Washington. Trump's first consequence of the Republicans' devastating election debacle was completely different than many in the Republican Party would have wanted: He promoted the previous White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller to chief of staff - and in return fired Susie Wiles, who was seen as an orderly, more moderate force in the second Trump administration.
Miller is the architect of Trump's controversial immigration policies - policies that cost Republicans massive votes in the November 3 election. Miller has been pushing his extreme positions for years with a vehemence and acrimony that The New Yorker magazine once described as an “obsession.”
“The most important issue affecting the future of our country is ending the Third World's mass invasion of America,” he said this summer. Miller promotes the narrative that people immigrate to America solely to take advantage of the American system. He speaks of “millions” of people who came to the USA just to receive financial support. He doesn't provide any evidence for this.
When two American citizens were shot dead on the street by ICE employees in quick succession at the beginning of the year during protests against the massive and merciless actions of the immigration agency ICE, Miller quickly described the victims as “terrorists” and without any evidence of violence on their part.
Miller also repeatedly uses inflammatory tones in the discussion about whether children born in the USA automatically receive American citizenship. Addressing Americans, he said, "Birthright means the children of illegal immigrants can vote to tax your children and confiscate their inheritance."
In the midterm elections, the Democrats not only won the majority in the Senate, but also in the House of Representatives. Trump is therefore dependent on their cooperation, particularly on budget issues in the last two years of his term in office. In addition, the Democrats have already announced that they will open numerous investigations against members of the government.
Against this backdrop, even Republicans saw Miller's promotion as a sign that the next two years will be more confrontational than cooperative.
Thom Tillis, a Republican senator from North Carolina who was defeated by Trump in the midterm primaries, called the decision for Miller a “bad mistake” in an interview with CNN. Not just because US voters - especially Latinos - spoke out against the current border policy.
Miller is also one of the “most politically polarizing personalities in party politics, not only in the relationship between Republicans and Democrats, but even within the Republicans themselves,” said Tillis. “How will someone with such a divisive background as Stephen Miller behave?”
Miller often speaks in an aggressive, irritable tone and uses drastic language, especially when it comes to the Democrats. Speaking to Fox News last summer, he said: "The Democratic Party is not a political party. It is a domestic extremist organization."
He repeatedly described James Talarico, who won the Texas Senate seat for the Democrats in the midterm elections for the first time in decades, as “sick and disturbed” and a “raging madman.”
Miller is one of Trump's longest-standing companions. He already supported his first election campaign in 2016. During Trump's first term in office, he had considerable influence on his tough and controversial migration policy. In 2018, he was one of the architects of the so-called Mulismen Ban, a policy that blanketly barred people from predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States.
Thousands of children, even the smallest ones, were separated from their parents and held in institutions for weeks or months. The conditions in the centers where the children were kept were sometimes catastrophic. After a visit to such a facility in Texas, a group of lawyers criticized that there was a great risk of serious health and psychological harm to children in these accommodations. The children do not have adequate adult care, there is not enough food and there is a lack of basic hygiene items such as soap and toothpaste.
Miller's comment on the practice in an interview with The New York Times at the time: "It was a simple decision by the administration to pursue a zero-tolerance policy toward illegal entry, period. The message is: No one is exempt from immigration law."
Miller's main topic is immigration policy, but he also occasionally intervenes in foreign policy. He spoke out in favor of the annexation of Greenland and did not rule out a US military invasion. “No one will go to war militarily against the United States over the future of Greenland,” he said.
The design of Miller's Miller, man of power, on par with two of the most powerful leaders in the world.
