All posts tagged "stephen miller"

'This is vile!' House GOP melts down after Dem lawmaker compares Trump official to Nazis

Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee melted down Sunday in defense of a top White House official, who Rep. Illhan Omar (D-MN) compared to “Nazis” earlier on CBS News.

Omar was asked to comment on a recent social media post made by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller in which he warned that “migrants and their descendants recreate the conditions, and terrors, of their broken homelands.”

“When I think about Stephen Miller and his white supremacist rhetoric, it reminds me of the way the Nazis described Jewish people in Germany,” Omar said.

Her comments, a video of which was shared on social media, quickly drew the attention of the official X account for the House Judiciary Committee’s GOP coalition

“Stephen Miller is Jewish,” reads the post from the House Judiciary Committee’s GOP coalition. “This is vile.”

Miller has made a number of other controversial statements that critics have labeled as racist or xenophobic, with a resolution even being filed in Congress labeling Miller as a “white nationalist.”

Miller’s wife, Katie Miller, has leaned into her Jewish faith when deflecting criticism of her husband, perhaps most notably during an explosive recent appearance on journalist Piers Morgan’s show.

During the episode, political commentator Cenk Uygur criticized Miller, saying that it was “very normal for a Miller to be completely and utterly lying.” Katie Miller immediately conflated being called a liar with an antisemitic attack, calling it “racist bigoted rhetoric."

After Uygur called Katie Miller a “weirdo” for invoking her children and her Jewish faith, which he argued had no relevance to his criticism, Katie Miller subtly threatened to have Uygur – a naturalized U.S. citizen from Turkey – deported.

Stephen Miller is Jewish. This is vile. https://t.co/Hv1VwsdSUW
— House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) December 7, 2025

Stephen Miller bashed for pushing restrictions that 'are no longer on the books'

A law professor bashed Stephen Miller for pushing discriminatory immigration restrictions in America that have long been gone.

Miller, the Trump administration's immigrant policy architect and Homeland Security Advisor, has tried to revive "nationality-based discrimination" policies that formally embarrassed the United States, Amanda Frost, a University of Virginia law professor who specializes in immigration law, wrote in an opinion piece for The New York Times published Friday.

The Trump administration announced that it has "indefinitely" stopped immigration policies for all Afghan nationals after a Nov. 26 National Guard shooting involving an Afghan suspect who shot two troops — one fatally — in Washington, D.C.

Frost slammed Miller's harsh immigration policy and described how it harkened to the "nativist fervor culminated in 1924 with the Immigration Act," which aimed to try and slow down immigration from countries that were deemed "undesirable." It capped immigration to make it 2% of the nationality's population in the U.S. in 1890.

"It proved impossible to unwind Americans’ tangled ancestry, but no matter. The law was used to justify giving the majority of visas to Northern and Western Europeans, while strictly limiting immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe — a change celebrated by the Ku Klux Klan for keeping out Catholics and Jews. The door remained almost entirely closed to people from Asia and Africa," Frost wrote.

Miller has appeared to make a similar move in his response to immigration.

"Mr. Miller and others in the Trump administration do not appear to know that those 1924 immigration restrictions are no longer on the books. Abolishing national origin discrimination was a sea change in law that stands alongside the Voting Rights Act as one of our most important pieces of civil rights legislation," Frost explained. "That 1965 law allocated visas based primarily on family reunification and an applicant’s ability to contribute to the labor market. Every immigrant is individually vetted, and immigration is capped worldwide, but no longer are any nationalities automatically restricted."

The writer argued that the suspect should be investigated and punished if he is found guilty of the attack.

"But collective punishment is just the sort of bigotry that the nation rejected decades ago," Frost added.

"It’s also likely to be illegal. As the Supreme Court explained when upholding Mr. Trump’s first travel ban back in 2018, the president has statutory authority to suspend entry into the United States based on national origin, at least for some period of time. But that does not permit him to deny visas, cancel green cards or denaturalize immigrants based on nothing more than their country of origin," Frost wrote.

‘Not an accident’: Stephen Miller uses Guard shooting for grim immigration regime shift

President Donald Trump has announced a dramatic shift in his immigration policy — something White House adviser Stephen Miller has reportedly been pushing for behind the scenes.

The move follows the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington D.C. Wednesday and is part of a long-term strategy for Miller, who has long voiced he wanted a more aggressive approach to immigration and increased deportations, Tamara Keith, NPR White House Correspondent, said on CNN Friday.

