The cast of characters surrounding Donald Trump has changed frequently over the years. One person who has remained at the president-elect’s side throughout: Stephen Miller, best known for his fierce anti-immigration views.
Miller — one of Trump’s “longest-serving and most trusted advisers” — is expected to serve in the new Trump White House as the deputy chief of staff for policy, said NPR. He is expected to focus on “writing and implementing Trump’s immigration agenda,” setting the stage for the mass deportation of millions of undocumented migrants. That makes him “likely to be one of the most controversial picks” in the new administration, but the post does not require Senate confirmation.
Trump’s selection of Miller, along with the appointment of Tom Honan as “border czar” is a signal that the president-elect is “serious about mass deportation,” David Graham said at The Atlantic. In a 2023 interview with The New York Times, Miller said such efforts could involve the military. “Trump will unleash the vast arsenal of federal powers to implement the most spectacular migration crackdown,” he said. That means Trump’s campaign rhetoric about immigration is more than “idle promises,” Graham said.
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‘He was this way before Trump’
Miller first burst into public view as a provocative student newspaper columnist during the Duke lacrosse scandal in 2006, William D. Cohan said at Vanity Fair. His “outspoken support for the players” in that case earned him attention from CNN and Fox News — the players were falsely accused of rape — and helped him to move to Washington D.C., where he eventually became an adviser to then-Senator Jeff Sessions, another immigration hawk who would later become Trump’s first attorney general. During the first Trump administration, Miller gained notoriety for backing efforts to separate migrant children from their families. “He was this way before Trump,” said Nick Silverman, a high school classmate.
Miller spent his time between Trump administrations “litigating loudly” with the America First Legal Foundation, said The New York Times. The nonprofit outfit was noted for its “unabashed connection to MAGA ideology,” said Thomas Healy, a professor of law at Seton Hall University, filing cases challenging diversity initiatives at big corporations and state agencies across the country. The group was a “top legal foe” of Biden Administration initiatives to aid businesses owned by minorities and women, said CNN.
‘Laser-focused’ on immigrant agenda
Miller is “the architect” of Trump’s anti-immigration agenda, Andrew Prokop said at Vox. His goal is to “rid” the United States of unauthorized immigrants “and cut down on legal immigrants, too.” Miller has depicted migrants as “dangerous and evil criminals.” He “enthusiastically” spread false reports about Haitian immigrants eating pets. But he also knows how to use the federal bureaucracy to “make his agenda happen,” Prokop said. While other MAGA officials have sometimes been cast from Trump’s orbit, Miller has kept the president-elect’s trust by staying “laser-focused on implementing Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda.”
“He’s 100% loyal, 100% of the time,” Jean Guerrero said of Miller’s relationship to Trump, in The Washington Post. He is also comfortable in Trump’s shadow, never seeking to upstage the boss. Miller cannot be understood, he once told an interviewer, “if you do not understand that my sole motivation is to serve this president and this country.”
