As Trump Moves Toward Autocracy, Top Aide Stephen Miller Is Way Ahead Of Him

WASHINGTON – As Donald Trump pushes to expand his presidential powers to autocrat-like levels, he has at his side a top aide who makes his own over-the-top pronouncements sound downright tame.

Stephen Miller has accused federal judges, including those appointed by Republican presidents, of taking part in a “judicial coup.” He calls the opposition Democratic Party a “domestic extremist organization.” He labels protesters in U.S. cities “terrorists” — the same designation he and Trump have applied to the 21 people and counting whom Trump has summarily killed on boats in the Caribbean.

In speeches that often devolve into comical bravado, he repeatedly invokes the powers of Trump and his executive branch, even in areas that have historically been the responsibility of local and state government.

“You know the gang bangers that you deal with, they think that they’re ruthless,” he told law enforcement officials in Memphis earlier this month. “They have no idea how ruthless we are. They think they’re tough. They have no idea how tough we are. They think that they’re hardcore. We are so much more hardcore than they are, and we have the entire weight of the United States government behind us. What do they have? They have nothing behind them.”

Just this past week, Miller told CNN that Trump had “plenary authority” — absolute power — even though the U.S. Constitution makes clear that he does not.

Amanda Carpenter, once a top aide to Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and now a researcher with the nonprofit Protect Democracy, said Miller is doing exactly what proponents of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 planned over the past several years as Trump ran to retake his office after having attempted a coup in 2021.

“Project 2025 was, at its core, an aspiration to provide Trump plenary power to gut checks and balances, consolidate control over all aspects of the federal government and entrench power for the long term,” she said. “It was written on paper and Stephen Miller is saying it out loud.”

Miller did not respond to a list of questions from HuffPost about his various actions and statements, including his reported role in the extrajudicial killings on Trump’s orders by the U.S. military of 21 alleged smugglers in the Caribbean, and the White House scolded HuffPost for asking him directly. Later, a White House official speaking on condition of anonymity disparaged HuffPost and defended Miller.

“Stephen is rightfully calling out radical left-wing violence and those who support it,” the official said.

The White House’s praise notwithstanding, Miller has made himself a lightning rod for criticism of both his and the broader Trump administration’s penchant for authoritarian action — most famously by aides to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who have made a point of mimicking Trump’s style to mock him.

“STEPHEN MILLER IS A FASCIST!” they wrote in a social media post last month.

Miller, who has repeatedly in recent years called others “fascists,” responded the next day in an apparent attempt to accuse Newsom of encouraging violence against him: “Why do you think they posted this?”

Barely 10 minutes later, Newsom’s staff gave their answer: “Because you’re a fascist.”

‘Because you’re a fascist’

Even as a child of upper-middle-class comfort in Santa Monica, California, Miller, who just recently turned 40, was already exhibiting the attitudes that have been on display to the nation over the past decade.

Running for student government, he declared he was sick of being told to pick up litter when the school had janitors paid to do that. He extolled the virtues of torture when dealing with accused Muslim militants and complained about too much Spanish being spoken on campus. One classmate said that Miller told him that he could no longer be his friend because of his Latino heritage.

Miller, not many years later, was able to turn his anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim views into policy. As a top aide to then-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, Miller, known for his belittling, all-capital emails to his colleagues and journalists, was able to stop a comprehensive immigration reform package.

Within two years of that, he was Trump’s speechwriter as the reality game show host began his presidential campaign, thanks to Miller’s close ties to Steve Bannon, then publisher of Breitbart, who used that platform to boost Trump and denigrate the other Republicans running.

Miller was soon appearing onstage at Trump’s massive rallies himself as a warm-up speaker, often providing even more amped-up, angrier remarks than Trump would deliver later on.

After Trump’s unexpected victory, Miller found himself trying to enact his and Trump’s policies with limited success, as many in upper-level positions within the executive branch agencies were unwilling to draft executive orders they believed to be illegal.

Trump’s Muslim ban, for example, which he had infamously promised a year earlier, was largely written by non-lawyer Miller himself after legal staff with expertise in the field within the administration declined to help. The ban was quickly thrown out of court, but not before it caused mayhem at airports across the country. (A later iteration survived after non-majority Muslim countries were included.)

Mixed in with his dim view of immigrants, even in his first term, was a strong portion of authoritarianism. In February 2017, Miller intoned in a television interview from the White House, “The powers of the president to protect our country are very substantial and will not be questioned.”

In those years, though, while Miller egged on Trump’s autocratic instincts, there existed traditional Republicans in that administration to temper them, such as John Kelly at the Department of Homeland Security and, later, at the White House, Defense Secretary James Mattis and national security adviser H.R. McMaster.

Eight years later, those institutionalist guardrails are completely gone, replaced with Trump-first loyalists like Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, chief of staff Susie Wiles, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ― leaving Miller with more unchallenged power than ever.

Big Lies, And Plenty Of Them

In Trump’s first term, Miller’s interactions with the public and press were limited, often off-the-record or “on background” sessions with reporters. Eight years later, he is frequently the face of the Trump administration, now even more aggressive with his claims of near-absolute authority and perhaps with even less interest in the truth.

Through the years, Miller has been willing to make assertions to back up his anti-immigration views unsupported by evidence, such as claims that those who come to this country from abroad are more likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans. In this second term, Miller has been willing to put out far more outrageous, readily disproven lies in the service of his agenda.

In April, after the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled against Trump’s unlawful deportation of a migrant to a prison in El Salvador where torture is common, Miller claimed that the decision was actually in Trump’s favor. “That’s what the Supreme Court held, by the way,” he lied. “We won a case 9-0.”

Miller routinely misstates federal asylum law by claiming that those fearing violence or persecution in their home countries must seek safety in the first country they visit after leaving. That is not true. U.S. law permits asylum seekers to seek sanctuary upon arrival, regardless of how they arrived or the countries they passed through.

In trying to claim a popular mandate for his aggressive anti-immigrant policies, Miller falsely states that Trump won last November in a “colossal landslide” over Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. In fact, Trump failed to win a majority of the votes cast and defeated Harris by just 1.5%, one of the smallest popular vote margins in modern times. (Trump received 3 million fewer total votes than Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016, even though he won the Electoral College.)

And in his attacks against Democrats and judges, Miller uses the same words — “coup,” “insurrection” ― that accurately describe Trump’s attempt to effectively end American democracy on Jan. 6, 2021, by hanging on to power despite having lost the 2020 election.

“In the first term — there were echoes. But now it’s a full-throated shout of autocracy. And it’s not just talk,” said Norm Eisen, a top White House lawyer in the Barack Obama administration who worked on Trump’s first impeachment over his attempted extortion of Ukraine. “Anyone watching the footage of people being brutally assaulted simply for performing peaceful protest or the disproportionate violence, not to mention Miller’s rhetoric, can’t help but think of the most ominous chapters of the 20th century.”

Stuart Stevens, a longtime Republican consultant who worked on both successful presidential campaigns of George W. Bush, said he predicts that Miller someday will be an object of scholarly study, rather than a threat to the republic.

“He’s one of the most hated individuals in America. He realizes that when Trump leaves office, he will have a long life surrounded by those who hate him,” Stevens said. “Miller fits the profile of the angry, hate-obsessed losers who autocrats lean on to fuel their worst instincts.”