"This is very much in line with the way that the president and people in his administration, people like Stephen Miller, have been talking about immigration. President Trump in his remarks on Wednesday night brought up Somalia. That is not an accident. That is something that the president has been focused on recently and that he is emphasizing," Keith said.

"You look at refugee policies where the White House wants to bring in white people from South Africa, who they say are being persecuted. They don't want to bring in other refugees. The refugee program has been severely restricted under the Trump administration already," Keith added.

As Trump's approval rating has sunk, his administration has shifted their attention to immigration.

"In a lot of ways, this is a terrible event that has given them a sort of a peg, to do the things they were already doing or wanted to do," Keith said. "And it does come at a time when the president's approval rating is in a really bad place, including on immigration, but this is a realm of immigration that he has had more traction than some of the other areas."

Trump on Thursday made the announcement that he had ordered U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement to review every Green Card holder “from every country of concern,” a list of 19 countries his administration named in June.

Those 19 countries include Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

‘Everyone is being screamed at’: Insiders say Stephen Miller irate as deportations lagging

Insiders are saying the Department of Homeland Security's ICE hiring is in "chaos" and Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller is reportedly angry over "lagging" deportation numbers.

A DHS source told The Daily Beast on Monday that President Donald Trump's push to "throw money around" while "panic at the top of government” has unfolded with Miller's disappointment over agents not reaching Trump's goal of 3,000 deportations per day.

“There are calls with Miller, where everyone is being screamed at,” the official told The Beast. “The targets he is setting for them are ridiculous, and it is a case of them just spending any money they can to increase the number of officers and deportations.”

Hiring within the agency has also presented other problems — agents joining before badges, system access or guns are available. Some say the money offer is luring veteran agents back and "insiders claim that the crash program has led to disorder, with some veteran agents performing minimal work for substantial pay and ballooning costs."

Former executive-level leaders from HSI and Enforcement and Removal Operations have returned to the agency, "some of them taking home north of $250,000 for office-based shiftwork, per multiple sources who spoke to the Beast," the outlet reports.

“It has just been going so fast that the process is messed up. It has been chaotic to handle. Make no mistake, it is a s--tshow right now," one HSI veteran told The Beast.

Kristi Noem, Secretary of Homeland Security, has claimed that many of the new agents would be law enforcement returnees.

However, according to several insiders, several former senior employees have returned to the federal pay scale.

"With locality pay in high-cost areas—such as parts of Texas, California, and New York—adding 35 percent or more to a basic salary, agents can earn up to $137,000 in the majority of the country. This rises to $171,268 in more expensive parts of the country, such as San Jose and San Francisco," The Beast reports.

Sources say that overtime pay has also added to the high paychecks, in addition to "ongoing federal pensions worth around $8,000–$9,000 a month, and some rehires can land well in excess of a quarter of a million annually."

Trump official accuses judge of supporting doxing of Stephen Miller in panicked meltdown

A senior White House official is accusing a federal judge of supporting the doxing of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, lashing out at the judge with comments made to Axios, the outlet reported Friday.

Barbara Wien, an activist and professor at American University in Washington, D.C., was targeted by the Justice Department this week after she allegedly posted a flyer that included Miller’s likeness, the phrase “NO NAZIS IN NOVA,” and Miller’s home address. The DOJ pushed for courts to approve its petition for a warrant to seize Wien’s phone, but were rejected late Wednesday night by Magistrate Judge Lindsey Vaala.

Wien, who’s not been charged with a crime, has maintained her innocence through her attorney, and the Trump administration has turned its sights on Vaala.

"The position of the judge and the justice system in Northern Virginia is, Stephen Miller deserves this, so it shouldn't be investigated," said a senior Trump official, speaking with Axios on the condition of anonymity in the outlet’s report Friday. "This is just about gathering evidence to see if there should be an arrest. And the judges are blocking it."

Another White House official railed against the criminal justice system over Vaala’s denial of the DOJ’s warrant request, and despite the White House having wielded enormous influence over the criminal justice system during President Donald Trump’s second term in office.

"A lot of administration officials feel it's a problem that you have to live in Virginia or D.C. or Maryland,” a White House official told Axios, also speaking on the condition of anonymity. “But the criminal justice system will not protect you and your family.”

According to Wien’s attorney, Bradley Haywood, law enforcement has already taken his client’s phone, and are now hoping to have a judge approve their request to search through it. Haywood called the seizure of Wien’s phone as unlawful, and accused the DOJ of violating his client’s “protected speech.”

"No charges have been brought,” Haywood told Axios. “No subsequent search warrants have been sought or been issued. State police are unlawfully holding this property."

