Miller advised both of Trump's presidential campaigns. After Trump's loss in the 2020 election, Miller founded America First Legal, a conservative legal advocacy organization, in April 2021.
Miller has been a central figure in the Trump administration's immigration policy, including the family separation policy and Executive Order 13769, which restricted travel from several Muslim-majority countries. As director of speechwriting, he supervised the writing of Trump's inaugural and State of the Union addresses.
A social worker and Columbia University graduate,[5] Miller's mother, Miriam, grew up in a family of New Deal Democrats,[8] but like the majority of the era's Californians[5], had conservative views.[9] Miller's father, Michael, was a lawyer and worked in the Miller family real estate business.[10] The family sold their home in 1998 when Miller was thirteen, and bought a smaller home in a less affluent area.[11]
Miller went to Hebrew school at Beth Shir Shalom, where classmates thought of him as a contrarian.[8]
In 1999, he began attending Santa Monica High School.[12] Miller opposed his high school's chapter of the Chicano Student Movement of Aztlán and was described by the chapter's founder as having taunted immigrants; he reportedly insisted to other students and teachers that they speak English.[13] Miller called into talk-radio's The Larry Elder Show (1993–2008; 2010–2014) and successfully brought the host to his high school.[14] He later appeared after the September 11 attacks to describe an incident in which a Canadian teacher placed the flag of the United States on the floor and discussed its importance, though Miller alleged (others remembered otherwise) that the teacher had dragged the flag across the floor and trampled over it.[15] By his count, Miller appeared on Elder's show sixty-nine times and their relationship continued for years.[16]
He was confirmed at the Santa Monica Synagogue, a Reform temple.[8] At Santa Monica, Miller garnered attention and was lampooned in an April Fools' Day issue of the school newspaper, The Samohi. In 2002, he ran for student announcer, giving a speech in which he questioned being told to pick up trash when the school hired custodians. The student body disapproved of Miller's comments and he lost. Miller was involved in the school's band program, tennis, religious studies, and political and youth groups.[17]
Conservative writer David Horowitz heard Miller on The Larry Elder Show. Horowitz became another long-term relationship for Miller[18] who invited him to speak at his high school. Horowitz reciprocated, inviting Miller to his home.[19] Miller made several demands in an article on Horowitz's website, FrontPage Magazine. He asked for the school's culture to embrace "inclusive patriotism", in contrast to multiculturalism and that his school institute the Pledge of Allegiance five days a week.[20] The school instituted the pledge, which Miller reported as a "huge victory".[20] He wrote that Santa Monica's principal and its district superintendent blamed Miller for having caused a tax increase initiative to fail. According to Miller's article, the principal distributed a memorandum to teachers, ordering them to discuss the Iraq War in a neutral and balanced manner.[21] In journalist Jean Guerrero's estimation, by his graduation in 2003, Miller had received more publicity than "probably any other student in class".[22]
Miller began attending Duke University in 2003[17] to study political science.[23] In 2004, outraged at Duke's decision to schedule a Palestine Solidarity Movement conference, Miller founded the university's chapter of Horowitz's Students for Academic Freedom and rallied students to oppose the conference.[24] The following year, he was the author of a column in The Duke Chronicle, Duke's student newspaper, titled "Miller Time". Miller continued to critique multiculturalism. His combative debate strategy, particularly in his column, earned Miller a pugnacious reputation.[25] Miller invited Horowitz to speak at Duke, who in turn named Miller to lead the Terrorism Awareness Project, an initiative that conflated Muslims and Arabs with terrorists. Miller appeared on Fox & Friends (1998–present) to promote the effort.[26]
In the aftermath of the Duke lacrosse rape hoax, Miller defended the three members of the Duke Blue Devils men's lacrosse team who were accused of rape, finding that they had been presumed guilty for being white males. He appeared on Nancy Grace (2005–2016) to further advocate for the lacrosse players.[27] After reports emerged that the accuser, Crystal Mangum, had concealed the results of a negative DNA test, Miller continued to discuss the issue, condemning an advertisement that noted the persistent fear of students "who know themselves to be objects of racism and sexism" in an interview with Bill O'Reilly on The O'Reilly Factor (1996–2017).[28] Miller later told McKay Coppins of The Atlantic that his support of the players was his greatest college achievement.[29]
