When Stephen Miller met with Mark Zuckerberg at Mar-a-Lago late final 12 months, the 39-year-old Trump adviser was ready of energy that might have been unimaginable a decade in the past.
Again then, Mr. Miller was a mere Senate staffer railing concerning the evils of immigration. Now he was holding forth on U.S. coverage with the billionaire chief govt of Meta, a person he had vilified for years as a globalist bent on destroying the nation.
The dimensions had flipped.
Mr. Miller instructed Mr. Zuckerberg that he had a chance to assist reform America, however it might be on President-elect Donald J. Trump’s phrases. He made clear that Mr. Trump would crack down on immigration and go to battle in opposition to the variety, fairness and inclusion, or D.E.I., tradition that had been embraced by Meta and far of company America lately.
Mr. Zuckerberg was amenable. He signaled to Mr. Miller and his colleagues, together with different senior Trump advisers, that he would do nothing to impede the Trump agenda, in line with three individuals with information of the assembly, who requested for anonymity to debate a non-public dialog. Mr. Zuckerberg mentioned he would as an alternative focus solely on constructing tech merchandise.
Mr. Zuckerberg blamed his former chief working officer, Sheryl Sandberg, for an inclusivity initiative at Fb that inspired staff’ self-expression within the office, in line with one of many individuals with information of the assembly. He mentioned new tips and a sequence of layoffs amounted to a reset and that extra adjustments had been coming.
Earlier this month, Mr. Zuckerberg’s political lieutenants previewed the adjustments to Mr. Miller in a non-public briefing. And on Jan. 10, Mr. Zuckerberg made them official: Meta would abolish its D.E.I. coverage.
The assembly at Mar-a-Lago on Nov. 27 represented extra than simply one other tech billionaire bending the knee to Mr. Trump. It vividly demonstrated the ability and affect of Mr. Miller, who in lower than a decade has risen from an anti-immigrant agitator on Capitol Hill to one of the highly effective unelected individuals in America.
Officers from Meta declined to remark, as did Mr. Miller. A Trump transition spokeswoman declined to handle a majority of the reporting.
Mr. Miller was influential in Mr. Trump’s first time period however stands to be exponentially extra so this time. He holds the positions of deputy chief of workers, with oversight of home coverage, and homeland safety adviser, which supplies him vary to coordinate amongst cupboard businesses. He shall be a key legislative strategist and is predicted to play an vital position in crafting Mr. Trump’s speeches, as he has completed since he joined the primary Trump marketing campaign in 2016.
Most importantly, Mr. Miller shall be in command of Mr. Trump’s signature situation and the one which Mr. Miller has been fixated on since childhood: immigration. And he has been working, in secrecy, to supervise the group drafting the handfuls of govt orders that Mr. Trump will signal after he takes workplace on Jan. 20.
“I name Stephen ‘Trump’s mind,’” mentioned Kevin McCarthy, the previous Home speaker who credited Mr. Miller — a non-public citizen on the time — with serving to to rally Republican lawmakers to insert a sweeping border crackdown right into a spending invoice in 2023.
Within the 4 years since Mr. Trump has been out of workplace, Mr. Miller has spent extra time than any shut Trump adviser mapping out a second-term playbook. He expanded on the hard-line first-term immigration insurance policies; he deepened his relationships with Home members, senators and influential right-wing media figures; he constructed a nationwide donor community to fund a nonprofit that he used as a further software of affect; and he quietly cultivated a relationship with the richest man on the planet, Elon Musk.
Mr. Miller will re-enter authorities with much more belief and credibility with the president, fewer inside rivals and a extra expansive group reporting to him.
Those that handled — and infrequently dismissed — Mr. Miller a decade in the past when he was a younger Senate staffer, emailing reporters late at night time on behalf of Senator Jeff Classes of Alabama, with lurid tales about immigrants committing crimes, can hardly consider the scope of his energy.
Taking Cost
After Mr. Trump received the election in November, Mr. Miller moved his household all the way down to Palm Seashore, Fla., and took a serious position within the transition.
