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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
David Smith in Washington

‘Brilliant James’ helped return Trump to the White House. Can he conquer the midterms?

a man looks off to the side
James Blair, White House deputy chief of staff, speaks to members of the media outside the White House in Washington DC on 24, July 2025. Photograph: Aaron Schwartz/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images

They are both young, bald and fathers of four. They are also the brains behind Donald Trump. But while Stephen Miller is infamous as the US president’s ideological enforcer, James Blair could, in the words of Time magazine, “be the most important person in Donald Trump’s Washington you’ve never heard of”.

That imbalance is deceptive, however. Blair has sufficiently impressed Trump to earn the nickname “Brilliant James”. And a well-positioned source told the Guardian: “I would say that James is probably twice, five times, 10 times more effective than Stephen Miller.”

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