It’s Miller Time: Trump’s Staffing Shakeup

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Candidates are lawyering up in Mississippi, and it's the end of the road for the Cybertruck. Elon Musk posted that they're going to start winding down Cybertruck production. Is this about Tesla, or is the entire electric car industry on a short fuse? From ABC News, this is Start Here. I'm Brad Milkey. This weekend, as people in Washington tried to catch up on sleep, they might have woken up thinking, oh, wow, it wasn't a dream. Democrats really did just completely snore. Smoke Republicans in the midterms across the country. They really are about to take over both chambers of Congress. Even if you weren't on the ballot, like President Trump or Senate Majority Leader John Thune, this is still about to change everything for you. We're committed to moving aggressively during the first 100 days of the new Congress and beyond to keep our word. Democrats will now be the ones calling votes whenever they want. They'll be the ones drawing up legislation and daring the White House to veto it. They will have the right to launch investigations. They will have the right to send out subpoenas and confirm President Trump's nominations, from the Supreme Court down to his Cabinet positions. The question for President Trump has been, how will he respond to this new reality? Does it reshape his policies? Is there common ground to be found? Or does he combat them every step of the way? Well, how's this for a clue? On Friday, we learned Susie Wiles would be stepping down as White House Chief of Staff. This is probably the second most important job in the building. For two years, Wiles is the one who's been doing the hiring, the firing. Well, not only is she stepping away from the White House, we've learned she will be replaced by President Trump's ultimate bulldog, Stephen Miller. So if there was any thought of compromise, that's not the word a lot of people associate with Miller. The next two years start today. With that, let's go to ABC's Chief Washington Correspondent, our Chief Trump Chronicler, Jonathan Karl. Jon, first off, Susie Wiles, who is she and why is she resigning? Look, Susie Wiles is the longest-serving Trump Chief of Staff ever. Right. Not a lot of competition. He went through four in the first presidency, but she had been there from the beginning of the second term. She had handled his political operation throughout that dark period after January 6th and into the 2024 election, ran his campaign, and was the person inside the White House that kept that White House relatively drama-free, even as Trump himself was quite full of drama. There wasn't much drama with the staff. Susie likes to stay sort of in the back, let me tell you. The Ice Maiden, we call her the Ice Maiden, right? But as this campaign approached, that began to change. Susie's done a very good job, great job, but I just wanted to make it. Stephen's been great, and we've got to make moves. Susie Wiles certainly had enemies inside of Trump world, not necessarily Stephen Miller himself, but certainly people close to Stephen Miller, including Pete Hegseth, who saw Susie Wiles as the person that was trying to push him. And clearly also people around Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who saw Susie Wiles as thwarting some of the so-called MAHA initiatives that were happening over there. So she had enemies. The argument was she's close to lobbyists. She's not really on board. They've got their own agenda. And Mr. President, you need somebody like Stephen Miller to take over. Right. That's Wiles. Who is Stephen Miller, and what's his M.O. when it comes to now running a White House? There are really only two people that have been with Trump from virtually the beginning who are still with him now, at least on the White House staff. It's Dan Scavino, deputy chief of staff, and Stephen Miller. No president comes close to what Donald Trump has achieved over just the last 30 days. There have been countless purges. People have come and people have gone. People have turned on Trump. People have just left Trump entirely. People have been fired. They've quit. Stephen Miller has been there and consistently. By Trump's side. At the very beginning, he was the speechwriter. But he was much more than your typical speechwriter. Because through the speechwriting, he helped craft the narrative of what Trumpism is, of what America first is. And even in those really dark days for Trump, after he left office, after January 6th, when virtually all of those people that were in the first Trump White House left him, ignored him. Abandoned him. Jumped ship. Stephen Miller was there. Stayed with him. He comes back as deputy chief of staff for policy. But again, much more than that. He's really the architect of all those executive orders that Trump signed in those first days. Tomorrow we'll have more removals than today. And then more removals the day after that and the day after that. The architect of Trump's mass deportation policy. The architect of even the attacks on those alleged drug boats in the Caribbean, the bombing of those boats. Right. That was Stephen. Stephen Miller. He was very much a part of the Venezuela operation. Even though he wasn't at the Pentagon, he wasn't on the National Security Council, he was the guy. So, look, he is the ultimate Trump loyalist. He has packed eight years of transformative action, restoring this nation. I've known Stephen Miller probably since he was 25 years old, way before he worked for Trump, when he was a young staffer on Capitol Hill. But I can tell you from the minute he got into Trump world, I've never. I've never heard that man say a single thing critical of Donald Trump. But what is that going to mean practically? Like, how would a Stephen Miller White House. I mean, I know it's President Trump's White House, but how would a Stephen Miller chief of staff reign differ from what we just saw with Susie Wiles for two years? I think that this