“Combative bulldog,” “wartime consigliere,” “Trump’s MAGA’s brain for a decade,” “brass-knuckle general,” “impervious to criticism or traditional constraints,” “immigration hardliner,” “dangerous xenophobe,” and “malignant tumor,” are only some of the characterizations you can read in today’s coverage of President Trump’s naming of Stephen Miller to replace Susie Wiles as White House Chief of Staff.
Trump’s decision is widely viewed as a decision to “go full Trump,” as CNN put it, and go to war against the Democratic majority in the incoming House and Senate, as well as against Constitutional constraints on Executive power.
Miller is known in particular as the intellectual author of the most extreme aspects of the Trump anti-immigrant policy (including the criminal behavior of ICE), and since this is one of the significant reasons that the Republicans got thumped in the mid-terms, it’s a big “f* you” to the anti-Trump vote.
Axios ran a summary profile of Miller: “He believes in almost limitless presidential power, considers the Democratic Party an extremist organization, and dreams of ruthless crackdowns on immigration and foreign adversaries…. [He is] unlike anyone who has held the powerful position in the modern era…. Miller’s appointment sets the stage for two years of partisan warfare…. He [Trump] is prepping for war, and sees Miller as a brass-knuckle general and tactical expert impervious to criticism or traditional restraints…. [Miller] is particularly well-suited to a White House that will increasingly rely on executive orders and legal battles—areas in which Miller has extensive experience.”
Axios also noted that Miller believes “America should use ‘hard power’ in the Western Hemisphere,” and that he was one of the featured speakers at the recent meeting with foreign leaders at the Shield of the Americas conference.
Pete Hegseth, like Miller a political beast-man, cheered the appointment: “Patriots in control,” Hegseth wrote on X. “He never backs down—and the Department of War is right there with him.”
Miller himself posted on X on Friday: “President Trump is the most transformative political leader in American History—and he has single-handedly saved America from those who would destroy it.”
As for the Democratic side, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), who is set to become chairman of the powerful House Oversight Committee, issued a statement: “Just days after the American people rejected his corrupt and lawless presidency, Donald Trump is doubling down…. Stephen Miller is the architect of the unconstitutional ICE raids that have terrorized our communities and kidnapped and killed American citizens and immigrant families…. Stephen Miller should lawyer up.”