By junior year, Miller had joined the Duke Conservative Union. He had become the organization's executive director by the beginning of his senior year, a position that allowed him to fundraise.[30] Through the union, Miller met Richard B. Spencer, who later became known as a white supremacist.[b] The two organized an immigration debate in March 2007.[31] Although he told Nancy Grace he wanted to be a prosecutor, and Horowitz knew that he would like to be a senator,[32] Miller skipped his LSAT, later saying he was focused on establishing a memorial for the September 11 attacks.[23]
Early career
Congressional work and Breitbart influence (2007–2016)
After graduating from Duke University, Miller traveled across Eurasia, including embarking on a Birthright Israel trip.[33] Through David Horowitz,[34] Miller began working for Minnesota representative Michele Bachmann by December 2007[35] as her press secretary.[34] He moved to Washington, D.C., where his family had assisted him in purchasing a US$450,000 condominium.[34] By 2009, Miller—and Horowitz—had become disillusioned with Bachmann. Horowitz referred Miller to Arizona representative John Shadegg. Miller participated in Tea Party protests against Barack Obama with Shadegg. Horowitz recommended him again and in June 2009, Miller began working for Alabama senator Jeff Sessions as his press secretary.[36] Miller sought to legitimize his criticisms of immigration and garner a larger audience; he formed relationships with anti-immigration organizations, including the Center for Immigration Studies, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, and NumbersUSA.[37] Miller became Session's communications manager by August 2014.[23] He met Steve Bannon and Andrew Breitbart—both men recognized Miller from his rebukes of his high school, and Bannon became an enduring ally.[38] That year, his parents helped him purchase a US$1 million condominium in CityCenterDC.[29]
In November 2019, Katie McHugh, former editor of the Southern Poverty Law Center website, published a summary of approximately nine hundred emails from Miller that were sent to Breitbart News from March 2015 to June 2016. Correspondences between Miller and McHugh show a shared concern that Mexican survivors of Hurricane Patricia could be granted temporary protected status—an exchange in which Miller included a link to VDARE, and that e-commerce websites had removed Confederate merchandise in the aftermath of the Charleston church shooting—an article that appeared later on Breitbart. Miller urged Breitbart editors to read The Camp of the Saints (1973), a novel that depicts the destruction of Western civilization through mass immigration; Julia Hahn reviewed the book for Breitbart.[44] Kurt Bardella, a former spokesman for Breitbart, described Miller as "almost a de facto assignment editor". The Southern Poverty Law Center later obtained additional emails in which Miller linked an article from a think tank about an apparent increase in the number of newborns named "Mohammed", a story that appeared on Breitbart the following day, and an email in which Miller praised the work of the anti-immigration commentator Jason Richwine.[45] Miller sought to disparage Florida senator Marco Rubio.[46]
In June 2015, businessman Donald Trump declared his candidacy in the 2016 presidential election.[47] Trump's views on race interested Miller;[48] in an interview with Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Michael D. Shear for Border Wars (2019), Miller felt that Trump "doubled down, breaking that apology-retreat cycle" and giving confidence to a customarily dissatisfied populace.[49] Miller was particularly invested in defeating Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants and a member of the Gang of Eight who was running for president. Breitbart News's Matthew Boyle referred Miller to Sam Nunberg, a political consultant working for the Trump campaign. Despite a recommendation from Sessions, Corey Lewandowski, Trump's campaign manager, was reluctant to hire Miller. Nonetheless, Miller contributed to the campaign without its support. He prepared Trump's immigration policies.[50]
By March, Miller was opening act for Trump at rallies.[23] He wrote Trump's acceptance speech at the 2016 Republican National Convention[57] and served as the campaign's policy liaison to the convention.[23] Miller assisted Trump in preparing for debates with Hillary Clinton.[58] After the convention, the campaign switched to a teleprompter and elevated Miller to Trump's principal speechwriter.[59] By August, he had become Trump's national policy director. That month, Miller was appointed to lead an economic team.[60]Politico described Miller as an "instrumental advisor for Trump on the issue" of immigration.[61] Bannon later convinced Trump to not deviate from speeches written by him and Miller.[62] After Trump won the 2016 election, Miller retained his role as national policy director for the transition.[63] He led much of the policy work to prepare for Trump's first one hundred days.[64] Trump chose Miller to write his inaugural address.[65]