Folks briefed on the chief orders that his group is drafting say they embody an try to finish birthright citizenship; a designation of drug cartels as international terrorist organizations; and a reinstatement of Title 42, which permits the USA to seal the border with Mexico if there’s a public well being menace. (Mr. Trump’s advisers have spent months making an attempt to identify a disease that can assist them construct a case for Title 42, since there isn’t a such emergency in the mean time.)
Will probably be as much as Mr. Trump to resolve which orders to situation, however Mr. Miller is targeted on immigration. The homeland safety adviser’s different obligations embody coping with pure disasters just like the one raging in California, his residence state. (The fires destroyed Mr. Miller’s dad and mom’ residence in Santa Monica, Calif., individuals near him mentioned.) Mr. Miller is predicted to shift a few of his portfolio to the nationwide safety adviser.
As he works out his priorities, Mr. Miller seems to have realized two key classes from the primary Trump time period.
The primary is to flood the zone. He believes that these he regards as Mr. Trump’s enemies — Democrats, the media, teams just like the American Civil Liberties Union and parts of the federal paperwork — are depleted and solely have a lot bandwidth for outrage and opposition. Mr. Miller has instructed folks that the purpose is to overwhelm them with a blitz of exercise.
The second lesson has been to function with as a lot secrecy as doable to forestall anybody from discovering methods to impede the Trump agenda. As a congressional staffer, Mr. Miller was freewheeling in his digital communications. However since working for Mr. Trump, who doesn’t use e-mail and regards individuals who take notes with suspicion, he places virtually nothing in writing. As an alternative, he works by way of emissaries.
The protectiveness across the govt orders is especially notable. An incoming administration would often ship the drafts to the Justice Division’s Workplace of Authorized Counsel, the place a profession lawyer — walled off from the outgoing administration’s political appointees — opinions them for type and legality and suggests enhancements. For probably the most half, Mr. Trump’s first transition is alleged to have adopted that follow.
However Mr. Miller is utilizing a group of attorneys from exterior the Justice Division to vet the orders, an individual with information of the scenario mentioned — an indication of Trump aides’ normal mistrust of the Justice Division, which introduced three particular counsel investigations into Mr. Trump and twice indicted him.
Within the meantime, Mr. Miller is making an attempt to eradicate any roadblocks to Mr. Trump’s immigration plans. Mass deportations would require preparations with different international locations to soak up the migrants; to that finish, Mr. Miller lobbied for his ally, the previous ambassador to Mexico, Christopher Landau, to be chosen as deputy secretary of state beneath Marco Rubio, the Florida senator whom Mr. Trump has chosen to steer the company.
Realizing the White Home will want billions in congressional appropriations for the most important deportation operation in American historical past — which he’s beforehand mentioned will embody sweeping raids and use of the U.S. army to construct massive camps to detain the migrants — Mr. Miller has spent the previous 4 years constructing relationships with lawmakers.
It seems to have paid off.
When Mike Johnson addressed the Home Republican convention after securing the speakership, he made a degree of singling out Mr. Miller for reward. Senator Jim Banks of Indiana, a former Home member, mentioned he talked to Mr. Miller almost daily for the 4 years that Mr. Trump was out of the White Home. And Senator Mike Lee of Utah mentioned there had been many occasions he contemplated a brand new coverage, when “unexpectedly a thought will happen to me: I’m wondering what Stephen Miller thinks of this one.”
The Lengthy Recreation
The final time Mr. Miller participated in a Trump transition, after the shock victory of 2016, he was pretty low within the Washington energy construction.
He had change into a minor movie star on the best in 2006 for vocally defending a bunch of Duke College lacrosse gamers who had been accused — falsely, it later turned clear — of rape. However he was finest identified to insiders because the scrappy congressional staffer for Mr. Classes. A lot of Washington’s institution regarded Mr. Miller as a racist, and as an irritant, mocking his over-the-top pronouncements and thin ties.
He joined the Trump marketing campaign half time in late 2015 and full time in early 2016, one in every of a handful of unique aides on a small group. He labored like a person possessed, staying up all night time to write down Mr. Trump’s speeches, a job assigned to him by Mr. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. He channeled Mr. Trump’s voice higher than some other adviser.