is a change. This is a significant change. And it's not just that he's going to be more aggressive in fighting Democrats. That's certainly true. But there may be areas in which that he finds a way to actually do something. Because the one thing about Stephen Miller, he is not a traditional Republican by any measure. No loyalty to the traditional Republican power centers and the traditional Republican ideas, you know, tax cuts and, you know, an assertive U.S. foreign policy in the spirit of Reagan. That's not Stephen Miller. He's a populist. Some of these issues that Trump has taken on that have gone nowhere under a Republican Congress. We're kind of classic Stephen Miller things. For instance, the capping of interest rates on credit cards at 10%. The credit card companies are getting 28% interest. So if a guy goes out, they don't even know it. The Republicans immediately go, oh, well, that's not a good policy. That doesn't work. It's not effective. It's intrusion with the market. Who came out and said, yes, let's go? Elizabeth Warren did. Also, the way Trump has taken on the issue of prescription drug pricing. So-called most favored nation status for prescription drug pricing. Something big pharma hates. A lot of the corporate interests that have traditionally aligned with the Republican Party. You know, this is the kind of stuff where, you know, Stephen Miller doesn't care about the traditional corporate interests of the Republican Party. It's a different approach than what we've seen with any of the other chiefs of staffs, I would argue. And, yes, confrontational, but much more ideological as well. And on one other staffing note, by the way. President Trump published a social media post this weekend saying he had asked Dana White, the head of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, to be his press secretary. Last night, he confirmed that's just a joke in his words. So I guess if the president announces he's hiring someone, maybe they should confirm with Stephen Miller first. Jonathan Karl, thank you so much. All right. Thanks, Brad. Next up on Start Here. So after Election Week, Democrats have 54 seats in the Senate. Could that now go up to 56? Votes are still being counted. Votes are still being counted after the break. This show is sponsored by Quince. The best pieces in your closet are the ones you can count on, whether you're heading to work, going out, or keeping things casual. And this time of year, Quince is the place to find those pieces not just for yourself, but, yes, for everyone else on your list, too. 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now almost five days behind us and multiple races are still not settled yet and we're still not settled yet and we're still not settled yet including two seats in the u.s senate alaska is a force to be reckoned with we are standing up we are fighting back yes now alaska we knew could take a while the state is so spread out it's a four-person race there's just a lot of variables to take into account before you can project a winner as i say this democrat mary peltola there is in the lead by just over 600 votes what is way more unexpected though is how close it still is in mississippi we are going to win this we have already sold the country that mississippi matters y'all i don't care who you are even if you thought texas might flip blue or kansas or even south carolina no one no one realistically anticipated scott colombe a democratic prosecutor currently serving as a local district attorney to actually become the next senator from mississippi he's now up by a little more than 2500 votes and unlike alaska more than 97 percent of mississippi's results have already been counted and yet throughout the weekend that number hasn't changed so what's going on abc's orn oppenheim covers this stuff so we don't have to orn you've been tracking this literally every hour since election night what is happening in mississippi right now how did this get so close yes our incumbent republican senator cindy hyde smith is facing a really spirited challenge from democratic candidate scott colombe he's a local district attorney and he and hyde smith actually have some interesting history because hyde smith had helped block his his nomination to the federal judiciary um and now he he was facing her in the general election he had to do well in such a deep red state we know what we're looking at this is socialism versus capitalism and we know that and he's had some real some really viral moments online he had this punchy video where he took a local news interview that hyde smith did about being able to pick other alternatives to beef due to high prices pick another protein i'd rather pick another senator and he just got a lot of buzz and he got he also got major party figures like kamala harris and pete budaj to come campaign with him we are witnessing the most callous corrupt and incompetent presidential administration we have ever experienced and now he's locked in a really close race with cindy hyde smith and news outlets have not made a projection yet um they're they're separated as you said by just around 2500 votes as we're speaking we want to make sure that that process the counting of the affidavit ballots is a transparent process and that it is happening in a timely manner so that there can be election certification the vote that they're waiting to count now it's basically two types of ballots um there are mail ballots that could be postmarked on or by election day but arrive up to five business days that that's the law in mississippi um republicans actually went to the supreme court against mississippi over that um but the supreme court ruled in mississippi's favor so they can still accept those mail ballots oh so a ballot that was postmarked before last tuesday could still have just arrived this weekend and they're still just getting to that one right right um but the other type of ballot that people are really focused on are what are called affidavit ballots um