The Wall Street Journal

How Stephen Miller Stokes Trump’s Boundary-Pushing Impulses

The White House aide has been an architect of aggressive immigration sweeps in U.S. cities and deadly boat strikes in the Caribbean

By Josh Dawsey and Tarini Parti

Feb. 3, 2026 7:00 pm ET

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller arriving last month in Zurich, Switzerland.

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller arriving last month in Zurich, Switzerland. Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Moments after federal officers fatally shot Alex Pretti, his body still lying facedown on an icy Minneapolis street, Customs and Border Protection officials texted Stephen Miller, the White House aide and presidential confidant who framed the government’s response.

While White House communication and policy aides tried to sort out what they knew, what they should say and who would brief President Trump, Miller jumped ahead. Three hours after the shooting, Miller told the world via X that the slain VA nurse was a “domestic terrorist” who had “tried to assassinate federal law enforcement,” a description that set off one of the Trump administration’s biggest political crises of the president’s second term.

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None of the language Miller used had been approved or reviewed, said administration officials familiar with the matter. Miller, who shared a photo of the handgun found on Pretti’s hip with White House officials, told colleagues his comments were based on early information.

Not long after Miller’s tweet, Trump posted the photo of the gun on his own social-media post, saying the weapon was loaded and ready to go. “What is that all about?” Trump wrote.

Video footage soon contradicted Miller’s portrayal of Pretti and marked a rare setback for the singularly powerful White House adviser who has shaped many of the president’s most incendiary impulses. Miller has been an architect in almost every boundary-pushing effort in Trump’s second term, according to White House officials familiar with the matter, including immigration sweeps in U.S. cities and the deadly boat strikes in the Caribbean.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, left, and Miller arriving at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., on Feb. 1.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, left, and Miller arriving at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., on Feb. 1. Al Drago/Getty Images

When protests spread in Minneapolis, Miller raised the idea of the president invoking the Insurrection Act to send in military troops, a possibility that Trump later voiced publicly, according to White House officials familiar with the matter.

After immigration agents fatally shot Renee Good in early January, senior officials from the White House and Department of Homeland Security discussed whether to continue the operation in Minneapolis, according to officials familiar with the discussions. Miller said even more officers should be deployed, a White House official said, both to continue raids and protect agents conducting them. Miller reminded the president of their original goal in the city: an immigration crackdown related to welfare fraud by Somali migrants.

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Miller, a 40-year-old from historically progressive Santa Monica, Calif., has been by Trump’s side through thick and thin since 2016, earning the president’s trust in part by proving that an aggressive approach to curbing illegal immigration would be a political winner. After Trump’s 2020 election defeat, Miller helped plot Trump’s return to the Oval Office.

Miller has repeatedly said that bad people have been pouring into the U.S. and that the administration should respond with aggressive law enforcement. He confronts aides who bring up legal checks that might hinder his pursuit and dismisses concerns over public reaction to the administration’s most far-reaching measures, White House officials said.

Stephen Miller listening to President Trump speak in the White House on Jan. 9, 2018.

Stephen Miller listening to President Trump speak in the White House on Jan. 9, 2018. Evan Vucci/Associated Press

After agents detained two U.S. citizens working at a Target store in Minneapolis, Miller defended the actions, a White House official said, while other aides grimaced at the widely shared videos.

“Stephen had the unique ability to take the President’s idea on complex topics and hammer through a set of policies that drive the action and deliver. He doesn’t overwhelm you with a charm offensive—it’s action,” said Stephen K. Bannon, the president’s former strategist.

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Miller was influential in Trump’s first term, but his power has expanded in the second one. He personally drafted or edited every executive order the president signed, and faced little opposition from administration officials to his work to reshape immigration policy. Miller helped come up with the idea to blow up drug boats, officials said, and to deport migrants to a prison in El Salvador using the wartime Alien Enemies Act, an action now under court challenge.

Senior administration officials credit Miller with increasing cooperation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other law-enforcement agencies to the immigration effort, as well as pushing the State Department to force countries to take back immigrants. White House officials who defend Miller say his work as homeland security adviser requires his involvement in a range of the president’s priorities.

Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, echoed Miller’s early description of Pretti and has told others that Miller directs major decisions at her department, a characterization a White House official disputed. Noem said she runs DHS.

“There’s no question Stephen has been a linchpin in President Trump’s historic success to secure the border and more than 3 million illegal aliens exiting the country,” Noem said in a statement.

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“Stephen brings together all corners of the government to ensure every single policy, both foreign and domestic, is implemented at record speed. The results over the course of the past year speak for themselves,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

‘Amateur hour’

In recent weeks, more Republicans have openly questioned Trump’s immigration strategy and its chief architect. North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis said Trump should fire Miller and Noem, citing their characterization of Pretti as a terrorist. “That is amateur hour at its worst,” he said, adding, “Stephen Miller never fails to live up to my expectations of incompetence.”

Cracks have appeared even in the Oval Office. The president, aware of polls showing that much of his immigration agenda isn’t popular, has told advisers he wasn’t comfortable with how far Miller has gone on some fronts, according to people who have spoken with Trump. The president has said that business officials are calling and complaining to him about longtime workers being thrown out of the country.

