The man who makes Trump's most controversial political decisions

Democrats are demanding his resignation.

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Stephen Miller stood by Donald Trump during his darkest days in politics, Photo: Getty Images

Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

10.02.2026. 20:02h

Anthony Zurcher, North America Correspondent

For years, Stephen Miller was a conservative agitator in Donald Trump's political orbit.

Now he has become a lightning rod.

His unwavering belligerent style at the political helm in the White House has driven Trump's immigration policy and is influencing the expansion of American power in the Western Hemisphere.

The accelerated start to 2026 in the Trump administration, both at home and abroad, has only solidified his position as one of the most powerful figures.

But for those on the left, he is a villain.

In Washington, posters with Miller's face were plastered in public areas with the caption "Fascism is not beautiful."

Democrats are demanding his resignation.

Even some members of his own party have publicly questioned Miller's political judgment and effectiveness.

And in the past few weeks, Miller has found himself in uncharted territory - a behind-the-scenes player thrust into the national spotlight, his words and actions now under public scrutiny.

He had to step back, at least temporarily, from the kind of fighting he often enjoyed.

'Always be strong, never give up'

Shortly after two federal immigration officers shot and killed a Aleksa Preti in Minneapolis, Miller posted several messages on the social media platform X accusing a Minneapolis paramedic of being a "domestic terrorist" and an "assassin."

It was the usual aggressive, derogatory rhetoric of a man who spoke before Trump at his 2016 campaign rallies.

He accused Democrats of "fanning the flames of rebellion."

His claims were also factually incorrect.

Video evidence subsequently showed that Preti, although carrying a permitted handgun, did not threaten Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officials before he was pepper-sprayed, tackled to the ground, and shot 10 times.

A few days later, Miller gave a statement to the media that the authorities' initial assessment of the shooting was "based on reports from immigration officers on the ground" and that those agents "may not have followed" proper protocol.

It was a rare retreat from the belligerent adviser, but it did not satisfy his Democratic critics, who accuse him of encouraging Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to respond violently to the protests.

"It wasn't enough for Stephen Miller to have these American citizens killed by ICE and CBP, he had to slander them with lies after their deaths," Congressman Don Beyer of Virginia wrote in a post on the social media platform Bluesky.

"Miller is a depraved, bloodthirsty chauvinist, and his policies endanger people's lives every day he spends in office."

In May, Miller demanded that immigration officials do more to apprehend and deport undocumented migrants in American cities.

The administration has set a goal of 3.000 arrests per day, he told Fox News.

According to the Washington Examiner, Mueller "butchered" federal immigration officials in a meeting for not doing enough to detain undocumented migrants across the United States.

Meanwhile, the administration has stepped up enforcement of the policy in a growing number of American cities, including Washington, Charlotte, Chicago and, most recently, Minneapolis.

"Everything I did, I did at the behest of the president and Stephen," said Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security, recently.

Americans do not support immigration tactics

Miller denies that he was motivated by racism and chauvinism.

He defends Trump's immigration policy.

Yet, in what was seen as a departure from Mueller's aggressive approach, Trump said this week that the initiative needed a "softer touch" after the deaths of Pretty and Renee Goode, another American citizen killed by immigration officers in Minneapolis.

Overall support for his immigration policies has fallen to 39 percent, the lowest level since he returned to the White House, according to a Reuters-Ipsos poll.

And a clear majority, 58 percent, say that ICE agents' coercive tactics have gone "too far."

This trend places Miller squarely in the crosshairs of criticism as Republicans prepare for the November midterm congressional elections.

Mueller is the architect of this mass deportation policy, said Brian Lanza, a conservative strategist who worked on Trump's 2016 and 2024 presidential campaigns.

"We'll know in November whether he's to blame for that. Voters, when all is said and done, know how to be unforgiving."

Miller, however, has shown over the years that he can survive all kinds of crises.

An outspoken conservative since his high school days in liberal California, he rose from a Senate staffer to a White House campaign adviser, where he managed to avoid the various personal intrigues and twists of the first Trump administration.

He told the Washington Post in 2019 that he felt "an electric shock in my soul" when Trump announced he would run for president.

Miller stood by the president during his darkest days, following his 2020 election defeat, attacks by supporters on American Capital, and his political exile from Washington.

And he followed Trump on his return to power last year.

"Stephen Mueller is crucial to Trump's psyche," says Lanza.

"Always be strong, never give up. He can always count on Steven to support his position on any issue."

On behalf of the president

Miller's official title at the White House is Deputy Chief of Protocol for Policy and National Security Advisor.

"Stephen Miller has served President Trump faithfully for years because he is intelligent, hardworking and loyal," White House press secretary Caroline Levitt told the BBC.

"Stephen brings together all corners of government to ensure that every policy decision, whether foreign or domestic, is implemented at record speed. The results over the past year speak for themselves."

At one point last year, Mueller was mentioned as a potential White House national security adviser, as a replacement for the ousted Michael Volz - a rumor the president vehemently denied.

"Stephen is much higher up the hierarchy than that," Trump said.

In March last year, as America prepared to launch airstrikes against the Houthis in Yemen, a series of text messages on Signal were unknowingly shared with the editor. The Atlantic by Jeffrey Goldberg It showed that Mueller was at the center of planning in the White House, speaking on behalf of the president about his desire to carry out the attack.

Last fall, Miller was reportedly tasked with leading military operations in the Caribbean to locate and destroy ships suspected of involvement in drug trafficking - which expanded into a successful effort to remove Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power in early January.

When Trump announced at his Mar-a-Lago resort that the military operation had been a success in capturing Maduro, Miller was among the few senior officials who stood behind the president.

