Washington: You regularly see Stephen Miller around Washington. Not in the flesh, mostly, but on posters stapled to walls by left-wing activists, or on cardboard signs carried by protesters at the city’s many anti-Trump rallies.
He is frequently described as a fascist or drawn as a Nazi, even though he and his wife, Katie, are Jewish. Upon his appointment as the president’s chief of staff on Friday, one-time White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci labelled him “little Himmler”, a reference to Holocaust architect Heinrich Himmler.
For many who oppose this administration there is no more loathed figure than Miller. He is seen as far more sinister than Donald Trump; much more of an ideologue, sometimes acting as a shadow president, willing his boss towards more extreme positions on immigration in particular.
Even among Republicans and inside the administration there is trepidation about Miller. While he is regarded as whip-smart, capable and exacting, he is also known as a dogmatic zealot and provocateur, sometimes scarily so.
Last October, at a news conference on crime, Trump jokingly suggested Miller’s real views might not be fit for public consumption.
“I love watching him on television,” the president said. “I’d love to have him come up and explain his true feelings. Maybe not his truest feelings. That might be going a little bit too far … But the people of this country love you and they love what you say about crime and stopping crime.”
Now Trump has appointed a man he thinks is a bit of an extremist to the most powerful job in the White House, other than his own.
The move, three days after the Republicans suffered generational defeats at the midterm elections, can only be seen as one of defiance as Trump moves into siege mentality for the coming two years.
Miller is on the Democrats’ target list for when they begin congressional investigations into Trump’s decisions and personal enrichment. “This unfortunate promotion won’t shield Miller from congressional oversight,” Zoe Lofgren, a Democratic congresswoman, said on Friday.
Steve Bannon, the former Trump strategist who remains a prominent MAGA influencer, has said on his TV show and podcast all week that the midterm election results must put the White House on a war footing.
Bannon views the MAGA project as an existential fight for the future of America, and speaks about it in militant terms. His show is even called War Room .
Miller was a “a MAGA warrior”, Bannon said, and by elevating him to chief of staff, Trump was rejecting calls to kowtow to the Republican establishment, “as Susie Wiles wanted to”.
“This is an F.U. to the Republican establishment,” Bannon said. “These people [Democrats] mean full-on political warfare for President Trump. Full-on. And anybody who doesn’t get that, anybody who doesn’t understand we’re at war, is missing the plot point.”
Miller, 41, will be a bomb thrower. He will urge defiance and combat over co-operation or conciliation. Trump’s public remarks since the midterm election have emphasised working with Democrats in Congress but privately he has told aides to “use the nuclear option” to get his agenda through. Miller is the man for that job.
For those wondering whether the final two years of Trump would be more “lame duck” or “raging bull”, Miller’s appointment seems to confirm it will be the latter.
And it must be noted that, with Wiles’ departure, the administration’s list of disappearing women continues to expand.
From Pam Bondi (the former attorney-general) to Kristi Noem, Tulsi Gabbard, Lori Chavez-DeRemer (who was secretary of labour), Kimberley Guilfoyle and even the short-lived (as press secretary) Katie Zacharia , women are much more likely to be forced out of the Trump administration than men.
By contrast, FBI director Kash Patel has survived multiple scandals and bad headlines, while Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth continues in the role for now (though there is mounting speculation about his future).
Hegseth is said to be eyeing a seat in the US Senate for the state of Tennessee. But the former Fox News host loves to enthuse about the “warrior ethos”, brute strength, testosterone, standing and fighting, vanquishing enemies.
He’d be a perfect fit for a White House that now sees itself at war.
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