(AFP) – Known for his sharp suits, sunglasses and menacing air, Stephen Miller has long been one of US President Donald Trump’s most loyal and combative consiglieres. Now Trump has named the architect of his immigration crackdown as his chief of staff — the clearest possible signal that the gloves are off after the US midterms. Miller, 41, said Friday he was ready for battle. “The mission now is more clear than ever: Fight with all of our soul to support our President and defend this magnificent Republic,” Miller said on X. His appointment fired up a MAGA movement stunned by the Republican hammering in the midterms. “IT’S MILLER TIME,” former congressman Matt Gaetz said, quoting, like many other allies, a famous US beer commercial.
Democrats were not so thrilled. “Stephen Miller is a dangerous xenophobe and reckless extremist who has American blood on his hands,” incoming House Majority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said. Dubbed Trump’s “brain,” Miller has been the most ideological presence in the president’s inner circle since he started working for him in 2016. Miller frequently echoes far-right talking points about Western civilization being under threat from an “invasion” of migrants — and under Trump he has translated that into policy.
It was Miller, whose official job title is currently deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security advisor, who was behind the mass deportations in Trump’s second term. Reports said Miller pushed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to drastically step up their deportations after levels under Trump fell below those of the Biden administration. For Democrats, Stephen Miller is the symbol of the excesses of Trump’s immigration policy, from the masked agents rounding up undocumented migrants to the shootings by federal agents that left two Americans dead. His management style is reportedly equally hardline.
In their book “Regime Change,” New York Times journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan said Miller was a domineering boss who regularly berated staff members. Miller would also present his views as requests from the president — but was cautious about expressing his opinions in front of Trump himself and was careful not to leave a paper trail, they reported. In the early months of Trump’s second presidency, Miller was often a combative presence in front of the cameras on the White House driveway. But after the outrage over shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good by immigration agents in Minneapolis in January prompted the White House to roll back the policy, he has kept a lower profile.
First Lady Melania Trump even complained to President Trump that some of her friends were being swept up in the crackdown, prompting Trump to tell aides Miller had gone “too far,” the Wall Street Journal reported this week. Now, however, he has risen further than ever. “Stephen’s been with me from the beginning,” Trump told reporters on Friday. “He gets it.”
Born in liberal Santa Monica in Los Angeles, Miller joined as a speechwriter just before the start of Trump’s first term — and in that time his hardline stance made him something of an outlier. The young firebrand was one of the designs of the so-called “Muslim travel bans” in Trump’s first presidency, which later ran into legal difficulties after they were poorly drafted. Miller, however, largely avoided the chaotic feuding that engulfed Trump’s first White House. And he stuck by his boss even as Trump’s first term ended in the disgrace of the US Capitol attack on January 6, 2021.
His wife Katie is also a prominent figure in Trumpworld. She was the spokeswoman for Elon Musk’s ill-fated Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and has since carved out as an influencer in the MAGA and “tradwife” movements. Most notoriously, she also fanned Trump’s claims over Greenland by posting a picture of the island overlaid by the American flag and the word “soon,” shortly after Trump’s military operation in Venezuela.
– Danny KEMP
© 2024 AFP
