Donald Trump is set to announce top immigration adviser Stephen Miller as his new White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy.
Miller will return with more influence than he had in the first Trump administration, where he served as a senior adviser for policy, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
Since the role is not a Cabinet position, it would not require Senate confirmation.
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Miller developed a reputation as an immigration hard-liner who promoted white nationalist ideas. He was a key architect behind the family separation policy at the border, continuing to defend the practice even after it received backlash. One report cited an “outside White House adviser” as saying that Miller “actually enjoys seeing those pictures” of families being separated at the border.
“It was a simple decision by the administration to have a zero-tolerance policy for illegal entry, period,” Miller told The New York Times in 2018. “The message is that no one is exempt from immigration law.”
Miller also helped shape the Trump administration‘s Muslim ban and authored the former president’s inaugural address. That speech painted a dark picture of “American carnage” that the former president planned to reverse.
During the first Trump administration, the Southern Poverty Law Center released emails predating Trump’s presidency in which Miller promoted white nationalist theories about people of color displacing white Americans. More than one hundred Democratic members of Congress called for his resignation soon after the emails became public.
Miller has continued to be the subject of controversy in the years since his time in the administration. A 2023 book from a Miles Taylor, the former Trump administration official who became known as Anonymous, described how Miller allegedly advocated using drones to bomb migrants en route to the United States. According to the book, the head of the Coast Guard told Miller the move would violate international law, but Miller continued to push for the move. His spokesperson said the anecdote was false, and the Coast Guard chief said he did not remember it occurring.
Miller has stayed involved in Trump’s orbit throughout the 2024 presidential campaign. His nonprofit, America First Legal, has been central to plans to focus the government’s civil rights initiatives on “anti-white” racism, Axios reported. He has promised to achieve a 100 percent deportation rate at the border and to use the military to do so. He has also expressed support for mass detention camps.
Last month, Miller spoke at Trump’s mega rally at Madison Square Garden, where he talked about “the decades of abuse that has been heaped upon the good people of this nation” due in part to “illegal aliens.”
His reported appointment emphasizes the focus a second Trump administration will place on border security, a topic the former president raised with high-stakes language nearly every time he spoke to the public. Trump promised to end the “occupation” of America by undocumented immigrants and to crack down on violent crime committed by migrants.
So far, he seems set to rely on trusted aides to make his vision reality. Trump has already announced that Tom Homan, his former acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, will serve as his “border czar.” His campaign co-chair, Susie Wiles, will be White House chief of staff.
Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt did not confirm the news about Miller’s role in the next Trump administration to CNN, saying only, “President-elect Trump will begin making decisions on who will serve in his second administration soon. Those decisions will be announced when they are made.”
However, vice president-elect JD Vance quickly indicated his support for the decision, effectively confirming the report and aligning himself with Miller.
“This is another fantastic pick by the president,” Vance posted on X.