'If you interrupt me': Judge snaps at DHS lawyer over Stephen Miller's secret orders

A judge humiliated a Department of Homeland Security lawyer, saying "If you interrupt me one more time..." after he tried to shut down the judge's questions about Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller's involvement in ICE operations and secret commands he may have handed Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino, according to reports Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis got testy with Justice Department attorney Sarmad Khojasteh last week in the case examining use of force by immigration agents in ICE's "Operation Midway Blitz," according to court records obtained by The Chicago Tribune.

"If you interrupt me one more time… It’s enough. It’s enough," said Ellis, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama.

She ruled that specific questions about Miller's communications with Bovino were fair if it was connected to the field directives for agents and the use of force.

Ellis also called out Khojasteh, who apologized for being new at the trial, and expressed her annoyance.

“This is the problem when... we’ve got a revolving door of attorneys and they haven’t been here for the entire thing,” Ellis said to Khojasteh. “They haven’t sat through people’s testimony, they haven’t sat through these hearings, and so now I’m having to explain myself multiple times. And I find it at this point extremely frustrating and a waste of time.”

Miller, President Donald Trump's right hand and policy Chief of Staff, "is widely seen as the architect of the administration’s hard-line deportation tactics, and was behind its reported target of 3,000 daily immigration arrests," The Daily Beast reports.

In Bovino's deposition, Ellis questioned Miller's influence on aggressive immigration policies as Khojasteh reportedly cut her off multiple times during the questioning.

“For example, questions about communications with Mr. Miller may be perfectly within bounds if they talked about, ‘This is how I want this operation to go,’” Ellis said.

“If Mr. Miller said that to Mr. Bovino and that was in Mr. Bovino’s mind as to justify the force being used, they can ask about that,” she said.

Ellis said that as Bovino led the charge to push immigration arrests — his actions and the ones who ordered them were also subject to questioning — referring to “what he is telling agents and officers is the appropriate use of force out in the field.”

An injunction hearing slated for Wednesday is expected to determine more permanent limits on force from ICE agents.

'Nazi streak, broken': Insider says Trump official got a 'rare win' against Stephen Miller

Stephen Miller just got a rare loss, according to conservative strategist Rick Wilson, who cited an insider.

Former GOP strategist Wilson, who recently said he might depose Trump in a lawsuit and force the president to explain his ties to the deceased child sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein, on Friday wrote about a "Nazi streak" being "broken."

Specifically, Wilson was talking about Paul Ingrassia, Trump's controversial pick to lead the Office of Special Counsel who withdrew from consideration after a series of bombshell scandals that rendered Republican senators unwilling to advance his nomination.

In celebration, Wilson wrote, "Nazi Streak, Broken."

"Take the win: Paul Ingrassia, the egregious Nazi streak s---bird Trump nominated to serve as the head of the Office of Special Counsel, has withdrawn his nomination," Wilson wrote on Friday.

He added, "An insider tells me this was a rare win for Susie Wiles vs. Stephen Miller inside the White House, and that she was the architect of Senate Majority Leader John Thune and other GOP Senators publicly denouncing Ingrassia."

Read the Substack piece here.

Trump's henchmen revealed: mapping the powerful network that really rules America

A formal organization chart of the Trump regime would show Trump on top, his Cabinet officers arrayed underneath him, the White House staff below them, and an assortment of lower-level appointees at the bottom.

The reality is far different.

Today I want to give you what might be described as a power map of the regime — where power really lies and who really reports to whom.

At the top center of the map is the troika of Stephen Miller, Russell Vought, and JD Vance. Their joint goal appears to be to destroy American democracy.

Their power comes from their knowledge, tenacity, connections, and fanaticism — and from Trump’s apparent willingness to sign off on whatever they want to do.

Stephen Miller wants to return America to the 1950s, when it was dominated by white, straight, Christian men whose ancestors were born here. Miller is pushing for high tariffs, managing the ICE raids on Democrat-run cities, summoning National Guard and federal troops, and seeking to provoke enough violence to justify invocation of the Insurrection Act.
Russell Vought wants to create an all-powerful executive branch dictatorship, usurping the roles of the other branches. Vought has illegally impounded over $410 billion so far. During the shutdown, he has frozen nearly $28 billion for more than 200 projects mostly in Democrat-led cities and congressional districts, has fired thousands of federal employees, and is threatening not to provide back pay to furloughed federal employees.
JD Vance wants to prevent the Democrats from taking control of one or both chambers of Congress in the 2026 midterms and become president after Trump. He’s urging Republican states to engage in more gerrymandering to eke out more Republican House seats, managing the legal assault on the Voting Rights Act and mail-in voting, and pushing universities and the media to the right.