However he entered the chief department realizing little about the way it labored, and it confirmed. The journey ban govt order in opposition to principally Muslim-majority international locations, crafted in secret by an ally of Mr. Miller’s amid concern some Trump appointees would attempt to cease it, was criticized as sloppily drafted and was initially blocked by the courts.
Mr. Miller principally stayed out of the factional warfare that outlined the early years of Mr. Trump’s first time period. He was pleasant with the extra reasonable West Wing camp — individuals like Mr. Kushner and Hope Hicks — and with these on the sharp fringe of Mr. Trump’s motion.
Individuals who have labored carefully with Mr. Miller say they can’t recall him ever expending his political capital on an ally who fell out of favor with Mr. Trump. When Mr. Classes, his former boss who was now legal professional normal, became persona non grata with Mr. Trump over the Russia investigations, Mr. Miller made it clear that his allegiance was to the president.
His technique paid off. He survived. And his imaginative and prescient for immigration — together with deeply restrictive and xenophobic insurance policies — at the moment are on the middle of Mr. Trump’s financial and cultural agenda.
Not like many others, he caught with Mr. Trump after the violence of Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol. He remained a paid adviser and a frequent Fox Information presence selling the Trump agenda, and made an early public endorsement of Mr. Trump’s 2024 presidential marketing campaign at a time when many Republicans needed to maneuver on.
Mr. Miller, who comes from a rich household, did one thing else that Mr. Trump appreciated: He didn’t attempt to leverage his Trump ties into profitable consulting contracts. The compensation he drew from his nonprofit, the America First Authorized Basis, in 2023 — $266,000 — was far lower than what he may have earned working as a political gun for rent.
“Some individuals in Trump’s world have been there for profession benefit or transactional causes,” mentioned Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist who’s near each Mr. Trump and Mr. Miller. “However Stephen believes within the president’s agenda deeply.”
He performs the lengthy sport on relationships, scouting individuals who could also be influential a number of years sooner or later. He constructed a relationship with JD Vance forward of his profitable Ohio Senate major, years earlier than he would change into Mr. Trump’s operating mate.
He additionally is usually a political shape-shifter when it’s expedient for him.
His long-term demonization of “radical Islam” went comparatively quiet at moments in the course of the 2024 presidential race, as he inspired the Trump marketing campaign to situation inviting statements to Muslims in Michigan — a part of a method to use Muslims’ anger over the Biden administration’s assist for Israel, in line with three individuals with direct information.
Mr. Miller is mostly well-liked on the Trump workers, although he’s considered unusually intense and has been identified to berate authorities officers he deemed obstructive. He has strongly held opinions about even minor issues, like males’s vogue. Particularly: materials, patterns, colours and collars.
He by no means argues with Mr. Trump, actually by no means in entrance of others. As soon as it’s clear to him that Mr. Trump is headed in a sure path, he units apart his reservations.
In current weeks, in line with a number of individuals with direct information, Mr. Miller has completed little, if something, to attempt to discuss Mr. Trump out of his assist for H-1B visas to import high-skilled international employees — although Mr. Miller has spent a lot of his profession condemning such visas.
One other current instance: Mr. Miller was initially stunned that Kristi Noem, the South Dakota governor, was chosen by Mr. Trump for secretary of the Division of Homeland Safety. Mr. Miller had needed Thomas D. Homan, whom Mr. Trump had picked as his border czar, for the D.H.S. position, in line with two individuals who spoke to him on the time. However when it was clear Mr. Trump was set on the concept, he didn’t attempt to dissuade him.
“He has the president’s full belief,” mentioned Mr. McCarthy. “Trump’s complained about everybody. By no means him.”
Mr. Trump could not complain about Mr. Miller, however he does often poke at his obsession with immigrants — a hostility that goes far past Mr. Trump’s. In a single assembly in the course of the 2024 marketing campaign, Mr. Trump mentioned that if it was as much as Mr. Miller there could be solely 100 million individuals on this nation, and they’d all seem like Mr. Miller, in line with an individual with information of the remark. Karoline Leavitt, Mr. Trump’s spokeswoman, denied the account.
