‘Evil is resilient’: pressure on Stephen Miller but Trump unlikely to cut ties | Donald Trump
P.Pressure is mounting on key White House senior adviser Stephen Miller over the killing of critical care nurse Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis and its politically divisive fallout.
Miller, the architect of Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration policy, finds himself in the rare position of being excluded and contradicted by the US president’s major decisions.
Miller about three and a half hours after Saturday’s tragedy social media used He described Pretti, 37, as a “future assassin” who was “trying to kill federal agents.” Asked Tuesday if he believed Pretti was an assassin, Trump said, “No.”
The president had kept a two hour meeting In the Oval Office with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Monday evening, at Noem’s request. Miller was conspicuously absent.
Meanwhile, Axios news site, citing four unnamed sources, said: Miller reported. As Noem repeated, he was responsible for the Department of Homeland Security’s false claim that Pretti planned to “massacre” officers. “Stephen heard the ‘gunshot’ and knew what the narrative would be: Pretti was out to ‘slaughter’ the cops,” one of the sources said.
But in a statement to CNN on Tuesday, Miller admitted that Border Patrol agents “may not have followed” proper protocol before Pretti was fatally shot; It was a rare comeback from a man typically known for consolidating and intensifying his positions.
In this case, even the Trump administration could not create its own version of reality. Multiple phone videos taken by witnesses exposed the false narrative and sparked a backlash from the public, business leaders and even some Republicans, forcing the president into a partial escalation on Monday.
He decided to pull border patrol commander Greg Bovino from Minneapolis and send border czar Tom Homan, who had been critical of Miller’s approach, to “recalibrate tactics” and improve cooperation with state and local officials. The president also had cordial phone calls with Minnesota governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey.
This has thrown a question mark over Noem’s future. More than 160 Democrats in the House of Representatives have signed on to an initiative to impeach him. Asked on Tuesday whether the secretary of homeland security would resign, Trump insisted he would not resign. “I think he did a very good job,” he said. “The border is completely safe”
But the real culprit in the Minneapolis debacle is Miller, who is officially deputy White House chief of staff but has been compared by some to: Trump’s prime minister. Axios reported: “Her access, sources say, includes effective oversight of Noem despite her cabinet-level seniority. ‘Everything I did, I did at the direction of the president and Stephen,’ Noem is said to have told one of her interlocutors.”
Last May, for example, Miller told Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that he wanted 3,000 immigrant detentions a day; This represented an almost tenfold increase over the previous year. He argues that abuse of power discredits Trump’s deportation policy Larry JacobsHe is the director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
“Architect Stephen Miller,” Jacobs said. “He’s the guy who lectures ICE to get tougher and present more numbers, bring in people, and we’ll figure them out later about whether you’ve found the right people. Carelessness, brutality, lack of due process – all of this has its roots in Stephen Miller.”
“So his absence from the White House meeting is a strong message to Washington that the president does not approve of this process and that there needs to be a change. I don’t expect Stephen Miller to be fired because Donald Trump supported the policy, just not how it was done.”
Miller, 40, has proven adept at turning Trump’s impulses into policy. He has been so central to the Make America Great Again project, and his loyalty so demonstrative, that there seems little chance of him losing his job. But Minneapolis was a rare misstep in which he got ahead of his boss, and some observers believe he will now take a backseat until the storm passes.
Henry OlsenA senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center think tank in Washington said: “Its public role will be much less for the foreseeable future. It’s clear that Trump personally doesn’t like the public relations aspect of what’s going on; he is sensitive about this and always has been; “He knows, both from his gut and from what the data tells him, that Miller and Noem did themselves no favors by immediately intervening in the murder.”
But Olsen doesn’t believe Miller is in danger of becoming the fall guy. “Miller has been with him for a while. Trump has no problem getting rid of underperforming underlings, but we suspect Miller is doing just that in many ways.” like that he’s performing and he’s not going to throw it aside lightly.
Miller is performing where it matters to Trump: on television. He is a combative defender of the president with colorful language who calls Democrats a “domestic extremist organization” and characterizes America as leading a world “ruled by force, led by force, led by force.” His wife, Katie Miller, is trying to establish herself as a Maga podcaster.
Rick Wilson, co-founder of the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump group, said: “Stephen Miller is so dominant in Trump’s mental schema that the Maga base really wants to break the cycle. I don’t think there’s a world where Stephen Miller doesn’t maintain his authority and power over Trump.”
Wilson, a veteran political strategist who has worked on Republican campaigns, added: “He may take a half-step back strategically, but this is not a world where Stephen Miller is going to give up power. He’s worked hard to get where he is.”
“The problem with Stephen Miller is that evil is resilient. He’s not ashamed at all. He doesn’t think it’s a bad thing. He believes other people are embarrassing him, but he doesn’t believe he’s making a major attack on Americans’ constitutional liberties.”
