings. For now, though, he’s a sophomore at Arizona State University. His grade point average, around 3.25, is not extraordinary.... In the midterm elections on Tuesday, Mr. Matta, a Democrat, won more than 740,000 votes to become Superior Court clerk in Maricopa County — the country’s fourth-largest county by population.... Mr. Matta is the next boss of more than 600 employees. Come January, he’ll oversee an office with a $65 million budget that processes nearly 15,000 documents and $500,000 each day.... Seismic gains for Democrats across the country in Tuesday’s midterms reverberated down ballot as Arizona voters elected a rare trifecta, with Democrats taking up the governor’s office and statehouse majorities for the first time in six decades.” The link is a gift link.

California. Voters Reject Wealth Tax. Miranda Nazzaro of the Hill: “California voters are rejecting a proposal to impose a wealth tax on billionaire residents, marking a major win for tech and business executives, who spent hundreds of millions against the measure, according to a projection from Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ). According to DDHQ’s analysis, 54 percent voted against the measure, while 46 percent voted for it, with 76 percent of the total counted as of 8:51 p.m. EST [Friday]. Proposition 40 would have instituted a one-time 5 percent tax on billionaires’ wealth in a nationwide first. The government revenue from the wealth tax would have largely gone to state healthcare programs, with the remainder going to food assistance and education initiatives.”

Michigan Senate Seat, etc. Jennifer Bahney of Mediaite: “The Free Press was forced to issue a correction after reporter Maya Sulkin erroneously said that Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed (D-MI) gave his victory speech 'in Arabic.' On Wednesday, Sulkin posted to X, “Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed gave his victory speech in Arabic last night. Rep. Ilhan Omar addressed her victory party in Somali. And this morning, Iran’s supreme leader posted that America’s collapse “has accelerated.” What should we make of these acceptance speeches?'... Sulkin’s contention earned a community note on X that read, 'Apart from his own name spoken idiomatically with Arabic pronunciation, Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed used four Arabic words in his victory speech, which represents 0.27% of the words he spoke.' The Free Press was founded by Bari Weiss.... Weiss was subsequently hired by Paramount CEO David Ellison as CBS News’s editor-in-chief. Weiss personally pushed CBS News to devote 'serious resources' to investigating whether El-Sayed had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, according to a Semafor report.” MB: I got three-quarters of the way down the page before I realized this story was about Bari Weiss's rag, not about the Detroit Free Press. My apologies to the Freep for my impure thoughts.

Mississippi Senate Race. The pinned item from another NYT liveblog: Tim Balk: “Scott Colom, the Democratic Senate nominee in Mississippi, held a slim but growing lead on Friday, as election officials continued to count votes in a race that could expand the Senate majority that Democrats secured in the midterm elections. The latest vote report showed Mr. Colom leading the Republican incumbent, Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, by 2,129 votes, according to The Associated Press.” The link is a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ At 9:15 pm ET Friday, Colom's lead had increased to 2,574.

Ohio House Race. Annie Karni of the New York Times (Nov. 4): “Representative Max Miller, the Ohio Republican whose campaign was rocked by accusations that he physically abused his ex-wife and young daughter, lost his re-election bid, according to The Associated Press, handing Democrats a seat in deep-red territory as they won House control. Brian Poindexter, a union ironworker, defeated Mr. Miller, a two-term congressman whose political rise was fueled by his close relationship with ... [Donald] Trump, in a district Mr. Trump won by a double-digit margin two years ago. Mr. Miller had rejected calls by fellow Republicans to drop out of the race after he was accused by his ex-wife, Emily Moreno, of domestic abuse against her and their 2-year-old daughter.” The link is a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.)

South Carolina House Race. Be Careful Whom You Fire, Pete. Ian Kayanja of WCIV (Charleston): "Three days after election night, the Associated Press declared Democrat Nancy Lacore the winner of South Caorlina's 1st Congressional District race over Republican Jenny Costa Honeycutt.... Lacore will succeed Republican Rep. Nancy Mace, who is leaving the seat after an unsuccessful run for governor.... Donald Trump won the district by 13 percentage points in 2024. Lacore is a retired Navy vice admiral who served as chief of the Navy Reserve. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired her last year without explanation...."

Texas Gubernatorial Race. Marie: Luci Baines Johnson always got a bum rap, I thought. She is a lovely person, IMO. Here she is with Texas Governor-Elect Gina Hinojosa, gracious as ever. Thanks to akaWendy for the lead: ~~~

~~~ And, what the heck, here she is with Steve McQueen (and Natalie Wood): ~~~