“It’s not just higher” under Trump, Tenpas said. “It’s off the charts.”

Not all that many high-ranking aides remain from the day Trump gave his inaugural address. Two-thirds of Trump’s most senior aides have left or been promoted, more than every president going back to Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, Tenpas’s research shows. But there are a few survivors. Amid all the tumult, some have even flourished. The keys: praising Trump, mastering skills that he values, and forging alliances in a rivalrous West Wing.

If none of that works, plant yourself in front of a TV camera and impress the boss.

Consider Stephen Miller, the 33-year-old who started during the campaign. Miller’s portfolio is expanding. In recent weeks, Trump has given him a lead role on Miller’s pet issue—immigration policy. Trump told him: “Whatever you need, you’re empowered in this space; get it done,” a White House aide says.

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Miller has long wanted tougher measures to control migration to the U.S. In that respect, he’s in sync with Trump’s core voters—part of his value to the president. “He’s a policy adviser who has the pulse of the president’s base,” a former White House official says. “And like the president, he’s skeptical of the standard Washington playbook on trade and immigration.”

Miller is a curious case in that Trump often prizes aides who perform well on cable TV, whose coverage he devours. Over the past two years, Miller has had some epic appearances on the small screen. In a cool medium, he runs hot. But he’s defended Trump to the point that he’s nearly gotten himself thrown off the set. And make no mistake: For a White House aide, the defense, promotion, and celebration of Trump is a durable survival strategy.

In an appearance last year on CNN (arguably Trump’s least favorite news outlet), Miller denounced “24 hours of negative anti-Trump hysterical coverage on this network.” As Miller attempted to drown out the host with stories about Trump’s virtues, Jake Tapper observed that he was really addressing an audience of one.

Aides say that Miller is a popular figure inside the building, though, bringing in bagels for the staff. At a birthday party for Miller and a couple of other aides on the chief of staff’s patio, Trump made a surprise appearance.

An undeniable asset is his speechwriting skills, past and present White House aides say. He has a feel for Trump’s voice—a skill that Trump believes “he can’t live without,” one former aide says.

Miller has also been nimble when it comes to internal White House politics. He was first thought to be an acolyte of the former chief strategist, Steve Bannon. Both touted economic nationalism, putting them at odds with a globalist faction led by the former economic adviser Gary Cohn and the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. But Miller made certain not to alienate the globalists nor to make Bannon’s mistake of antagonizing Trump’s family.