A fourth person also near the center of the regime’s power structure is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose tenacity and fanaticism are doing incomparable damage to America’s system of health care, health research, and public health. He’s got a lot of power but organizationally is out of the loop.

Second tier

Under Miller are Kristi Noem, secretary of homeland security; Howard Lutnick, secretary of commerce; and Pete Hegseth, secretary of defense (or war).

Under Vought are Scott Bessent, secretary of the treasury, and what remains of Musk’s DOGE.

Under Vance are Pam Bondi, attorney general; Kash Patel, director of the FBI; Linda McMahon, secretary of education; and Marco Rubio, secretary of state.

Under RFK Jr. is a vast (and increasingly dysfunctional) public health system including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.

Third tier

Beneath the second tier is a ragtag collection of ambitious bottom-feeders and misfits who are trying to rise through the muck.

For example: William Pulte, who, in his capacity as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has come up with flimsy evidence of mortgage fraud allegedly committed by people Trump wants to harm, such as New York State Attorney General Letitia James, California Senator Adam Schiff, and Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. Pulte reports to Bondi and Miller.

There’s also Peter Navarro, the fanatical trade isolationist and anti-China hand who in the first Trump regime publicly advocated hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19 and condemned public health measures that aimed to stop the virus’s spread. After refusing to tell Congress what he knew about Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, Navarro was convicted of contempt of Congress and spent four months in prison. Navarro reports to Lutnick and Miller.

Tom Homan, the so-called “border czar,” who accepted a bag of $50,000 in an FBI sting operation (the investigation has been dropped by Trump’s Justice Department and the FBI).

Heather Honey, a well-known election denier, now heading the Office of Election Integrity.

Where’s Trump?

Depending on the day and the issue, Trump wafts around the power map.

Because he is not a decision-maker and is pursuing little other than power, money, and praise, no one actually reports to him. They listen to him rave, laud him, tell him how wonderful he is and that he’s right about everything, and then report to the people with real power.

Trump will be out in front on an issue that’s likely to get a lot of positive attention, generate him a lot of money, or enlarge his power. Otherwise, he’s off the map, watching television and playing golf.

The fringe

Around the fringe of the power map is a Star Wars cantina of weirdos. Although not officially inside the regime, they exercise power by gaining fleeting access to Trump or to one of the troika.

They include Laura Loomer, Curtis Yarvin, Steve Bannon, Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and various other Fox News personalities whose phone calls Trump will take and who may influence his thinking for a moment but have only indirect influence on what the regime actually does.

The oligarchy

At the top of the power map you’ll see billionaire oligarchs who have extraordinary clout in the Trump regime. In effect, the regime reports to them.

They include:

Peter Thiel, the Silicon Valley entrepreneur who got JD Vance his job. He has a direct pipeline to Vance.
Stephen Schwarzman, the private equity CEO. Schwarzman takes a variety of roles. For example, he’s behind the scenes in the regime’s fight with Harvard and other major institutions.
Bill Ackman, the investor. He, too, influences the troika. He’s the main intermediary between Trump and Elon Musk.
Musk himself still wields significant influence over Miller, Vought, and Vance.
Marc Andreessen, the unofficial godfather of Silicon Valley and co-founder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. He’s heavily invested in artificial intelligence startups and financial technology firms and informally advises the regime.

Also: tech oligarchs Jeff Bezos, Larry Ellison, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, and Tim Cook.

And Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Jared Kushner. As members of the Trump family, they depend on, and are depended on by, the powers within the regime.

What’s in it for the oligarchs?

Money and power. Most basically, the oligarchs don’t trust democracy. Their definition of freedom is the ability to accumulate and retain as much wealth as they wish.

Their deepest fear is that the majority of Americans, if fully informed, would expropriate their fortunes. As Thiel wrote: “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.”

Marc Andreessen’s red line was a proposal that wafted around the Biden administration to tax unrealized capital gains. Others are freaked out by the possibility of a wealth tax on billionaires and multimillionaires.

The oligarchs are not entirely anti-government because they also want government funding for their giant projects, such as AI and the exploration (and exploitation) of space, which require vast amounts of capital and resources.

Hence, their enthusiasm for the defense industry, Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds, and Chinese technology and the Chinese market.

