Stephen N. Miller (born August 23, 1985) is an American political advisor serving as White House deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security advisor since 2025. He previously served as senior advisor to the president and director of speechwriting from 2017 to 2021 during the first Trump administration. Considered one of the most influential figures of the Trump administrations and Trumpism movement, his politics have been described as far-right, anti-immigration, and white nationalist.
Miller grew up in Santa Monica, California, and attended Duke University, where he was a columnist for The Chronicle and president of the Duke chapter of Students for Academic Freedom. After graduating in 2007, he worked as press secretary for US representatives Michele Bachmann and John Shadegg. In 2009, he joined the staff of Alabama senator Jeff Sessions, where he worked on immigration policy and helped defeat the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013. As an aide to Sessions, Miller influenced the direction of Breitbart News. He advised both of Trump's presidential campaigns. After Trump's loss in the 2020 election, Miller founded America First Legal, a conservative legal advocacy organization, in 2021.
Miller has been a central figure in the Trump administration's immigration policy, including the family separation policy and Executive Order 13769, which restricted travel from several Muslim-majority countries. As director of speechwriting, he supervised the writing of Trump's inaugural and State of the Union addresses. Miller is on the Southern Poverty Law Center's list of extremists. His influence and views are the subject of both traditional and independent media, as well as of both domestic and international.Schmidt, Steve, The architect of fear, The Warning, July 20, 2026Villarreal, Alexandra, Trump ally Stephen Miller leads sweeping push to accelerate removal of migrant children - Exclusive: key White House loyalist orchestrating multi-agency effort condemned by critics as cruel and racist, The Guardian, September 19, 2026
Family, early life, and education (1985–2007) Stephen N. Miller was born on August 23, 1985, in the affluent North of Montana neighborhood in Santa Monica, California, the second of three children of Miriam () and Michael Miller. Miller is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent.Sargent, Greg, Inside Stephen Miller's Dark Plot to Build a MAGA Terror State: He is descended from Russian Jews—you know, the kind of people who were once denounced as alien and unassimilable. Today, his project is to unleash government persecution of those he deems alien and unassimilable. How far will Miller's sadistic designs go?, The New Republic, December 15, 2025 His family's lineage escaped Russian pogroms and the Holocaust.
Miller's mother, Miriam, was a Columbia University graduate and became a social worker. She grew up in a family of New Deal Democrats, but according to biographers, like the majority of the era's Californians, had conservative views. Miller's father, Michael, was a lawyer and worked in the Miller family real estate business. In 1998, when Miller was thirteen, his parents sold their home and bought a smaller home in a less affluent area.
Miller went to Hebrew school at Beth Shir Shalom, where classmates thought of him as a contrarian.
In 1999, he began attending Santa Monica High School. Miller opposed his high school's chapter of the Chicano Student Movement of Aztlán and was described by the chapter founder as having taunted immigrants; he reportedly insisted to other students and teachers that they speak English. Miller called into talk-radio's The Larry Elder Show (1993–2008; 2010–2014) and successfully brought the host to his high school. He later appeared on Elder's show after the September 11 attacks to describe an incident in which a Canadian teacher placed the flag of the United States on the floor and discussed its importance. Although other students remembered otherwise, Miller alleged that the teacher had dragged the flag across the floor and trampled over it. By his count, Miller appeared on the Elder show sixty-nine times and their relationship continued for years.
He was confirmed at the Santa Monica Synagogue, a Reform temple. At Santa Monica, Miller garnered attention and was lampooned in an April Fools' Day issue of the school newspaper, The Samohi. In 2002, he ran for student announcer, giving a speech in which he questioned being told to pick up trash when the school hired custodians. The student body disapproved of Miller's comments and he lost the election. Miller was involved in the school's band program, tennis, religious studies, and political and youth groups. Jean Guerrero writes that his favorite musician was Elvis Presley and favorite film was Martin Scorsese's Casino (1995). Guerrero writes that at times he copied the look of Robert De Niro portraying a mobster, and that he dressed up like the movies for trips to Las Vegas, where he was a skilled craps player. During high school and continuing into university, Miller often wore a suit. He told Elder that he liked to make a good first impression. As an adult, he continued to wear expensive, American-made, bespoke suits.