Senior advisor and White House director of speechwriting (2017–2021)
Appointment and initial advisorship
Miller (gray suit) observing Trump sign an executive order in January 2017
In February 2017, The New York Times reported that Trump had urged Priebus to implement conventional protocols, including limiting Bannon and Miller's unfettered access, after reports that other Trump officials were not briefed about the travel ban order until it had already been signed.[75] Miller wrote Trump's speech to a joint session of Congress that month.[76] He sought to purge the federal government of Barack Obama's political appointees.[77] The dynamics of Miller's influence in the Trump administration shifted by April as Bannon entered into conflict with Jared Kushner; Miller informed colleagues that he was not affiliated with Bannon. That month, he began to work with Office of American Innovation, led by Kushner, and began focusing on energy and regulatory issues.[78] Miller remained an ally of Bannon.[79]
In September, Trump announced a gradual end to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA),[91] a program that Miller had encouraged Trump to end.[92]The New York Times reported that Miller had been advocating for adjusting the refugee quota established in the Refugee Act from 110,000—set by Obama before he left office—to 15,000.[93] Though Trump later stated he would work with Democrats on a deal to restore DACA and he planned to set the quota at 45,000 refugees, Miller's efforts had an impact on immigration policy.[94] He outlined several hard-line immigration proposals, including hiring ten thousand immigration enforcement agents, in a draft that month, after Trump had reached a tentative agreement with Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and House minority leader Nancy Pelosi on DACA.[95]
In January 2018, as a federal government shutdown neared over disputes involving DACA, Trump privately stated that he was willing to negotiate to extend legal status to immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children; in response, Kelly and Miller rejected a deal unless it was attached to austere immigration restrictions.[96] Republican negotiators accused Miller of preventing a deal from being struck.[97] Miller wrote that year's State of the Union Address.[98] He advocated for a veto of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, a bill that would fund that fiscal year, over funds for the Trump wall, pointing to the possibility of a Republican loss in that year's elections.[99] Miller worked against the Department of State's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration.[100] After Kelly Sadler was dismissed over comments she made about the political viability and mortality Arizona senator John McCain—who was suffering from brain cancer—Miller had Julia Hahn appointed to cover her communications work in order to advance Trump's hardline immigration messaging.[101] Miller sought to garner support for a bill paralleling his immigration framework in June.[102]
Immigration moves
Miller was an advocate for the Trump administration's family separation policy.[103] In April, he was "instrumental" in Trump's decision to intensify enforcement of the policy, according to The New York Times, and was critical to Trump's endorsement.[104] The policy incited controversy, including an internal conflict,[105] targeted towards Miller in June.[106] Amid the backlash, Miller continued to lead a plan to use executive authority and rule changes to institute an immigration crackdown ahead of that year's elections, believing immigration to be a key issue.[107] He conducted meetings privately, in fear of "hostile bureaucrats" leaking policies, according to Politico.[108] That month, the Supreme Court affirmed the Muslim travel ban; chief justice John Roberts supported Miller's assertion that the president could use Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to "suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens" through any necessary means.[109] In an effort to quell outcry, Trump signed an executive order ending the practice of family separation.[110]
According to the Financial Times, Miller sought to ban student visas for Chinese nationals, but his efforts were halted by Terry Branstad, the ambassador to China.[111] In August, The New York Times reported that the Trump administration was considering a second reduction in the refugee quota. The Times noted that opponents of Miller—including Tillerson and Duke—had been ousted in favor of anti-immigrant officials, giving Miller's plan a greater chance of success.[112] He privately urged Trump to continue on his border wall.[113] In September, secretary of state Mike Pompeo announced that the quota would be set at 30,000.[114] That month, the Department of Homeland Security proposed a rule denying lawful permanent residency to immigrants who have received government benefits, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Medicare, and Section 8.[115] The volume of immigration actions the following month—the deployment of federal troops to the Mexico–United States border and proposed executive action on blocking the Central American migrant caravans and ending birthright citizenship—was described by a Republican close to the White House as "a dream come true" for Miller.[116]
