Stephen Miller is a high profile figure in the Trump Presidency in the United States. A speechwriter and policy adviser, he is credited as the brain behind some of the administration’s most controversial policies on immigration. Miller’s hard-line, far-right politics has thus made him an unwelcome person among the liberals.
One of the few advisors that have survived the huge turnover at the white house, Miller has been loyal to his boss and has remained consistent and unwavering in aligning with the President’s thought process. An immigration hardliner and brain behind the controversial Muslim ban, Miller is seen within the White House as the man with the President’s ears.
Stephen Miller Worked For Several Conservative Lawmakers Before Joining Donald Trump
Stephen Miller was born on the 23rd of August 1985 in Santa Monica, California. He spent his formative years there and attended Santa Monica High School, graduating in 2002/2003. The future political adviser thereafter attended the prestigious Duke University where he studied Political Science, graduating in the year 2007. Stephen Miller’s journey into politics, especially his brand of far-right politics, was not an afterthought or an accident. He laid the groundwork for his future career when he was still in school.
In high school, he featured on right-wing radio shows and also wrote articles outlining his conservative views on various issues including terrorism. Miller continued his antecedents while in college. He served as the president of his school’s chapter of the David Horowitz Freedom Centre – a foundation renowned for its conservative views. Stephen Miller also rose to the national spotlight for an article he wrote about a rape case that took place in his university. Dubbed the Duke Lacrosse Case, it was a 2006 criminal case in which three members of the Duke University men’s lacrosse team were falsely accused of rape by a female student. Miller’s article defended the accused persons.
Stephen Miller commenced his political career by working as an aide for two congressional members – Michele Bachman (Republican representative for Minnesota) and John Shadegg (Republican representative for Arizona). He spent two years in this role before joining the team of long-term Alabama senator, Jeff Sessions, in 2009. Miller served as Sessions’ policy adviser and communications director and spent nearly seven years with the senator. During this time, he made inputs on various legislative plans including the battle against the bipartisan legislation which would have given illegal migrants a clear path to citizenship.
Stephen Miller then joined the Trump campaign in 2016 as a senior policy adviser. After which, he was then given a formal position in the administration as an adviser following Trump’s election victory. Miller has been credited with writing many of the president’s keynote speeches including Donald Trump’s inaugural speech.
How He Has Influenced Policy In The Trump Administration
Immigration Policy
Miller has been credited with spearheading some of the administration’s most polarizing policies especially a zero-tolerance policy on immigration. He is credited with drafting the policy which sought to restrict U.S. travel and immigration by citizens of seven Muslim countries which included Iran, Libya, Iraq, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen.
Refugee Policy
Stephen Miller was also behind the administration’s decision to reduce the number of refugees accepted into the United States. After an internal study by the Department of Health and Human Services discovered that refugees actually had a positive impact on government earnings, Miller shot down the report stopping it from being published. On his insistence, only the costs of refugees were publicized, the report was deliberately silent on the revenues refugees bring into the US.
Firing Of Kirstjen Nielsen
He was also instrumental to the firing of Secretary of Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielsen. Miller’s grouse with her was her perceived softness on immigration policies. The administration wanted a “tougher” approach on immigration after she had countered Miller’s plan to carry out mass arrests of undocumented immigrant families in 10 major U.S. cities.
The Comey Issue
In the heat of investigations into the Trump Campaigns’ alleged collusion with Russia, Stephen Miller was a key player in the President’s decision to fire FBI director James Comey in May 2017. In a White House that has seen a high turnover in top staff, Millers’ ability to understand his boss’s core messaging and style has turned him into one of the key pieces in the Trump puzzle.
Miller Was Born Into A Jewish Family With Liberal Views
Due to Miller’s strong opposition to immigration, many have often wondered about his own family background. Stephen Miller hails from a Jewish family; his father’s name is Michael D. Miller while his mother’s name is Miriam Miller née Glosser. He was raised in a liberal home but switched his political ideologies after reading a book on gun control.
A further examination of Miller’s family background shows that his mother hails from a family of immigrants. The patriarch of the Glosser family – Wolf Leib Glosser, was originally from the village of Antopol in present-day Belarus. He, however, fled to New York in January 1903 to escape the persecution of Jews by the Russian government. At the time of his arrival in New York, Glosser had only $8 to his name and spoke little or no English. He, therefore, worked hard and paid for his other family members to come over to the United States, one of whom was Izzy Glosser, Miller’s maternal grandfather.
The Glosser family eventually settled down in Johnstown, Pennsylvania and commenced their business – selling things out of a horse-drawn cart. From this humble beginning, the Glossers were able to expand their enterprise to a chain of supermarkets and discount departmental stores.
In recent times Millers’ family members have become increasingly vocal about their opposition to Stephen’s political views. The most publicized has been Miller’s uncle, David S. Glosser, who posted a lengthy comment on the Facebook page of the Pennsylvania newspaper Tribune-Democrats, pushing back on his nephew’s stand on immigration. David S. Glosser’s views were endorsed by other members of the extended family, who replied with harsh criticisms of President Trump’s immigration policies as propagated by Stephen Miller.