Conservative writer David Horowitz heard Miller on The Larry Elder Show. Horowitz became another long-term relationship for Miller who invited him to speak at his high school. Horowitz reciprocated, inviting Miller to his home. Miller made several demands in an article on Horowitz's website, FrontPage Magazine. He asked for the school's culture to embrace "inclusive patriotism", in contrast to multiculturalism and that his school institute the Pledge of Allegiance five days a week. The school instituted the pledge, which Miller reported as a "huge victory". He wrote that Santa Monica's principal and its district superintendent blamed Miller for having caused a tax increase initiative to fail. According to Miller's article, the principal distributed a memorandum to teachers, ordering them to discuss the Iraq War in a neutral and balanced manner. In Guerrero's estimation, by his graduation in 2003, Miller had received more publicity than "probably any other student in class".
University (2003–2007)
Miller began attending Duke University in 2003 to study political science. In 2004, outraged at Duke's decision to schedule a Palestine Solidarity Movement conference, Miller founded the university's chapter of Horowitz's Students for Academic Freedom and rallied students to oppose the conference. The following year, he was the author of a column in The Duke Chronicle, Duke's student newspaper, titled "Miller Time." Miller continued to critique multiculturalism. His combative debate strategy, particularly in his column, earned Miller a reputation for pugnacity. Miller invited Horowitz to speak at Duke, who in turn named Miller to lead the Terrorism Awareness Project, an initiative that conflated Muslims and Arabs with terrorists. Miller appeared on Fox & Friends (1998–present) to promote the effort.
In the aftermath of the Duke lacrosse rape hoax, Miller defended the three members of the Duke Blue Devils men's lacrosse team who were accused of rape, arguing that they had been presumed guilty for being white males. He appeared on Nancy Grace (2005–2016) to further advocate for the lacrosse players. After reports emerged that the accuser, Crystal Mangum, had concealed the results of a negative DNA test, Miller continued to discuss the issue, condemning an advertisement that noted the persistent fear of students "who know themselves to be objects of racism and sexism" in an interview with Bill O'Reilly on The O'Reilly Factor (1996–2017). Miller later told McKay Coppins of The Atlantic that his support of the players was his greatest college achievement.
By junior year, Miller had joined the Duke Conservative Union. He had become the organization's executive director by the beginning of his senior year, a position that allowed him to fundraise. Through the union, Miller met Richard B. Spencer, who later became known as a white supremacist. The two organized an immigration debate in March 2007.
Although he told Nancy Grace he wanted to be a prosecutor and that Horowitz knew that he would like to be a senator, Miller skipped his scheduled LSAT that was required for law school admission applications. Later, Miller said he was focused on establishing a memorial for the September 11 attacks.
Early career
Congressional work and Breitbart influence (2007–2016)
After graduating from Duke University, Miller traveled across Eurasia, including embarking on a Birthright Israel trip. Through David Horowitz, Miller began working for Minnesota representative Michele Bachmann by December 2007 as her press secretary. He moved to Washington, D.C., where his family had assisted him in purchasing a condominium. By 2009, Miller—and Horowitz—had become disillusioned with Bachmann. Horowitz referred Miller to Arizona representative John Shadegg. Miller participated in Tea Party protests against Barack Obama with Shadegg. Horowitz recommended him again and in June 2009, Miller began working for Alabama senator Jeff Sessions as his press secretary. Miller sought to legitimize his criticisms of immigration and garner a larger audience; he formed relationships with anti-immigration organizations, including the Center for Immigration Studies, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, and NumbersUSA. Miller became Sessions's communications manager by August 2014. He met Steve Bannon and Andrew Breitbart—both men recognized Miller from his rebukes of his high school—and Bannon became an enduring ally. That year, his parents helped him purchase a million condominium in CityCenterDC.
As a communications aide to Sessions, Miller worked to influence the editorial coverage of Breitbart News. He sent editors links to the far-right website VDARE and the white-supremacist online-only magazine American Renaissance; Miller's efforts legitimized Breitbarts language in Congress and influenced The Daily Callers immigration coverage. Miller, joined by Sessions, mounted a successful campaign to disparage the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act, an immigration reform bill proposed by four Democratic senators and four Republican senators known as the Gang of Eight. The bill passed in the Democratic-controlled Senate, but was not considered in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives after Miller brought House staffers a binder with talking points and research he had conducted. Miller assisted Dave Brat in mounting a primary challenge to defeat Virginia representative Eric Cantor, who was serving as House majority leader at the time. In January 2015, Miller and Sessions authored Immigration Handbook for the New Republican Majority, a rebuttal to the Republican Party's post-mortem after Mitt Romney's loss in the 2012 presidential election.