***

No one in the Trump regime reports directly to these oligarchs. Instead, those with power inside the regime keep a keen eye on the oligarchs — courting them, seeking their approval, wanting their connections, using their power, pocketing their money, and channeling their influence.

The oligarchs know their decisions can make or break Trump. They likewise depend on the regime. Power in the Trump regime is a function of such mutual dependence.

Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/.
Robert Reich's new memoir, Coming Up Short, can be found wherever you buy books. You can also support local bookstores nationally by ordering the book at bookshop.org.

America faces a 'Weekend at Bernie's' situation with declining Trump: ex-GOP lawmaker

A former House Republican warned Friday that President Donald Trump's cognitive decline reveals "the most dangerous reality" as the president expresses concerns about his own mortality while his "powerful advisers pursue their own agendas" — and that the United States could end up with a "Weekend at Bernie's president."

Former Republican lawmaker and Air National Guard member Adam Kinzinger questioned when this apparent cognitive decline could worsen and what those around him plan to do in a Substack essay.

"The question here is, is this an act, is he really losing his mind, is it both?" Kinzinger said in a Substack video.

"You don't know anymore what's an act, what's real, but I mean, it feels like he's even descended since the beginning of his term," Kinzinger said. "Three years left of this and that's the question so when he does, let's say he does hit a point where he's completely out of it, would there be anybody that had the courage to do the 25th Amendment, so you may ultimately end up with a 'Weekend at Bernie's' president... I just think it's something we need to look at, consider, and think about, having an insane president — I think we have an insane president — but having an insane president that actually can't think because he's lost it."

Kinzinger details the president's most recent comments about heaven.

"How do we know he’s worried? Recently, he’s started talking about his own mortality," Kinzinger writes. "'I want to try and get to heaven, if possible,' he said. 'I’m hearing I’m not doing well. I’m really at the bottom of the totem pole.' On another occasion: 'I don’t think there’s anything going to get me in heaven. I really don’t. I think I’m not maybe heaven-bound.' He’s also begun warning that one day he’ll fall down — the same kind of stumble he once mocked Biden for."

The president might say he's fine, but he actually isn't, said Kinzinger.

" Trump shows visible signs of age-related circulatory issues known as venous insufficiency, which causes swelling in the ankles and bruising on the hands. For a man who’s long claimed to be immune to aging, the visible evidence must be unsettling," Kinzinger wrote.

Trump might be signaling he's aware of what's happening, while he falls deeper into QAnon and conspiratorial territory, including his recent Truth Social post with a fake "med bed."

"These references to heaven and falling suggest an awareness of his own fragility," Kinzinger writes. "The physical decline may not be as worrying as the mental one. His father, Fred Trump Sr., displayed clear signs of dementia years before being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease — and heredity is a known risk factor. Preventing or slowing such decline requires habits Trump has always resisted: a healthy diet, exercise, and humility."

It also raises questions about the people around him — and how vicious they could be, he adds.

"What does it mean to have a president in visible decline? It means we must watch carefully and hope those around him are competent. In the case of the Israeli–Hamas peace effort, skilled negotiators from the U.S. and abroad did the heavy lifting while Trump played a ceremonial role. A similar pattern is unfolding domestically, where powerful advisers pursue their own agendas." Kinzinger wrote. "Stephen Miller drives the crackdown on immigrants and the push to use the National Guard. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is leading the assault on public health. Russell Vought is overseeing the mass firing of thousands of federal workers."

It's unclear what those around him will ultimately do.

"The truth is, what Donald Trump says matters less than what those behind him do. And that may be the most dangerous reality of all," Kinzinger argues.

Stephen Miller selling home after fleeing amid peaceful chalk messages on sidewalk

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen and his podcaster wife, Katie Miller, have fled their Arlington home after peaceful chalk messages were left on the sidewalk.

According to ARLnow, the Millers recently listed the 6,000-square-foot house for $3.75 million. It sold in 2023 for $2.875 million.

In recent months, activists have left messages in chalk on the sidewalk, including "Stephen Miller is destroying democracy," "stop the kidnapping," "hate has no home in Arlington," and "no white nationalism."

Katie Miller responded to the messages on social media: "To the 'Tolerant Left' who spent their day trying to intimidate us in the house where we have three young children: We will not back down. We will not cower in fear. We will double down. Always, For Charlie."

Stephen Miller described the chalk protests as "terroristic threats" on The Sean Hannity Show.

Neighbors spotted the Millers moving out several weeks ago. The home was placed on the market on Oct. 7.

A listing for the home described it as "luxury living at its finest," featuring six bedrooms, 6.5 baths, and "comprehensive security."