One of President Donald Trump's top advisers is essentially running the government, according to a Washington, D.C., insider.
Axios co-founder Jim VandeHei told MS NOW's "Morning Joe" that the administration's strikingly aggressive shift in foreign policy – an invasion of Venezuela and the capture of its leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife and threats to take control of Greenland – reflect the outsized influence of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.
"I think Stephen Miller is amuch closer approximation towhat Donald Trump thinks rightnow than Marco Rubio is," VandeHei said. "Iagree that there's not anycoherent plan for how they'regoing to govern Venezuela nowthat they've toppled the regime.I'm not surprised they were ableto topple the regime as easilyas they could. We have amilitary that's bigger than thenext 10 combined. We have anawesome Special Forces Delta, others who have done this typeof work with great precision inthe past. But if you reallywant to understand Trump andyou want to understand kind ofhow he's thinking about theworld, listen to Stephen Miller."
"I think the president has beenvery clear over the last coupleof years that he doesn't agreewith the way most people lookat the global map," VandeHei added. "He thinksthat people are ruthless,people are selfish, and thatpower is what rules. I thinkhe's comfortable with a worldwhere there's different spheresof influence, where China hasits chunk, Russia has its chunk,and we have ours, which is thishemisphere."
Trump views natural resources as the vehicle to improve the nation's wealth, and he seems to view acquisition of new territories as the best way to achieve that aim.
"I don't think oil isas valuable as it was fiveyears ago, because there's justmore efficient energy and amore diverse set of energysources," VandeHei said. "He does seem to thinkthat oil matters a ton, but ifyou look at what's in Venezuela,if you look at what's in Greenland, if you look atwhat's in Canada, if you goback to the way that he talkedabout Canada earlier, about ayear ago, it is a lot of theminerals and a lot of thecomponents that you need to winan AI war, which willultimately probably decide whorules the world 10 to 20 yearsfrom now. So that would be theglobal way that they're lookingat this."
"Nobody should besurprised that that we went inand we don't have some kind ofcoherent plan, and now thatthere's factions trying toshape it, that's how it'splayed out with every singlemajor act by this president," he continued. "Wedo something big, he does itsomewhat. A lot of peopleinternally feel like a littleimpulsively sometimes, but hedoes it instinctively. Theytrust his instincts, and thenthey build a coherent or try tobuild a coherent policy aroundit."
"Marco Rubio's job is tomake people feel better, tomake other nations feel likewe're not trying to take overthe world, make Republicansenators feel like, hey, we'renot just going to do crazythings, and it's Stephen Miller's job as kind of the themob boss of the White House," VandeHei added. "The guy is the tough guy, he'sthe guy who got them to go evenharder line than Trump himselfwanted to go on immigration. Heunderstands power now. Heunderstands the power void.He knows if hepushes as hard as he is, likehe did in that CNN interview,he can move the balance ofpower closer to his worldview, and don't underestimate hispower internally. He's by farand away the most powerfulstaffer in this administration – not close."