As we noted earlier, the people with whom a President surrounds himself (so far, sadly, “herself” does not apply in the US…) tell us a great deal about that President. 
The American people have seen Stephen Miller before in the Trump Administration, as Senior Adviser/Advisor, 2017-2021. Miller is proud to have helped orchestrate some of the Administration’s most aggressive and cruel ideologies and policies:
- the zero-tolerance policy for illegal entry of immigrants, also known as family separation;
- the Muslim ban;
- the attempt to end of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program (the Supreme Court overturned Trump’s executive order in 2020); and
- the forced resignation of Kirstjen Nielsen as Secretary of Homeland Security in 2019.
Americans might also recognize Miller in the context of Trump’s 2015-16 presidential campaign. Miller wrote many of Trump’s speeches and spoke at his rallies.
Now Trump has announced that Miller will be White House deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security advisor. This is quite scary.
Miller’s history and what he has been doing since Trump reluctantly left office in 2021 are important to map out: the pattern of Miller’s life and his values are a stark warning to Americans at many levels.
Background and the development of an ideology
Considering what Miller has become, he’s had an unusual – and one could maintain hypocritical – background. His Jewish family fled persecution in Eastern Europe around 1900, and he was raised in “a traditional ‘liberal Democrat’ Jewish household” in Santa Monica, California. 
Yet he has along associated himself with antisemitic individuals and groups, such as Steve Bannon and the far-right Breitbart News, and he has great disdain for what he terms an “unholy alliance of corrupt special interests, big tech titans, the fake news media, and liberal Washington politicians.” Further, he has animus against the “radical activist left” that supposedly stands for “anti-jobs, anti-freedom, anti-faith, anti-borders, anti-police, and anti-American.”
This bent began in Santa Monica – where he challenged Latino students at his high school to speak English and argued against multi-language school announcements – and continued at Duke University, where he started associating with far-right hate groups. Among his classmates were Richard Spencer – “the most notorious white nationalist figure in the U.S.” – and the founder of the white nationalist group, VDARE, Peter Brimelow. Ultraconservative radio host the late Rush Limbaugh, not surprisingly, was also one of Miller’s mentors.
After graduating from Duke, Miller moved north to DC. 
His positions included:
- Press secretary for former Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann in 2008. Among other Bachmann traits, she “openly peddled anti-Muslim conspiracy theories, specifically pushing the unfounded claim that the Muslim Brotherhood had infiltrated the U.S. government in pursuit of ‘America’s demise.’”
- Communications director for former Arizona Rep. John Shadegg, who voted consistently along conservative lines while in office from 1995 to 2003.
- Communications staff member and later communications director for Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, starting in 2009.
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- In 2013, Miller, while working in Sessions’ office (and in collaboration with Steve Bannon and Breitbart News), helped kill a comprehensive immigration bill that would have provided “a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants while increasing border security.” The bill had been introduced by the bipartisan Gang of Eight. Needless to say, 11 years later – in early 2024 – Trump helped kill a similar bipartisan immigration bill.
Miller first came to Trump’s attention through Bannon: around 2016, as Bannon was taking a break from serving as Breitbart’s executive chairman to join Trump’s campaign, he recommended Miller to senior campaign officials.
America First Legal
Since Trump has been out of office, Miller started a right-wing nonprofit organization, America First Legal (AFL, purportedly the conservative version of the ACLU?), which is worth examining in some detail. 
It can be reasonably argued that the group’s premises are founded on egregious lies, disinformation, and a white nationalist ideology. According to AFL, the “radical left” is ostensibly doing the following:
- “Opening America’s borders”
- “Shutting down American energy”
- “Trying to take over American elections”
- “Violating the fundamental civil rights of the American People”
- Attacking our founding documents
- Undermining the rule of law
- Eroding our nation’s most cherished principles and traditions
What is alarming and very misleading, in addition to these slogans, are the headings on the AFL web pages. For instance, their Center for Legal Equality, which sounds quite progressive, is in truth an initiative against “a pernicious new ideology” – a “fundamentally anti-American ideology” – that they demean as “woke,” “a brute force agenda of social engineering, Marxist dehumanization, and overt racism and sexism.” Miller and his colleagues promise to “stand up against corporations that restrict free speech and violate our citizens’ civil rights,” but the violations to which they are referring are initiatives that challenge straight, white men, perhaps especially (wealthy) white male leaders. 
The AFL website includes a page of so-called “woke corporations” that are “illegally engaging in discriminatory employment practices that penalize Americans based on race and sex.”
This language is very deceptive. AFL principals are not attempting to protect traditionally underrepresented Americans, contrary to the original intent of “diversity, inclusion and equality” initiatives that have emerged over the past several generations. Instead, AFL’s intentions are inherently racist, white nationalist and based on a misplaced grievance mentality (much like Trump’s). It is probably the case that many DEI initiatives in corporate America may not have had all the intended positive results, and perhaps many programs may need tweaking, but these kinds of efforts have undoubtedly led to tremendous gains for traditionally underrepresented groups in the US – and that’s what Miller, his colleagues and his organization cannot abide.
With regard to AFL’s accusations, where is their evidence? One can convincingly argue that many of these statements are outright projection: accusing left-leaning Americans of what they are actually doing themselves. Miller et al are aggressively using well-worn slogans and conservative talking points in order to inflame like-minded Americans and instill unfounded fear of “the other.”
Warnings
What kind of person is Stephen Miller? According to Miller’s former rabbi, Neil Comess-Daniels, Miller does not in any way, shape or form represent the best traits of Judaism: citing books of the Bible, Rabbi Comess-Daniels laments, “I felt embarrassed and ashamed that a Jew in a leadership role could give voice and support to such inhumanity” as the family separation and other anti-immigrant programs.
So, what kind of person exhibits, over decades, the following public traits?
- Miller said this prior to Trump’s appearance at Madison Square Garden in October 2024: “America is for Americans and Americans only.” The sentiment echoes that of a 1939 Nazi rally.
- Miller lays out his vision of deporting 11 million illegal immigrants. “You would establish large scale staging grounds for removal flight… So you grab illegal immigrants, and then you move them to the staging grounds. And that’s where the planes are waiting for federal law enforcement to move those illegals home.”
- Miller has long advocated national policies that many people would characterize as cruel.
- Jean Guerrero, author of Hatemonger about Miller, observes that Miller “has a firm ideology… And that ideology is basically that multiculturalism poses an existential threat to Western civilization, as we know it.”
- Guerrero goes on, “Whatever lightheartedness he may have had when he was younger is gone… [He] takes such pleasure in triggering people.”
Miller and others like him have mastered the strategies of distraction, projection, twisting the truth, and appealing to crass emotions. Their talking points are short and easily digestible and are deliberately crafted to distort the facts, portray Democrats, liberals, progressives and others as anti-American and unpatriotic, skew the narrative, win votes or other kinds of support on behalf of conservatives, create fear, and wrest or keep control. 
The art of using disinformation and lies through media, legal maneuvers, and other tactics to influence the narrative and reverse “liberal” policies is incredibly effective, and Miller is a master.
How many of us would want to associate with Stephen Miller on a regular basis? How many American parents would want their children to become like Stephen Miller? What does it say about Trump (and others like Bachmann, Bannon and Sessions, for that matter) that he endows such a person with so much power and trust?
The Democracy Coalition – all of us who want democracy, truth and the rule of law to prevail over lies, injustice and authoritarianism – must fight back against initiatives of Miller and others like him with every tool in our toolbox.