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Trump Insider Spills on ‘Terrifying’ Ice Maiden Replacement Rumor

Former Trump deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews says swapping Susie Wiles for this Trump ally would be “a very scary thing.”

A former Trump aide is sounding the alarm about who could replace the president’s White House chief of staff.

Sarah Matthews was a deputy press secretary during Donald Trump’s first term. On Sunday, she told MeidasTouch that the president seems to be turning on his Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles.

“It seems like Trump is unhappy with the way things are right now and the headlines and the way his administration is going, so he is seeming to blame Susie Wiles.” Matthews, 31, told host Jack Cocchiarella.

Jack Cocchiarella and Sarah Matthews on “On Sunday.”

Jack Cocchiarella and Sarah Matthews on “On Sunday.”

On Sunday / MeidasTouch

“She’s kind of on the outs, and he’s been doing his favorite thing, which is calling around, seeing what people think of different names that he floats,” she said.

“He said that he’s sticking with Susie, but we know that he’s making these calls. And one of those names is Stephen Miller.”

Politico Playbook reported Thursday that Trump has been sounding out confidants about Wiles, 69, and asking who could replace her. Besides Miller, the president reportedly floated special envoy Steve Witkoff, housing chief Bill Pulte, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and Yankees president Randy Levine as possible successors. The report set off a catfight as Wiles and her allies scrambled to shore up her position.

Matthews didn’t mince her words about what a Miller promotion would mean for America.

“That is a terrifying prospect, because I think that Susie Wiles, while she is complicit in the horrors of this administration, I don’t think she’s crazy,” Matthews said. “Stephen Miller is bats--t crazy.”

Stephen Miller at a White House press conference on Oct. 8.

Stephen Miller at a White House press conference on Oct. 8.

Nathan Howard/REUTERS

“In the last two years of Trump’s administration, when he’s going to be spiraling because he’s a lame duck president, I think he’s going to pardon everyone at the end. So he thinks he can get away with murder,” she added. “The idea of someone like a Stephen Miller in charge is a very scary thing.”

But Trump insists he isn’t looking for a replacement.

“Susie Wiles is my loyal and longest-serving Chief of Staff — there is a reason for that,” he said in a statement to Politico on Thursday.

“She has been with me since the beginning, is my trusted advisor, and has my COMPLETE confidence.”

White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles attends a Republican campaign rally at F&M Bank Arena in Clarksville, Tennessee, US, October 10, 2026.

White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles attends a Republican campaign rally at F&M Bank Arena in Clarksville, Tennessee, US, October 10, 2026.

Eric Lee/REUTERS

Cocchiarella asked Matthews how much time she had spent with Miller during her tenure.

Matthews said Miller sometimes sat in on briefing prep, “something that we spent hours doing that -clearly Katie Zacharia did not.”

Trump fired Zacharia, 41, on Friday, after only five days on the job. Her departure came after a shaky 14-minute debut briefing and days of questions about her credentials, after she admitted she never passed the bar exam.

New White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia holds her first press briefing at the White House in Washington, DC, US, October 13, 2026.

New White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia holds her first press briefing at the White House in Washington, DC, US, October 13, 2026.

Kevin Lamarque/File Photo/Reuters

“When we were prepping Kayleigh for briefings, Stephen would sometimes come into her office and help consult if we felt like we needed his guidance on something or advice,” Matthews said.

“Him and I would chit-chat here and there, but we weren’t particularly close.”

Matthews was a deputy to Kayleigh McEnany, Trump’s press secretary at the time, and helped drill her before her televised briefings.

Then-press secretary Kayleigh McEnany at the White House briefing room podium in July 2020.

Then-press secretary Kayleigh McEnany at the White House briefing room podium in July 2020.

Alex Wong/Getty

Then the host asked whether Miller is “as insecure as it seems he is publicly.”

“I have to imagine that a guy who spray paints hair on his head before going on a TV interview is about as insecure as you can get,” Matthews said. She appeared to be referring to a 2018 Vanity Fair report that said Miller showed up on CBS’ Face the Nation with spray-painted hair on top of his usually bald head.

Miller, a loyal Trump ally who has worked for him for a decade, is the driving force behind the administration’s mass deportation push.

He stepped out of public view after federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, during an immigration operation in Minneapolis in January. He kept running the crackdown from inside the West Wing, the Times reported in April. Insiders have described his daily calls with immigration officials as screaming sessions.

Matthews resigned after the Jan. 6 riot and has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration ever since.

In August, she described Natalie Harp as one of Trump’s “gatekeepers of information.”

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According to Playbook, Harp handed Trump a printout of Thursday’s report, and he reportedly erupted. Miller, Pulte, and EPA chief Lee Zeldin are already circling like vultures, making moves for her job, the Washington Post reports.

Trump biographer Michael Wolff has his own prediction. “After the midterms, she will be toast,” he said on the Daily Beast’s Inside Trump’s Head podcast. “Susie toast.”

White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and US President Donald Trump's Executive Assistant Natalie Harp react as they board Air Force One en route to Georgia for a campaign rally, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, US, October 16, 2026.

White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and US President Donald Trump's Executive Assistant Natalie Harp react as they board Air Force One en route to Georgia for a campaign rally, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, on October 16.

Kevin Lamarque/REUTERS

“I don’t think getting inside the mind of Stephen Miller is a place I want to be,” Matthews said.

The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment.

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