Stephen Miller, White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor, is perhaps the Left’s second most-loathed person in the Trump Administration after the president himself.

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Mr. Miller is an original architect and leading voice in the America First MAGA movement. He is a trusted member of President Trump’s inner circle and a top advisor.

Conservative Views Forged in a Liberal Upbringing

Mr. Miller grew up in Santa Monica, California, as the middle child of a liberal Democrat family. He is 40 years old. Mr. Miller is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent, and his father’s family immigrated to the U.S., fleeing the Jewish persecution of the Russian pogroms and the Holocaust. His mother’s family was staunch FDR stalwarts and New Deal Democrats.

My Miller attended a “progressive” Hebrew School and a Reform Synagogue. He graduated from Santa Monica High School in 2003. Even back then, he was known as a fierce debater and an advocate for conservatism, taking on the liberal viewpoints of his Jewish community.

In high school, he spoke out against the rising anti-Americanism taught in his high school. He lobbied for students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance daily and for English-only education in schools.

He successfully fought to bring conservative author David Horowitz to his school. Afterwards, Mr. Horowitz became a mentor of Mr. Miller’s, saying the then-teen had a “great deal of chutzpah in standing up to hostile teachers and administrators.”

Mr. Miller’s roots in conservatism most likely began in a youthful rebellion against his progressive liberal upbringing and its identity politics. Mr. Horowitz says of him, “You learn a certain style of politics when you’re on the left, and if you take it over into the right, it comes out as hardball. Dealing with the ire of his classmates inoculated him early on to the hectoring of political opponents who might name him a racist or a xenophobe.”

Like most Americans, Mr. Miller was greatly impacted by 9/11. He spent weeks researching what happened that day, how it could have happened, and reading countless heartbreaking stories of those who died and the impact on their families. He emerged from his research with strong convictions about the nation’s domestic security priorities.

“Why aren’t our airports, borders, or ports secure? Why are there 3,000,000 people in the United States who have overstayed their visas? Why isn’t the murder of 3,000 people enough to shake us out of our apathy?” he wrote. “Maybe, if more people researched the true story of Sept. 11, in all its horror, it won’t take another attack, and more untold devastation, to motivate us to fix the perilous status quo.”

Mr. Miller’s conservative values couldn’t be more at odds with those of the progressive, “inclusive” Santa Monica and his family.

His Proudest Moment

Mr. Miller attended Duke University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in political science in 2007. While there, he wrote a conservative column for the student newspaper, The Chronicle, called ‘Miller Time’, and was executive director of the Duke Conservative Union.

In the fall of his senior year, he made a national name for himself by fiercely defending in his column the white Duke Lacrosse players accused of raping a black woman working in the sex industry. While the liberal media excoriated the players, the charges were later proved false. Mr. Miller calls this “his proudest moment” at Duke.

In 2020, he married his wife Katie, who worked as special assistant to President Trump and press secretary to Vice-President Mike Pence. President Trump attended the wedding. She worked as an aide to Elon Musk in the Department of Government Efficiency and left when Mr. Musk did. Today, Mrs. Miller is an influential podcaster hosting her own show. The couple has three children and is expecting their fourth child.

In 2025, the Miller family was forced to move to secure military housing from their home in Arlington, Virginia, due to death threats, doxxing, and harassment from their neighbors.

His Political Career

After Duke, Mr. Miller went to work for Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota as her press secretary. In 2009, he went to work for Rep John Shadegg of Arizona and participated in the Tea Party protests against President Obama.

He also worked with Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama as his Communications Director and helped defeat the bipartisan Gang of Eight immigration reform bill in 2014. While working for Sen. Sessions, Mr. Miller authored the Immigration Handbook for the New Republican Majority. Mr. Miller considered the defeat of the Gang of Eight’s bill as the first step towards fixing the nation’s “porous, undermanned, politically-correct domestic security” system.

Advisor to the President

In 2016, Miller left Senator Sessions’ office in 2016 to work for Mr. Trump’s successful presidential campaign, first as his speechwriter, then as a top advisor on immigration issues advocating for a more restrictive policy. Mr. Miller wrote then-candidate Trump’s acceptance speech at the 2016 Republican National Convention and his first inaugural address.

Mr. Miller served as Senior Advisor to the President in Mr. Trump’s first administration. He authored many of President Trump’s Executive Orders, including the order, called by the press, the Muslim travel ban, which was affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court. Mr. Miller advocated for reducing the country’s refugee quota from 110,000 under President Obama. Pres. Trump reduced it to 45,000.

After the 2020 election, Mr. Miller launched an advisory group called America First Legal. Its purpose is to help organize Republican attorneys general against abuses of Joe Biden’s executive branch, focusing on administrative law and executive overreach. According to the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Miller had come to “admire the effectiveness—and aggressiveness—of the legal campaign Democrats and their supporters mounted against the Trump administration’s agenda.”

President Trump’s Second Term

One of President Trump’s first appointments after his landslide victory in the 2024 election was Mr. Miller as White House Deputy Chief of Staff and Homeland Security Advisor on November 13, 2024.