The Exterior-In Technique
Since he was a excessive schooler in Santa Monica, Calif., obsessive about Rush Limbaugh, Mr. Miller has cultivated right-wing media personalities. He’s near Tucker Carlson and Fox Information’s Laura Ingraham, however he additionally follows the brand new wave of podcasters and comedians.
Mr. Miller has instructed pals how happy he’s that the Trump motion has shifted the cultural dial on his favored insurance policies. Distinguished Democrats have scrambled to rebrand themselves as powerful on immigration, and officers reminiscent of New York Metropolis’s mayor, Eric Adams, have welcomed tighter restrictions after an inflow of migrants of their cities.
Mr. Miller has spent a lot of the previous 4 years determining learn how to construct strain from exterior of presidency to assist enact Mr. Trump’s agenda.
Lower than a month after Mr. Trump left workplace, he based the America First Authorized Basis, a nonprofit “public curiosity legislation agency.” Mr. Miller, who is just not a lawyer himself, forged the group as a conservative reply to the American Civil Liberties Union, serving to the little man battle massive authorities or massive tech.
His group shortly turned a fund-raising powerhouse, elevating $44 million in 2022.
Mr. Miller’s group used a few of that cash on authorized work. It filed greater than 100 lawsuits, authorized briefs and different actions, and helped block a Biden administration plan to supply debt reduction to Black farmers, which Mr. Miller’s group mentioned was discriminatory.
However it spent way more on promoting: $32 million, which was almost 70 p.c of its whole spending. A few of these adverts appeared designed to wreck Democrats within the run-up to elections. In 2022, for example, the group paid for ads in swing states that accused the Biden administration of “anti-white bigotry.”
Now, as Mr. Trump returns to the White Home, the America First Authorized Basis desires to function an assault canine for the Trump administration. In December, the group despatched letters to 249 metropolis and state officers in “sanctuary” jurisdictions which have mentioned they won’t cooperate with federal immigration authorities to assist them arrest immigrants. If these officers don’t take part in Mr. Trump’s crackdown, Mr. Miller’s group mentioned, the native officers could possibly be thought-about to be illegally “harboring” undocumented immigrants.
Specialists mentioned it might be tough for the group to really sue native officers, however, as earlier than, Mr. Miller’s group is considering a marketing campaign exterior the courtroom. It filed public-records requests with 17 states and cities, looking for proof that they had been getting ready to defy Mr. Trump’s crackdown. And it arrange an internet site known as “Sanctuary Strongholds,” designed to direct public strain in opposition to state and native officers.
Key to a few of these exterior efforts shall be one of many relationships Mr. Miller has established in the previous couple of years — an alliance virtually as beneficial as his one with Mr. Trump. Mr. Miller discovered frequent trigger with Mr. Musk, who had begun describing undocumented immigrants as a menace to Western civilization. Mr. Miller’s spouse, Katie, can be working with Mr. Musk, at his so-called Division of Authorities Effectivity.
Mr. Miller started advising Mr. Musk on his political donations, which had been on the time a carefully held secret, in line with two individuals with information of the matter. A nonprofit known as Residents for Sanity, which tax filings show is carefully tied to Mr. Miller’s group, raised $94 million in 2022 and paid for adverts that attacked Democrats’ insurance policies on transgender youth. The Wall Road Journal reported that $50 million of the donations to Residents for Sanity that 12 months got here from an out of doors group that Mr. Musk had been donating to. The America First Authorized Basis and Residents for Sanity didn’t reply to questions despatched by The New York Instances.
Mr. Miller can be secretive about his relationship with Mr. Musk. However one particular person keen to debate it on situation of anonymity mentioned Mr. Musk had as soon as instructed him: “I need doers. And most of those individuals in authorities, that’s not how they’re.”
The particular person recalled that Mr. Musk allowed for one exception: “However Stephen Miller — I like Stephen Miller. He’s a doer.”
Annie Karni contributed reporting from Washington.
