Stephen Miller Cozies Up To Jared Kushner As Bannon’s Clout Shrinks

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By Daniel J. Solomon April 16, 2017

In a White House split between moderates and populists, Stephen Miller has been identified with the latter wing, often seen as a protege of chief strategist Steve Bannon. Palace gossip now puts the former head of Breitbart News in a vulnerable position, and the other Steve appears to have gotten the message – according to reports, he’s cottoning to senior adviser Jared Kushner, the ostensible head of the West Wing moderates.

“He made it clear he isn’t a Bannon guy,” a White House aide told Politico, relating that Miller has distanced himself from Bannon. The source added that Miller has complained that Bannon takes too much credit for the administration’s actions and alienates people with his belligerent mien. He apparently has also lent his services to Kushner’s new Office of American Innovation, a West Wing initiative to address pressing issues like opioid addiction and health care for veterans.

Miller, the White House national policy director, has been a cheerleader of administration policies linked to Bannon’s nationalist-populist agenda. He collaborated with Bannon to craft the original “Muslim ban” executive order promulgated in January, and he penned the president’s inaugural speech, which depicted the United States as a carnage-ridden hell scape.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at solomon@forward.com or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

Daniel J. Solomon is the former Assistant to the Editor/News Writer at the Forward. Originally from Queens, he attended Harvard as an undergraduate, where he wrote his senior thesis on French-Jewish intellectual history. He is excited to have returned to New York after his time in Massachusetts. Daniel’s passions include folk music, cycling, and pointed argument.

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