Now in Pres. In Trump’s second term, Mr. Miller is considered the “lead architect” of President Trump’s immigration policy, specifically the mass deportation of illegal aliens, and tighter border security. It only took one month into President Trump’s second term to close the southern border and stop the overwhelming influx of illegal aliens.

In speaking about the impact of illegal immigration in the U.S., Miller said, “You’ve seen what it does to living standards. You’ve seen what it does to wages. You’ve seen what it does in terms of transnational cartels. You’ve seen what it has done to the innocent victims of illegal immigrant crime … You have seen the death and needless destruction.”

Mr. Miller is also a strong supporter of ICE and their work, promising, “To all ICE officers, you have federal immunity in the conduct of your duties. And anybody who lays a hand on you, or tries to stop you, or tries to obstruct you is committing a felony.”

He also advocated for ending birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to illegal aliens. “Birthright citizenship is the biggest, costliest scam in financial history.” The Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments on this issue on April 1^st and is expected to rule on the constitutionality of including illegal immigrants in birthright citizenship by June of 2026.

Front and Center

Mr. Miller’s role today in the Trump Administration goes far beyond immigration issues. Mr. Miller has been front and center of many of Pres. Trump’s boldest undertakings of his second term.

For instance, after the capture of President Maduro of Venezuela and the U.S. striking narco-terrorists drug boats heading to the U.S., Mr Miller has spoken out promoting the “Donroe Doctrine”, an adaptation of the historical Monroe Doctrine, that according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the U.S. is not going to allow “the Western Hemisphere to be a base of operation for adversaries, competitors, and rivals.”

Mr. Miller is also instrumental in the president’s policies to cut federal funding to elitist universities such as Columbia and Harvard in order to “break what the administration sees as liberalism’s hold on higher education.”

He was behind the call-up of the National Guard to patrol the streets of D.C. “The nation’s capital can’t be crime-ridden and dangerous,” Mr. Miller said.

After the assassination of Charlie Kirk, Mr. Miller vowed to use the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security to “disrupt unspecified networks that are responsible for provoking violence.”

A Villain to the Left

Due to Mr. Miller’s strong zero-tolerance policy on illegal immigration and his combative style, he is the most hated member of the Trump Administration. More than 127 Democrats in Congress have called for his resignation. In the wake of Kristi Noem’s departure as Homeland Security Secretary, Republican Senator Thom Tillis has also called for Mr. Miller to go as well.

Numerous civil rights groups and illegal immigrant advocacy groups have called for his resignation. According to Migrant Insider, Stephen Miller ranks dead last among 27 political figures by voters with 18% approval. To put the poll in context, Barack and Michelle Obama are ranked #1 and #2.

He is labeled as an “extremist” by the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center. Politico calls him a “polarizing power broker”. Rolling Stone calls him “the worst White House aide in history.” The Rabbinical Assembly, representing a “diversity of American Jewish life”, demands Mr. Miller be fired immediately.

Mr. Miller’s been called a Nazi and compared to Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s propagandist, as well as Heinrich Himmler, the Nazi official responsible for carrying out Hitler’s “final solution.” Mr. Miller is Jewish.

In a sharp rebuke to Mr. Miller’s critics, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated, “Stephen Miller has faithfully served President Trump for eleven years because he’s intelligent, hardworking, and loyal. As both Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Adviser, Stephen brings together all corners of the government to ensure every single policy, both foreign and domestic, is implemented at record speed. The results over the course of the past year speak for themselves.”

Mr. Miller’s influence in President Trump’s second term has only grown broader and more powerful. Mr. Miller is one of the very few to have worked every day of President Trump’s first and second administrations. One White House official told CNN, “Stephen is laser-focused on implementing the president’s agenda.”

President Trump and Mr. Miller are working with a sense of urgency. They know they only have three more years to implement the president’s agenda, maybe less if the Democrats regain the House or Senate in the 2026 midterms.

Let’s Pray

Lord, we thank you for Stephen Miller and for his service to our country. Help him to accomplish the plans You have for him and our nation. Grant him wisdom, knowledge, and discernment in his pursuit of policies that are pleasing to You. Pour out Your virtues of courage, integrity, perseverance, justice, and mercy on him as he does his job for the president and the nation. Strengthen and encourage him in the face of adversity.

Provide a mighty hedge of protection securely around Mr. Miller and his family. May no weapon forged against them prevail. Protect them from any physical, emotional, and spiritual harm. Keep them safe from the enemy.

May Mr. Miller and his family know and be encouraged that the King of the Universe is with them wherever they go. May they experience the joy of the Lord. Bless him and his loved ones richly with all they need according to Your riches in glory.

Lord, Mr. Miller is Jewish, one of Your chosen people. We pray that Mr. Miller will come to recognize the true Messiah, Yeshua, as his own Lord and Savior. May he and his family be redeemed, restored, and fulfilled in You, the God of Israel, in Jesus Name, Amen.

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Belinda Brewster analyzes cultural, political, and world events from a biblical worldview. Belinda’s passion is to equip, support, and encourage parents and grandparents who are courageously battling against the spiritual and cultural forces impacting children and grandchildren. Photo Credit: Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok.