Good evening and welcome to Washington Week.

So, we're living in a new country tonight.

One in which Kansas is going to have a Democratic senator.

One in which even the ultimate survivor, Susan Collins, couldn't survive.

One in which the state government of Texas will be under complete Democratic control, making it no different in this respect than Massachusetts.

We are also living in a world in which the ultimate immigration hardliner, Steven Miller, will be running the White House.

I, for one, would love to be a witness to his first meeting with Hakee Jeff and Chuck Schumer, which could also be their last meeting.

Miller's appointment is a reminder that Donald Trump remains the nation's chief executive for another two years.

And matters of, among other things, war and peace are still in his hands.

Joining me tonight to make sense of this historic week, Peter Baker is the chief White House correspondent for the New York Times.

Leanne Caldwell is the chief Washington correspondent at Puck.

Adam Harris co-hosts Radio Atlantic, the flagship Atlantic magazine podcast, and Stephen Hayes is the editor of The Dispatch.

Uh, so yeah, that happened.

What did the kids say?

That happened.

That that everything happened.

Um, it's a very big week and a week that ends in a in a unusual bang, I would say.

Uh, here, just before we talk about it, here's Donald Trump on this announcement.

I wanted to make a change.

Uh I think Susie's done a very good job.

Great job.

But I just wanted to make it.

Stephen's been great.

And uh we got to make we got to make moves.

Steven's been with me from beginning.

He he gets it very good politically.

Peter, what are we to make of this appointment?

Steven Miller as chief of staff.

Well, look, to the extent that there was any question about whether the president would respond to a drubbing of his own party with consiliation or confrontation, there's no longer a question, right?

And the answer is not consiliation.

Steven Miller is not the person you would pick for chief of staff.

Was that ever actually more than a return?

Look, on election night, he makes these noises.

He told he told my colleagues Tyler Pedra and Erica Green, I want I can work with Democrats and so forth.

He does that from time to time.

He doesn't really mean it.

Probably he doesn't follow through on it.

And clearly in this case he's not going to follow through because you wouldn't pick Stephen Miller if you really thought you were going to negotiate with Hakee Jeff and and Chuck Schumer.

Um to your point I think that just to our remind our viewers that uh Miller is the architect of the mass deportation strategy.

He thought that they were uh too soft in Minnesota not the other way around.

Uh he is the architect of basically every other hardline policy that the president has put in place.

And so he is the betoir of the entire new democratic majorities in both Congress.

They're not going to want to work with them even if for some reason he were to want to work with them.

Um Susie Miller is getting blamed it seems for losing.

I mean it seems like what's what's happening here right is you've seen people like JD Vance um sort of start to walk away from some of the policies that the president um has has espoused over the last couple years whether that's the Iran war or things of the sort.

And Steven Miller has been one of those people who is a like you said Peter right he's a hardliner he has been around the president for the entire time he seems as if he's a true believer in the sort of policies the sort of MAGA policies um that the administration has put forward and so when you're um sort of backed into a corner when your party uh is not being successful when you've seen a big repudiation um of the party then it makes sense that that you go with somebody who actually believes in what you It seems like Susie Wild's exile is not a full exile it wasn't the kick them to the curb kind of tweet that other people have ended their careers with.

Is that fair?

Yeah, it's I mean she's apparently going to his political operation.

Um we'll see what that looks like.

That's also where Caroline Levit is.

That's also where James Blair is.

You know, it's kind of where the people who leave the White House end up with a paycheck.

Spending more time with their family.

Is it like an island?

Is like a little island or something?

There's like a shadow White House being built outside the White House.

We'll see how much influence Susan Miles has moving forward.

Um pro, you know, probably very little.

Well, Steve, this is what I I wanted to ask about about uh young Steven, the protege of the president.

Um Trump said he's very good politically.

What does that mean?

Yeah, I mean, it's unclear what it means.

He also said he's a very good manager.

There's a lot of stories that he's actually not a very good manager.

He's not very good politically.

He pushed some of the ideas that were proved the most toxic for Republicans in this election cycle.

He's also somebody who pushed suspending habius corpus um after uh several months in office.

He wanted the president to suspend habius corpus, something that was too much even for some of the other hardliners at the White House.

Ultimately didn't happen.

John Yu, a very conservative constitutional lawyer, told my colleague John McCormack that it would have led to a constitutional crisis had it actually happened.

Is he, this is a question for anyone.

Is he the most hardline person Donald Trump has in his close orbit?

That's a contest, man.

Well, I think it probably between him and and Pete Hex um where where Pete Hexus may be a little bit more filty to to the president um as opposed to sort of an ideological vision of the the MAGA project, right?

Um but in in terms of people who are really trying to to push policies that are outside of the the the constit like you said things like h suspending habius corpus where it's these would be unconstitutional policies but they are willing to try them in means through executive orders and then ask for the legal I mean you could make the argument that but that that the hegth ordered boat strikes in the Caribbean are extra constitutional.

Yeah that's one of the things they would impeach him on if they impeach him.

It's the argument is he has illegally used American power against people without due process.

But on Miller to point about politically good, what he might mean is he's politically good inside that White House.

He has for 10 years managed to survive all the different purges, all the different ups and downs.

He got close to Jared Kushner, the son-in-law, and Ivanka Trump the daughter.

even though they're not, you know, as hardcore as he is, he's been a very clever uh person to make, you know, to to survive inside a very toxic environment for a long time.

And the president sees him as absolutely loyal.

But when it comes to the politics of it though, we're talking, you know, confrontation with Congress and we're talking about Democrats who are going to be in control.

But I've talked to a lot of Republicans tonight in Congress, um, senior aids who who are concerned about this.

I am told that senators went to the bat for Susie Wilds, that they wanted her to stay.

Um, and that the while the party is trying to figure out what it looks like, Donald Trump is going to be in the White House while the these Republicans are trying to figure out, you know, they're going to have to run again in two years.

Some of them are going to run statewide again or maybe for the first time.

And the signals that Donald Trump is sending with Steven Miller is no introspection of what just happened on Tuesday where the rest of the Congress that was decimated for Republicans are trying to grapple with how to move forward.

No, it's it's not as if Donald Trump listened to the voice of the American people and internalized it and then said, you know, the answer is Stephen Miller.

The answer for Steven Miller is pure MAGA to the to the finish line.

Pure MAGA.

Yeah.

Look, look, I think we're seeing yolo Trump right now.

And I think there were indications that this was coming before the election.

We saw him in effect say, "Yeah, you know what?

I've always wanted to embrace Vladimir Putin.

I'm doing it now.

I'm lifting the sanctions.

I'm He's coming to the G20.

I want to do these things."

You saw it with the the golf course.

I want to build the golf course.

I don't really care what the court says.

I mean, it's not like you're saying that in the last quarter of the Trump interrupted presidency, the the the the last two years, we're going to see the honest quote unquote vision of what he actually wants.

Pure hardcore undiluted MAGA with Steven Miller.

It also comes at a time we should point out that the president seems to be willing to check out a bit more and not really as focused on governing the country talking about the you know the helipad and the ballroom.