Trump says he will not call on Ohio Rep. Max Miller to step down amid abuse allegations

President Donald Trump told reporters that he will not call on Ohio Rep. Max Miller to step down after accusations that the congressman abused his ex-wife, the daughter of fellow Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno, also of the Buckeye State.

Trump addressed reporters in the Oval Office on Monday, the day after Miller announced he would stay in the race for re-election to Ohio’s 7th congressional district.

Miller worked in the first Trump administration and Trump has backed him previously.

“It’s a very sad thing, I know Max, he’s a good person,” he said. “I always thought he was a good person. And I’m going to let the families figure that out.”

Trump said Sunday on Air Force One that he had just learned about the allegations against Miller by his ex-wife, Emily Moreno.

“So far it's accusations,” he said. “I’ll be looking at it.

The deadline to remove Miller from the ballot is Wednesday and some Republicans fear that Miller could cost them the seat.

Emily Moreno and her attorney have accused Miller of allegedly holding a gun to her head, pouring hot or scalding water on her and potentially abusing her and possibly breaking their daughter’s collarbone.

Miller, who was elected to Congress in 2022, vehemently denied the allegations in livestream on X on Sunday.

“No court or agency has even substantiated any allegation against me,” he said. “Every single one of these allegations were already investigated.”

In response, he also posted a dropbox containing files related to the divorce case.

“Defendants engaged in a defamatory campaign against Plaintiff to malign his character, undermine his odds at re-election to Congress and falsely portray him as a violent and abusive father and husband,” Miller’s attorneys wrote in a filing against Emily Moreno.

Bernie Moreno, the Republican senator first elected in 2024, spoke out shortly thereafter criticizing Miller, calling him a “danger.”

“If there are any basic standards of character required to hold elected office, Max Miller fails them. He should not serve in the House of Representatives,” he said.

“I believe Max Miller needs to seek professional help to end the clear pattern of abuse he has left in his wake. I believe he should not be free to continue endangering others until he does.”

Up until this point, Bernie Moreno had remained quiet about the divorce and abuse allegations. Emily Moreno works as the deputy director for state action at the pro-Trump America First Policy Institute.

The allegations by Emily Moreno are not the only allegations of abuse against Miller. Former White House aide Stephanie Grisham also accused him of abuse in an op-ed for The Washington Post. Grisham did not directly name Miller, but she sued him after the accusation.

Last month, House Speaker Mike Johnson told The Independent that he wanted to let the investigations play out when it came to Miller and Rep. Cory Mills of Florida, who faces an Ethics Committee investigation into whether he “engaged in misconduct with respect to allegations of sexual misconduct and/or dating violence.”

“The the key word there is allegation,” he told The Independent. “We have a process here. The House Ethics Committee works on those things.”