As a second federal government shutdown in December 2018 neared over funding the Trump wall, Miller publicly stated that the Trump administration would "do whatever is necessary" to build the border wall, including shutting down the government.[117] In a meeting to resolve the shutdown, Kushner defended Miller as an expert on the subject of immigration,[118] though Kushner's support for legal immigration led to a conflict with Miller.[119] Miller's influence with Trump led to concerns from senior Republican aides that he could convince Trump that accepting a compromise would amount to humiliation.[120] Trump worked on that year's State of the Union address with Miller, who took a more active role in speechwriting.[121]
Miller opposed Ronald Vitiello's nomination as director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement[122] and Nielsen's tenure as secretary of homeland security;[123] Trump withdrew Vitiello as his nominee[122] and Nielsen was ousted within a two-day timespan in April.[123] The departures, including Randolph Alles as director of Secret Service, continued in the following days in a mass purge across the Department of Homeland Security, in what The New York Times described as a signal of Miller's "enduring influence".[124] Miller leveraged the uncertainty to pursue an aggressive immigration policy, pressuring mid-level officials at federal departments and agencies to be more vigorous in halting immigration.[125] He pushed for the purge to continue and for several immigration policies, including housing migrants in border tent cities and extending detention times, to be implemented.[126] The purge led to concerns about Miller's authority from congressional Republicans, including Texas senator John Cornyn.[127] According to The New York Times, Miller orchestrated the purge.[128]Kevin McAleenan, the acting secretary of homeland security, resisted Miller's continued efforts to dismiss officials.[129] Miller was influential in Trump's decision to name Ken Cuccinelli as the acting director of Citizenship and Immigration Services.[130]
Miller advocated for the Department of Housing and Urban Development to force the eviction of undocumented immigrants.[131] In June, Trump imposed tariffs on Mexico over the border crisis, a suggestion that had been offered by Miller and Peter Navarro, the director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy.[68] The following month, Citizenship and Immigration Services issued a regulation favoring wealthier immigrants for lawful permanent residency, an initiative Miller had led.[132] In September, Miller sought to further reduce the refugee quota.[133] In December, he developed a plan to use information the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had on migrant children to target them and their families for deportation. The plan would have also embedded immigration enforcement agents in the department's Office of Refugee Resettlement. The effort was rejected by officials at the Department of Health and Human Services.[134]
Miller led speechwriting for the 2020 State of the Union Address, though he sought to temper his influence on its tone.[135] The COVID-19 pandemic provided opportunities for Miller to advance his immigration policies. The foundation for Miller's actions came in prior attempts to use the president's authority in relatively minor health emergencies.[136] In April, Trump suspended family-based immigration. Miller told conservative allies in a private conference call that the halt to immigration was one step in a broader plan.[137] Miller sought to influence HHS to delay the admission of migrant children into shelters run by HHS and to fingerprint adults in households where refugee children are released; his proposals were considered by the department's refugee office.[138]
In May, chief of staff Mark Meadows suggested that Miller should serve as the acting director of the Domestic Policy Council after Joe Grogan's resignation, though Kushner successfully proposed Derek Lyons instead.[139] After his wife Katie tested positive for COVID-19 that month, Miller was forced to quarantine.[140] He continued to push for changes to immigration policy to follow up on Trump's order in April, raising the standard of proof for asylum seekers.[141] According to secretary of defense Mark Esper, he reportedly called for as many as a quarter of a million troops to be stationed at the border with Mexico.[142] Miller participated in debate preparation sessions against Joe Biden.[143] In October, Miller was among those who tested positive for COVID-19 amid an outbreak of the virus at the White House.[144] Miller remained with Trump after the January 6 Capitol attack;[145] he wrote the speech Trump gave preceding the attack.[146] Miller contributed to Trump's speech condemning the attack after his second impeachment.[147] In the final days of Trump's term, Miller continued to work to implement Trump's immigration policies.[148]
