Trump taps Stephen Miller for top White House policy job
Stephen Miller, who served as a top adviser during the first Trump administration, will return to the White House in January to serve in a top policy job, multiple officials confirmed Monday.
President-elect Trump has chosen Miller to serve as deputy chief of staff for policy. Miller is expected to take on a leading role implementing Trump’s immigration agenda, which includes plans for mass deportations of immigrants without legal status.
“This is another fantastic pick by the president,” Vice President-elect JD Vance posted on the social platform X.
The Trump transition team did not respond to a request for comment. CNN first reported on Trump’s plans to appoint Miller to the role.
Miller was the architect of some of Trump’s first-term immigration policies, including family separation and an order to ban travel into the U.S. from several majority-Muslim countries.
He will work alongside Susie Wiles, whom Trump last week named as his chief of staff.
During the Biden administration, Miller led America First Legal, an organization that launched dozens of lawsuits against Democratic policies.
Miller became a more regular presence on the campaign trail closer to Election Day, speaking at Trump rallies about the need to deport immigrants in the country illegally and crack down on the number of migrants coming into the country.
Much of Trump’s Day 1 agenda is likely to be focused on cracking down on immigration. Late Sunday, he announced former Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Tom Homan would serve as “border czar” in the new administration.
In addition to carrying out mass deportations, Trump has vowed to sign an executive order “on Day 1” to stop federal agencies from giving automatic U.S. citizenship to the children of immigrants in the country illegally. Such an effort to end birthright citizenship would face certain legal challenges.
The president-elect will also likely resume construction of a wall along the southern border, something the Biden administration halted, and Trump could also look to reimpose policies such as the “Remain in Mexico” program, which forced potential asylum-seekers to stay in Mexico to wait out the results of their cases in U.S. immigration court.
Miller is perhaps the figure from the first Trump administration most associated with his hard-line immigration policies.
Miller worked as a congressional aide for former Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) on immigration issues, and Sessions became an early advocate for Trump in the Senate during his initial White House run.
Sessions became attorney general for Trump, but the two had a falling out after Sessions decided to recuse himself from legal cases about Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
Miller remained a part of Trump’s inner circle, developing relationships with members of Trump’s family while rankling members of the Senate GOP.
This story was updated at 1:02 p.m.
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