Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Did ‘Stephen Miller Ambush’ Backfire With Trump’s ‘Shithole’ Debacle?

The White House meeting on immigration reform in which President Trump called Haiti and African nations “shithole countries” was reportedly orchestrated by Stephen Miller in an effort to undercut reform efforts.

The Trump meeting was supposed to be with Richard Durbin (D-Illinois) and Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), two members of a bipartisan group looking for a solution to the impasse over the so-called Dreamers and other issues like border security.

But Miller, a far-right wing Jewish figure, apparently invited a gaggle of other very right-wing anti-immigration Republicans like Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), the Hill reported.

Instead of a working meeting, the session turned into a Trump rant-fest in which he repeatedly used the hateful language that has now sparked worldwide outrage.

Miller has long been known as a very hardline voice on immigration. He was once considered a protege of Steve Bannon but denounced his onetime White House mentor amid the furore over Bannon’s incendiary remarks in Michael Wolff’s book ‘Fire and Fury.’

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 credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link 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.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.