Following the 2024 election, CNN reported that president-elect Donald Trump was expected to name Miller as his White House deputy chief of staff for policy.[164] Trump's choice was confirmed by vice president-elect JD Vance on X hours later.[165] On November 13, Trump publicly announced that Miller would serve as his deputy chief of staff for policy and his homeland security advisor.[69] Although his role was muted, Miller was expected to have significant influence over agency heads.[166]
Immigration policy
He began educating Elon Musk on the federal bureaucracy;[167] the two men had found a common cause in describing undocumented immigrants as a threat to Western civilization.[168] Miller was an architect of Trump's immigration policies in his second term,[169] and he oversaw a team writing initial executive orders.[168] His strategy involved using existing laws, such as the Alien Enemies Act, to quickly carry out deportations and avoid time-consuming hearings.[169] Additionally, he sought to reinstate Title 42 expulsions.[170] Miller told advisers in Trump's presidential transition not to express concern that immigration actions could yield litigation.[171]
Wider influence
Miller's clout at the Department of Justice (DOJ) was striking—a non-lawyer could hold sway over the attorney general.[172]Pam Bondi, Trump's nominee to serve as attorney general following Matt Gaetz's withdrawal, successfully advocated for Trump to nominate her ally Hillsborough County sheriff Chad Chronister as his administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration. Miller was critical of Chronister, who withdrew his nomination.[172] According to journalists Carol Leonnig and Aaron Davis in their book Injustice (2025), Miller pressured acting deputy attorney general Emil Bove to act more vigorously in dismissing officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, citing the bureau's nominal director, Kash Patel.[173] Defying and contradicting DOJ court papers that asserted "administrative error", Miller told reporters in April 2025 that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national, was not mistakenly deported.[174] The following month, he stated that the Trump administration was considering suspending habeas corpus for immigrants.[175] In May 2025, Axios reported that Miller and secretary of homeland security Kristi Noem had set an arrest quota of three thousand people per day;[176] DOJ later denied the existence of a quota in a court case over protests in Los Angeles in June.[177]
Miller led Trump's federalization of the District of Columbia National Guard.[178] After the assassination of Charlie Kirk, he appeared on The Charlie Kirk Show—hosted by Vance—to vow that he would use the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security to dismantle organizations involved in an alleged "vast domestic terror movement" responsible for Kirk's murder.[179] As homeland security advisor, Miller separated the Homeland Security Council from the National Security Council, in a break from precedent. Miller, through the council, assumed a leading role—sometimes exceeding that of secretary of state and national security adviser Marco Rubio—in the United States's decision to strike Venezuelan boats, according to anonymous sources as reported by The Guardian.[180] Miller was also tasked with ensuring that federal departments do not take actions that could damage relations with China, as reported by the Financial Times.[181]
Miller is an opponent of illegal immigration. He has argued that documented and undocumented immigrants have expanded the U.S. labor market, leading to reduced wages.[192] } In January 2017, Miller privately proposed eliminating the lottery process for H-1B visas in favor of a system that would give preference to visa petitions for high-salary jobs.[193] His uncle, neuropsychologist David S. Glosser, wrote an article in Politico Magazine in August 2018 accusing Miller of hypocrisy for his anti-immigration stance.[194] As a communications aide to Jeff Sessions, he opposed Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals as "mass backdoor amnesty".[195] Miller is a proponent of stricter asylum rules,[196] telling Fox News that Afghan refugees fleeing the country after the 2021 Taliban offensive would bring chaos to the United States.[197] He defended Trump's decision to declare the National Emergency Concerning the Southern Border of the United States as sanctioned by the National Emergencies Act.[198] Miller supported a "binary choice" model for the family separation policy in which families would be forced to decide whether they would 1) voluntarily allow separation from their children, or 2) waive their child's humanitarian protections allowing the family to be detained together without time restriction.[199]