they're basically these provisional ballots where someone shows up at the polling place and their address isn't coming up in the poll book or um they didn't bring the voter id which is required in mississippi so they are allowed to cast a ballot and what's called an affidavit ballot and those take some more time to be counted to be validated um both campaigns have estimated that there could be thousands of those outstanding and local election officials in mississippi are working to count those and they're supposed to certify results by friday the 13th so we may have a better sense by then but there could be thousands of those ballots outstanding i forgot that it's friday the 13th what could possibly go wrong if that's the day you're supposed to certify i mean is there a sense that this could get like when it's this close there's almost always a recount right is that what we're inevitably heading towards so the weird thing about mississippi is that in state law there's actually no provisions about a recount or basically mississippi doesn't have election recounts wait excuse me say that wait there's no recount law in mississippi as at all no there's nothing about recounts there's nothing candidate can't ask for one there's no threshold threshold by which one just gets triggered what could happen is that um after the election is certified this could go to litigation i mean the campaigns are allowed to request to review ballot materials and they can come up with a legal case they are allowed to sue and both sides democrats and republicans alike have said they've got lawyers and election observers on the ground to monitor the vote count which they're they're allowed to do and to be ready for potential legal battles and back and forth we have an army of lawyers we have local lawyers we have everybody involved to make sure the process is followed according to the law and that might lead to a recount or to something else but there's no way that a recount would just be triggered by there being a close margin or one candidate requesting it but then if that's the case if like now you've got like your armies of lawyers kind of across however many counties there are in mississippi all looking over the shoulders of people who are like deciding is this affidavit ballot okay is that that just seems like a potential legal nightmare right because now you've got just in like infinite sort of variables out there am i getting that right there are definitely a lot of extra variables and a lot of attention and certainly a lot of pressure on these local election officials at the same time both both sides have said that they're really right now just trying to monitor if the facts show that our laws were not followed we will be ready to act swiftly and we will not hesitate to hold election officials accountable republicans have sent a letter to local county officials asking for affidavit ballots those provisional ballots to be kept separate that still to be counted but to be kept separate and to be ready to be preserved in case they're needed as evidence scott columb's campaign sent its own letter saying no that's unlawful and you shouldn't listen to that so there's already been some back and forth no side is alleging anything nefarious or any issue yet with the vote counting but they're both keeping very close eyes on on this if it goes to court okay that's very helpful then and i think it like gives us all like a sense of what we could be looking at though if there are any challenges going into friday um moving to alaska oran this is slightly different in that there's agonizingly few votes in right i think it's only like three quarters of the expected results are actually tallied so what is happening here right so part of it is that i mean alaska is a massive state and there's a lot of absence absentee ballots and alaska says that they're allowed to count absentee ballots no later than 15 days until after the general election so they've got a while and when the margin is so close news outlets are not going to make projections um and they're going to be waiting until more of these absentee ballots come in and that's even before we get to the general election so i think it's a little bit more of a to what the percentages are once those ballots are in and then if the state runs rank choice yeah help me understand the rank choice voting part of all this because most races we're talking about two candidates whoever gets to 50 when you got four candidates you could theoretically win with 26 of the vote so what what happens because of the rank choice of it all right so yeah alaska has a general election ballot that's um it's a four-way ballot and then if no one gets more than a majority of the voter more than 50 of the vote it goes to rank choice tabulation where basically everyone ranks their first second third fourth choice on the ballot or i don't know however many choices they wanted to rank and so the candidate with the least amount of votes gets knocked out and all the votes for that candidate the second choice votes get allotted out and this is run until there are only two left we knew it was going to be close right once alaska runs that which is likely going to be on november 18th then we may have a sense of who's really in the lead and who got more of the second choice third choice votes um interestingly enough right now a different republican um is in third place and the other dan sullivan is in fourth place yeah yeah does that mean that so dan s sullivan is the incumbent senator right and he's been upset because he's like all these people who voted for dan j sullivan probably wanted to vote for me they just made a mistake if it goes to ranked choice voting we would actually find out who those dan j sullivan voters wanted as their second choice right so those could conceivably go to dan s and put all this to rest they could they could go to both peltola and to s sullivan um i think it's tough to make any predictions about where those votes are going