How Stephen Miller Endures As Trump Whisperer Amid White House Turmoil
Image by Getty
By Ari Feldman October 9, 2017
Stephen Miller, senior policy adviser to Donald Trump, has been a voice of “hard-charging conservatism” since his days as a high school firebrand in Santa Monica, California, the New York Times reported. He has gone from railing against his high school’s janitorial staff to helping pen Trump’s infamous “American carnage” speech.
“I can hear Stephen’s voice,” said a former classmate in Santa Monica. “Even when Trump reads these statements, I know, ‘That’s Stephen.’”
Since Stephen Bannon left the White House as a chief strategist in August, Miller has emerged as the stalwart far right voice in the White House. His signature issue — curtailing immigration — has made him an indispensable ally to Trump as he tries to deliver on his campaign promises to build the wall and limit Muslim immigration.
Congregants at Miller’s childhood synagogue, a Reform community in Santa Monica, have been surprised by Miller’s success in Trump’s Washington — and not 100% happy.
“We did our best here,” said his rabbi, Jeff Marx, “to teach Jewish ethics and talk about our need to reach out to the strangers, to those less fortunate than we are.”
Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Dive In
-
Fast Forward A federal agency survey reportedly asks Barnard employees if they’re Jewish
-
Fast Forward NIH bans grants for schools that boycott Israeli companies
-
Fast Forward An elite Jewish society at Yale fractures over its director’s embrace of Itamar Ben-Gvir
-
Fast Forward After outcry, Cornell president cancels pro-Palestinian performer chosen for campus concert
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 2
News Who is Alan Garber, the Jewish Harvard president who stood up to Trump over antisemitism?
- 3
News Student protesters being deported are not ‘martyrs and heroes,’ says former antisemitism envoy
- 4
Opinion What Jewish university presidents say: Trump is exploiting campus antisemitism, not fighting it
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward A federal agency survey reportedly asks Barnard employees if they’re Jewish
-
Opinion A Palestinian leader just gave Trump an unprecedented opening to pursue peace
-
Fast Forward NIH bans grants for schools that boycott Israeli companies
-
Fast Forward An elite Jewish society at Yale fractures over its director’s embrace of Itamar Ben-Gvir
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.