Stephen Miller: The rise of Trump’s ‘prime minister’ from deportation drive to Maduro’s capture — now Greenland

Formally, Stephen Miller is President Donald Trump’s deputy chief of staff. But in reality, he functions as the Prime Minister of the United States and exercises more power and influence than senior Cabinet secretaries.

In Trump’s second term, Miller has provided the ideological foundations for some of the most high-profile items on the agenda and overseen their execution. He began by presiding over the immigration crackdown, supervising the brutal raid-and-detain approach, and doubling the size of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) in less than a year. He then played a leading role in shaping the American invasion of Venezuela.

Now, Miller has taken charge of the next top item on the agenda: the annexation of Greenland.

Unapologetically, Miller junked the notion of sovereignty and the rule of law as unmercenary “niceties” and declared that the United States would take Greenland simply because it could. He dismissed the need of any legal justification for the annexation.

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“We live in a world in which you can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else, but we live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power,” Miller told CNN.

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Reflecting on Trump’s first term, when Miller held a relatively junior position, he has made it clear that his current role would involve not just executing the president’s agenda but advancing his own ideological vision, which remained unfinished during the first term.

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Miller told CNN that it “has been the formal position of the US government since the beginning of this administration, frankly, going back into the previous Trump administration, that Greenland should be part of the United States”.

An ideologue, an executor, a driver — Miller is no yes-man

Miller’s ideas are so extreme that even Trump is wary of them.

“I’d love to have him come up and explain his true feelings — maybe not his truest feelings,” Trump said during an Oval Office briefing in October.

Miller is not merely an executor of Trump’s agenda or a driver of his worst impulses. He is shaping Trump’s agenda, sharpening it, and hardening even Trump himself. This is evident in Trump’s evolving stance on immigration.

What began as a so-called campaign to deport all foreigners living illegally in the United States has now become an unabashed campaign against all immigrants.

Miller has turned his ire against even legal immigrants from non-white and non-Christian countries — and Trump has silently approved. A few months ago, he would have rejected such a position.

For a long time, Trump spoke favourably about certain immigrants, such as those working in American farms and food processing plants, the technology sector, and his resorts or golf courses. But lately, those mentions have stopped as Miller has reshaped Trump’s ‘America First’ into ‘Americans Only’ where only his kind of Americans have a place: white. And Miller is unapologetic about wanting to shape America in his own image.

As per The Atlantic, during a debate preparation session in 2024, Miller clashed with a moderate Trump ally over immigration. Finally, frustrated by Miller’s extreme rhetoric, Trump interrupted and said: “Stephen, if you had it your way, everyone would look exactly like you.”

“That’s correct,” Miller replied unapologetically before resuming the debate.

Steve Bannon, a former Trump adviser and one of the early architects of the Maga movement, described Miller as the “prime minister” of America.

In an interview with The Atlantic, Bannon summed up Miller’s meteoric rise to power: “He always understood where power lies. No matter what —he can be coaching a Little League team— Miller can very quickly analyse.”