to go but yeah once the rank choice is run we'll have a much better sense of who is in the lead and and yeah who those people who ranked dan j sullivan first who they actually want that's a good point though that just because if dan j sullivan's got 2% of the vote. And right now, you know, Mary Poltolo is only up by 0.3%. Like that could make the difference if they all voted for one candidate. And like Oren said, we don't know that is necessarily the case. It often isn't. All right, Oren Oppenheim, thank you so much. Thanks for having me. Okay, one more quick break. When we come back, he's a high voltage personality, but did Elon Musk just shut down the electric pickup truck? One last thing is next. Today, I want to tell you about our friends at Lug. If you're traveling this season, whether you're seeing family or catching some sun in a tropical destination, Lug can help you and your essentials get everywhere you need to go. Lug makes sturdy, premium quality, hard-sided wheelie bags for all kinds of travel. The hard shell means your stuff stays protected no matter what. No more worrying that your souvenirs will get destroyed when your bag inevitably gets tossed around by the ground crew. 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Drivers who switch and save with Progressive save over $900 on average. Pop over to progressive.com, answer some questions, and you'll get a quick quote with discounts that are easy to come by. In fact, 99% of their auto customers earn at least one discount. Visit progressive.com and see if you can enjoy a little cash back. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates, national average 12-month savings of $946 by new customers surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2024 and May 2025. Potential savings will vary. And one last thing. This truck's life ended just as it started. Silently, because it's electric. Is the end of the Cybertruck going to be the end of the Mike Dabusky garage? Like, was this about to be your next big purchase and now you can't make it? I certainly hope it's not the end of the Mike Dabusky garage. I will say, Brad, it was never really on the top of my list for vehicle purchases. This is ABC's Mike Dabusky, who covers tech and cars, and spent the weekend contemplating the news that has rocked the automotive industry. Tesla, Elon Musk's electric car empire, is apparently giving up on producing the Cybertruck. So Elon Musk posted on X his social media, formerly known as Twitter, that they're going to start winding down Cybertruck production. And he said that that is ostensibly because they want to free up more production space in their factories for cybercabs. If you're having trouble picturing the Cybertruck, I don't know, you might want to have your memory checked. This is the unforgettable hulking steel tank looking thing that looks unlike any other pickup truck you've ever seen. The Cybertruck was this very distinctive design. A lot of people didn't like it. It was aggressive, it was angular, it, you know, kind of stood out from the crowd. It looks like a soda can got smushed by like a compactor. Some people have compared it to a dumpster. Now, Musk insists this is not because it's failing to meet sales goals. If anything, he says, demand is high enough where they're having to pump out several more for diehard fans at the last minute. But Musk once predicted they would sell hundreds of thousands of these in year one. In 2024, they sold less than 40,000. So what happened? Yeah, the story of the Cybertruck, Brad, really started back in 2019. Welcome to the Cybertruck unveil. This very angular, aggressive looking electric pickup truck drives on stage, and Elon Musk starts making some pretty big claims about what it can do. Those promises included an electric range of 500 miles, towing capacity of 14,000 pounds, armored glass that wouldn't break even despite heavy projectiles. Well, in this Tesla promotional event, you started to see some of these claims, refuted on stage in real time. Franz, could you try to break this glass, please? A guy throws a metal ball at the supposedly unbreakable window, and dozens of cracks appear. Oh my God. Well, maybe that was a little too hard. Musk suggests throwing a bit softer at the rear window, and it happens again. Since then, the mileage and towing capacity have been downgraded too, which analysts said is part of the issue here. The truck was just seen as unreliable. It also came to be seen as political, a kind of symbol of Elon Musk himself, after he had joined the Trump administration and took over its divisive firing efforts. We saw people, you know, vandalizing Cybertrucks, flipping people off in traffic, all this stuff that was reported by Cybertruck owners, who, you know, oftentimes would say, hey, I kind of just bought this because I liked the way it looked. But Mike says this is also not just a story about Tesla. It's a story about the broader challenges facing electric pickup trucks right now. Don't you think that's a bit too much to say about Tesla, even though it's a big one? And if you're a big fan of Tesla, you're probably aware that Tesla has expanded their entire manufacturing processes to make all-electric versions of the F-150 and Silverado. Well, those sales have been disappointing, too. However, with the price of gas being what it is right now, electric vehicle sales do appear to be rebounding ever so slightly. The industry is not quite running on empty just yet. Mike's two big loves. Like, he'll talk to you any day, any time about tech and all that stuff. If you're enjoying the show, remember to give us a five-star rating and review. It really does help us out. I'm Brad Milkey. I'll see you tomorrow. This holiday, all plans, even unlimited, are just $15 a month. A holiday deal this good obviously deserves an enormously expensive holiday song, like, All I Want. Right. Okay, we can't afford that. You know what? Forget the music budget. 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