Miller's role in foreign policy, Lanca points out, is unusual, but it is in line with the unorthodox actions of the White House.

"Stephen is smart enough to know that Donald Trump is not a traditional president and will gravitate to those around him for advice and insight," Lanza says.

"Stephen does a good job of being around him and providing those insights. Stephen wouldn't have had the same success under a more traditional president."

Early political campaigns in California

Miller developed a penchant for controversy and provocation at a relatively early age.

He attended high school in Santa Monica, a coastal enclave in greater Los Angeles, where he advocated for English-only education and other conservative causes.

He began his career in 1999, a year after a federal court overturned a ban on welfare benefits for undocumented immigrants.

It was also a time when the influx of immigrants at the US-Mexico border surged to levels not seen until the post-Covid surge during Joseph Biden's presidency.

In a speech videotaped during a high school government campaign, he complains about being ordered to pick up his own trash, saying that it should be the job of paid janitors.

"I'm the only candidate here who stands out," he said.

"I say and do things that no one else in their right mind would say or do."

Miller studied political science at Duke University, where he wrote a right-wing column in the student newspaper and became executive director of the Duke Conservative Union.

He gained some national attention by defending three white members of the Duke lacrosse team who were accused of rape by a black woman—falsely, it later turned out.

It was Miller's proudest moment at university, he later told The Atlantic magazine, and helped launch Miller's career in politics.

Shortly after graduating, he took a job as public relations secretary for Michele Bachmann, a prominent conservative congresswoman from rural Minnesota.

Watch the video from Minneapolis

'Iron laws'

During Trump's first year back in the White House, Mueller found himself at the center of some of the administration's biggest political endeavors.

And with such influence comes greater visibility and greater risk.

After the incursion into Venezuela, Miller appeared on CNN to defend what has become the Trump administration's expansionist worldview that positions America as the dominant power in the entire Western Hemisphere, even when it means clashing with traditional allies.

Miller's wife, Katie Miller, an influential podcaster and former Trump staffer, was the one whose X post of Greenland wrapped in an American flag brought the president's desire to acquire the Danish territory back into the news just hours after the attack on Venezuela.

And it was Stephen Miller who stood in front of the cameras, offering a cold-blooded look at American power and how it relates to the president's desire for Danish territory.

"Where does Denmark get the right to control Greenland?" Miller wondered.

He added that "the world is ruled by iron laws."

"We live in a world, a real world, ruled by strength, ruled by force, ruled by power," he said.

These were intoxicating statements after the surgically precise use of American military force in Venezuela.

And, for a president who, a few days later, told the New York Times that the only limit to his world powers was "my own morality," he might have been warmly received.

But it has angered some in Trump's own party.

"Either Stephen Mueller needs to get into a space where he knows what he's talking about or he needs to leave this job," Republican Senator Tom Tillis of North Carolina, a frequent Trump critic of late, told CNN.

Battle for civilization

Mueller's comments have drawn some resistance from seasoned Republican foreign policy experts like Tillis, but his stance on international politics is perfectly aligned with Trump's "America First" movement.

"What defines America First policy is something that is in the direct interest of the American citizenry," said Joshua Trevino, senior fellow in the Western Hemisphere Initiative at the America First Policy Institute.

"We are facing a changing situation in the world, and the institutions, practices and reflexes that were refined and very successful in the past are no longer so," he said.

"And the Trump administration is now trying to fix that."

For Miller, and for Trump, this means using raw American military, political, and economic power to advance domestic priorities such as immigration, crime, drug trafficking, and trade.

They cite Latin America as the source of much of the fentanyl and other dangerous drugs that have led to the deaths of citizens in the United States and claim that "narco-terrorists" have contributed to violent crime in American cities.

They also accuse Canada of exploiting trade imbalances with the US to boost its own economy.

Their global worldview also implies positioning America on the world stage as a defender of certain cultural and political values - the protector of "Western civilization," as Miller describes it.

"Our lineage and our legacy trace their roots to Athens, to Rome, to Philadelphia, to Monticello," He said Miller at a memorial service for murdered right-wing activist Charlie Kirk in September last year.

"Our ancestors built cities. They produced art and architecture. They built industry. We stand for what is good, what is moral, and what is noble."

It's a sentiment Trump has personally expressed during his time in the White House, "having the courage to preserve our civilization from those who would distort and destroy it," the president said in a 2017 speech in Poland.

By presenting the roles as an existential crisis, Trump and Miller can advocate solutions that would otherwise seem extreme or unnecessary.

When the clock strikes twelve for Trump

Drug trafficking experts might point out that attacks on Venezuelan ships do little to stop the flow of fentanyl, which mostly arrives across the U.S. border from Mexico.

Others might refute claims that Latin American migrants are more prone to crime or mental illness.

They could cite figures that show that US-Canadian trade is mutually beneficial.

But if the goal is to preserve culture, then any steps to isolate America from foreign influences through immigration or trade could be justified in their view.

It also, however, exposed Mueller and Trump to accusations of racism and ethno-nationalism.

"Stephen Mueller is a central figure in shaping the goals of the Trump administration," the liberal group Common Cause wrote in a 2025 blog post.

"From enabling state violence against immigrant families to promoting white nationalist rhetoric in government, his career is a warning of what happens when chauvinism gains institutional power."

Despite all the controversy Mueller has generated, however, his connection to Trump is why his position in the president's inner circle still seems secure.

"I say to my colleagues who believe they can convince Donald Trump that Stephen Mueller is bad for him, good luck with that," Lindsey Graham, a senator from South Carolina, said last week.

"When the clock strikes the end of the Trump era, there will be very few people who will walk out the door with him."

"Stephen Miller will be in that group."

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