Today The Atlantic is announcing the hires of Nick Miroff and Isaac Stanley-Becker as staff writers, and Alex Hoyt as a senior editor. Nick and Isaac both join The Atlantic from The Washington Post: Nick covering immigration and the Department of Homeland Security, and Isaac reporting on politics, migration, and national security.

Below is the full announcement about these hires from The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg:

Dear everyone,

I’m writing today to share the excellent news that Nick Miroff, Isaac Stanley-Becker, and Alex Hoyt are joining The Atlantic—Nick and Isaac as staff writers; Alex as a senior editor. All three are immensely talented journalists operating at the top of their game.

First, Nick: Nick is one of America’s foremost reporters on immigration and knows more about the innermost workings of the Department of Homeland Security than, quite possibly, the department itself. Nick comes to us from The Washington Post, where he spent 18 years as a reporter covering Latin America, the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, and DHS. He spent seven years as the paper’s Latin America correspondent, based in Havana and Mexico City. He was also part of the Post team whose coverage of the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech won a Pulitzer Prize. I am very happy that he has agreed to join us, and to cover immigration, at so crucial a moment in American history.

Next, Isaac: Isaac is a fantastically talented reporter and a natural magazine writer. He also comes to us from The Washington Post, where he has covered an impressive range of stories across politics, immigration, and national security with a focus on holding powerful people and institutions to account. His reporting has taken him to German border towns, where he tracked the international spread of conspiracy theories, as well as to the Arizona desert, where he revealed how a Saudi-owned company pumped unlimited supplies of the state’s groundwater to grow alfalfa as feed for dairy cows in Riyadh. He was twice part of teams that won the Pulitzer Prize—in 2022 for coverage of the January 6 attack on the Capitol, and in 2024 for documenting the role of the AR-15 in American life. Isaac holds a Ph.D. in history from Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. His first book, Europe Without Borders: A History, was published last month.

Finally, Alex: Alex is an extremely skilled editor who brings great literary expertise, a genuine love of magazines, and a keen eye for what makes a distinctive feature. He was most recently an editor at GQ, where he worked on profiles, essays, and reported features. Previously he was the editor in chief of Amtrak’s The National magazine, where he brought the writing of contributors including Jacqueline Woodson, Lois Lowry, and Leslie Jamison to millions of train passengers across America. Alex is actually returning to us; he started his career as an Atlantic fellow in 2010. We’re very glad to welcome him back to the team after his journalistic peregrinations.

Please join me in welcoming them to The Atlantic.

Best wishes,

Jeff

The Atlantic announced a number of new hires at the start of the year, including managing editor Griff Witte; staff writers Caity Weaver, Ashley Parker, and Michael Scherer; and contributing writers Jonathan Lemire and Alex Reisner. Please reach out with any questions or requests.

Press Contact: Anna Bross, The Atlantic | press@theatlantic.com

When Donald Trump first won the presidency, Corey Lewandowski, his former campaign manager, angled for a senior position inside the White House, only to settle for an outside job as a political consultant.

Eight years later, Lewandowski set his sights lower. He lobbied to be named chief of staff to Kristi Noem, the incoming secretary of Homeland Security, whom he had spent years advising and promoting as a rising star within Trump’s orbit, two people familiar with the situation told us.

But again he was thwarted. Trump personally nixed the idea, said the people, who requested anonymity to describe private conversations. One added that the president was concerned by the optics of Lewandowski working as chief of staff to someone with whom he had reportedly been romantically involved. (Lewandowski and Noem have denied the claims of an affair.)

The president’s decision has not stopped Lewandowski from working closely with Noem in her new role, functioning as a traveling adviser while overseeing other employees in her office. The situation has alarmed some in Trump’s circle, who view Lewandowski as a chaotic presence, even by MAGA standards. Lewandowski has a record of feuding with others who are close to the president and creating controversy. He worked as Trump’s first campaign manager during the 2016 presidential race, before becoming a government-relations consultant and political adviser to Trump and other Republican politicians.

Trump remains personally close to Lewandowski, whom he has kept as a friend and ally throughout a range of scandals. But the president is also aware that many of his trusted aides and confidants deeply dislike the 51-year-old, especially after he argued last summer to Trump that he needed to make changes on his campaign. Trump eventually sided with his existing campaign leadership and asked Lewandowski to focus on New Hampshire, a long-shot state for the Republican nominee that Trump went on to lose by nearly three points. But Lewandowski continued to travel with Trump and attended his Election Night party.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said Lewandowski is working as a “special government employee,” a temporary designation that allows him to maintain his private businesses while working in the government. Noem has not named an official chief of staff, according to the department’s website.

In conversations with representatives of other government offices, Homeland Security staff have referred to Lewandowski as a supervisor of sorts. During a recent back-and-forth between Noem’s office and an aide to a governor, a DHS employee invoked Lewandowski’s name, saying, “I’m going to have to check with Corey,” according to a person familiar with the exchange.

Since Noem was confirmed to her post in late January, Lewandowski has appeared with her on Capitol Hill and traveled with her in New Orleans to prepare security for the Super Bowl. He previously advised Noem during the transition, according to various news reports, continuing his role as a top strategist, cheerleader, and loyalist from her time as South Dakota’s governor.

Lewandowski has told others that he is not interested in a government job, has no office at DHS, and is volunteering through Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to do work across the administration. His visits to the Capitol and New Orleans, when Noem was also present, he has said, coincided with meetings he had with other friends and colleagues.

Lewandowski declined to comment. The White House did not respond to requests for comment.

This is not the first time Lewandowski has managed to stay in Noem’s orbit despite the efforts of those around her to create distance.

In 2021, Noem’s office announced that she was ending her professional relationship with Lewandowski, after the wife of a prominent Republican donor accused him of unwanted sexual advances and of stalking her at a Las Vegas charity event. Lewandowski was also removed from the pro-Trump super PAC Make America Great Again Action and lost other political clients. He subsequently agreed to a deferred adjudication deal with Las Vegas prosecutors that included impulse-control training and community service, but no admission of guilt.

A reporter for Breitbart News accused Lewandowski of grabbing her arm at a 2016 Trump event. Lewandowski initially responded by calling the reporter “delusional” and writing, “I never touched you,” on social media. When a video confirmed that Lewandowski had grabbed the reporter’s arm, he was charged by Palm Beach police with simple battery, though the charges were later dropped after Lewandowski argued that he was trying to keep the reporter away from Trump.

In each instance, Lewandowski succeeded in maintaining a level of influence among Trump allies and a direct relationship with the president. He also continued to advise Noem, despite the announcement from her spokesperson in 2021 that he would no longer be advising her after the Las Vegas incident.

“He never actually left the team,” one person who worked in her office at the time told us, requesting anonymity to discuss private information. “As well as continuing to advise her, he also continued to travel with her.”

For now, at least, Lewandowski seems firmly entrenched in both Noem’s and Trump’s circles, albeit from perhaps more of a remove. On Super Bowl Sunday, Lewandowski posted on social media various pictures from the day—riding in Trump’s large official motorcade, smiling with Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry, looking down at the 50-yard line from his seats inside the Superdome.

But a postgame picture seemed to best capture Lewandowski’s place in Trumpworld. He shared a photo of the nose of Air Force One—its trademark blue, gold, and teal gleaming against the twilight of the city’s darkened sky—from a slight distance.

“So long New Orleans,” he wrote.