In May 2018, Miller blamed Democrats for the Mexico–United States border crisis.[200] Speaking in his "personal capacity" in October 2020, Miller described Democratic nominee Joe Biden as "a radical outlier in the whole of human civilization" over his immigration policy.[201] Tweeting hours after Biden's inauguration, Miller criticized Biden for what he described as "opening travel from terror hot spots, proposing a giant amnesty, [and] halting the installation of security barriers along the Southwest border".[202] In January 2023, after Biden announced that he was moving to institute a major crackdown on immigration, Miller alleged that the president was seeking to "increase the foreign-born population of the United States as speedily as possible".[203] Miller repeated his sentiment after Biden extended temporary protected status to Venezuelans in September 2023.[204]
Foreign and domestic affairs
Miller shaking hands with Canadian prime minister Mark Carney in May 2025
In high school after the September 11 attacks, Miller wrote that he relished "the thought of watching Osama Bin Laden being riddled to death with bullets".[205] In A Sacred Oath (2022), secretary of defense Mark Esper alleged that, in a Situation Room meeting convened over an operation to kill Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the founder and first leader of the Islamic State, Miller suggested taking Baghdadi's head, dipping it in pig's blood, and parading it around to warn other terrorists. Miller denied making those remarks and referred to Esper as a "moron".[206]
As a columnist for Duke University's student newspaper, The Chronicle, Miller wrote on conservative themes including criticism of Hollywood and the war on Christmas.[207] Miller referred to the whistleblower who revealed the call between Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Trump that led to a scandal and Trump's impeachment as a partisan "saboteur".[208] After Trump was found guilty in a criminal trial involving his concealment of payments made to the pornographic actress Stormy Daniels, Miller urged Republican district attorneys to initiate "every investigation they need to" and Republicans on congressional committees to leverage their "subpoena power in every way" possible to defeat "Marxism and beat these Communists".[209] After Biden's son, Hunter, was convicted on firearm charges, Miller alleged that Hunter had not been charged with failing to register as a foreign agent, in reference to the Biden–Ukraine conspiracy theory, because it would implicate his father.[210]
Miller has alleged that voter fraud occurred in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. In February 2017, he told George Stephanopoulos on ABC News that voters had been bussed into New Hampshire, a claim rejected by state political figures and officials.[211] After Trump's loss in the 2020 election, Miller appeared on Fox News to argue that an "alternate slate of electors" could ensure Trump's victory, a legally impermissible maneuver.[212]
Miller was critical of large social media companies banning Trump or Trump-aligned organizations following the January 6 Capitol attack.[213] In September 2025, he accused judges and politicians from the Democratic Party of being responsible for the killing of Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee who was fatally stabbed on a train in North Carolina.[214]
Race and culture
In high school, Miller argued that racism was fictitious and that racial segregation did not exist because it was not legally imposed, owing to the civil rights movement. In strategic plan meetings at his high school district, he decried bilingual education, multicultural activities, and announcements in Spanish.[215] Shortly after graduating high school, Miller wrote that impoverished Islamic countries were "poor and failing" because "they have refused to embrace the values that make our country great".[216]
In writing speeches for Trump, Miller marked a shift in language that included terms such as "radical Islamic terrorism", a phrase alleged by critics to insinuate that all Muslims are terrorists. In an interview with The New York Times in February 2021, he criticized Joe Biden's lexicon for being politically correct, saying specifically that "the other side would say, 'What you call equity, I call discrimination.'"[217]
Personal life
In February 2020, he married Katie Rose Waldman, the press secretary to vice president Mike Pence and a former spokeswoman for Nielsen, at the Trump International Hotel Washington, D.C.[218] Trump attended their wedding.[219] Miller and Waldman met through mutual friends in 2018 and were engaged a year-and-a-half later.[218] They have three children together.[220]
Notes
↑Michael and Miriam had one child before Miller, Alexis,[6] and one child after Miller, Jacob (born 1989).[3]
↑Miller has denied any close relationship with Spencer, telling the Washington Post: "I condemn him. I condemn his views. I have no relationship with him."
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