Stephen Miller re-emerges as an ‘untouchable’ force in Trump’s White House

Outside of President Donald Trump, no White House official has accumulated more influence in this administration than Stephen Miller.

Outside of President Donald Trump, no White House official has accumulated more influence in this administration than Stephen Miller, the 39-year-old anti-immigration crusader whose brain and bare-knuckled tactics have been deployed to drive the agenda for the commander in chief.

Not Vice President JD Vance. Not chief of staff Susie Wiles. Not anyone else.

It is Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy, who loaded up scores of executive orders for Trump to sign in his first months back in office — on topics ranging from the declaration of a national emergency at the southern border to dismantling diversity programs in the federal government and withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization.

“Stephen is the president’s id,” said one former Trump adviser who knows Miller well. “He has been for a while. It’s just now he has the leverage and power to fully effectuate it.”

Democrats have long pointed to Miller, in similar if darker fashion, as the engineer of Trump’s most audacious plans and tactics. Though he receded a bit from the spotlight during billionaire Elon Musk’s ascendance in the first months of Trump’s second term, Miller is re-emerging as a target for the political opposition.