White House senior policy advisor Stephen Miller discusses U.S. immigration policy at the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S. August 2, 2017.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House may appoint a senior policy adviser with hardline views on immigration, who recently sparred with reporters in a televised briefing, as its new communications director, a senior administration official said on Saturday.

Stephen Miller, a top aide and speechwriter for President Donald Trump, is a candidate to lead the White House's communications team after a series of personnel changes in the more than six months that Trump has been president.

The official did not say how many people were on the short list but the Axios news site reported on Saturday that Miller is not the top contender.

Last week, Trump ousted White House communications chief Anthony Scaramucci over an obscene tirade to a New Yorker magazine writer only 10 days after he was appointed, leaving the position vacant.

Retired Marine Corps General John Kelly, the new chief of staff who sources said was seeking to impose order on a White House riven with factions and backbiting, is said to have recommended the move.

Senior advisor Stephen Miller leaves the White House as he accompanied U.S. President Donald Trump to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in Washington, DC, U.S., June 21, 2017.

In June, Mike Dubke resigned from the communications director post and since then, there has been a revolving door, with Sean Spicer serving as acting director until Scaramucci was named.

Miller, who has been a top adviser to Trump since the presidential campaign last year, is a former aide to Jeff Sessions when he was in the Senate. Sessions is now Trump’s attorney general.

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