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After Miller described Pretti as a terrorist and would-be assassin in the hours following the Jan. 24 shooting, Leavitt said at a news briefing that she spoke only for the president, who hadn’t made any such claims. Miller told colleagues he was frustrated by the coverage of the whole episode.

Yet Trump allies recognize the lasting power of Miller, who was in Trump’s inner circle for all three of his presidential campaigns. In 2024, while other advisers wanted Trump to center his White House bid on the economy, Miller pushed for immigration.

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller after speaking with reporters outside the White House.

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller after speaking with reporters outside the White House. Evan Vucci/Associated Press

Early in Trump’s second term, Miller told federal agents in a meeting at the headquarters of Immigration and Customs Enforcement that the president was disappointed in their numbers. Miller urged the agents to “just go out there and arrest illegal aliens,” without bothering with targeted lists, according to people familiar with the meeting.

Miller’s comments marked the start of a more aggressive enforcement campaign focused on progressive, Democratic Party-led cities. Since the shift, masked and heavily armed federal agents have detained some U.S. citizens and people with legal status in broad immigration sweeps, and, in Minneapolis and elsewhere, drawn street protests and violent confrontations.

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While leading daily homeland security-related calls with administration officials, Miller, who frequently stressed the first-year goal of one million deportations, pushed officials to ramp up their numbers according to people familiar with the calls. He demanded 3,000 arrests a day—a number deemed unrealistic by many federal agents—and came up with the idea of offering recruitment bonuses as high as $50,000 for thousands of new ICE agents.

Miller pushed for sweeps at Home Depot and other spots where day workers gather, though Trump has at times been asked to temper raids at businesses. Following immigration arrests in September by federal agents at a Hyundai Motor factory in Georgia, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp called the president and asked for the release of 300 South Korean workers, according to administration officials. The president publicly said he opposed the raid and told Kemp privately that he didn’t know it was happening. He told aides repeatedly that he didn’t want any more sweeps at factories or farms, the officials said.

Even after Trump signaled his displeasure, Miller continued to argue for large raids, according to people familiar with the discussions. He wanted the administration to surpass the 400,000 deportations tallied in 2014 under former President Barack Obama.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, left, speaking with Miller at the White House in October to launch the Homeland Security Task Force.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, left, speaking with Miller at the White House in October to launch the Homeland Security Task Force. Molly Riley/White House/Zuma Press

The administration’s immigration push is split between the sweeping measures in line with Miller’s view, and the belief of Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar and Todd Lyons, the ICE director—that agents should target immigrants with criminal histories or final deportation orders.

Noem elevated Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino to lead enforcement operations in the Democratic cities of Minneapolis, Los Angeles and Chicago. Bovino, who reported directly to Noem, became the face of the administration’s immigration crackdown. His militarized enforcement and clashes with protesters ignited a public backlash that endangered ICE officers, some DHS officials said privately. Bovino has since returned to his duties in California.

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During Trump’s first year in office, ICE had deported 475,000 migrants living illegally, surpassing Obama’s 2014 total but well short of the administration’s goal, according to an agency official with access to the data. DHS has said there were 675,000 deportations and claimed, without evidence, that 2.2 million people have self-deported.

Expansive portfolio

Miller is known for working longer hours than most anyone at the White House. His office is on the second floor of the West Wing, but he usually floats around the first floor, including the Oval Office. He often speaks in sentences that can seem to stretch for minutes, asking rhetorical questions designed to persuade colleagues to see matters his way. Miller rarely leaves a written trail of his orders, using Signal, an encrypted voice and text-messaging app, to communicate.

Unlike most of his colleagues, Miller has Secret Service protection. He moved his family to a military base after protests outside his Arlington, Va., home. He asked officials at the FBI and Justice Department to investigate protesters, including people who posted his home address online, according to administration officials.

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Stephen Miller and his wife, Katie Miller, watching the White House Easter Egg Roll last April.

Stephen Miller and his wife, Katie Miller, watching the White House Easter Egg Roll last April. Andrew Leyden/Zuma Press

Early in Trump’s second term, Miller amassed power in his own homeland security council and outfoxed others with his command of the workings of government, according to White House advisers. His authority, officials said, derives from his ability to manage the president.

He often uses gory images to persuade Trump. After a Department of Government Efficiency staffer, Edward Coristine, also known as “Big Balls,” was beaten in an attempted carjacking last summer, Miller brought the president a large photo of the bloodied man and told him that crime in Washington was climbing. Trump soon posted the photo himself on social media, and deployed the National Guard, saying it was necessary to make the city safe.

More recently, Miller has broadened his portfolio beyond immigration to national security. In early January, he boasted on CNN that the U.S. could pursue Trump’s ambitions to control the Arctic with an invasion. “Nobody’s going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland,” Miller said in the TV interview. Other White House officials said they were amazed at the comments, which weren’t authorized by Trump.

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In another TV appearance, Miller talked about Venezuela, prompting Trump to ask aides why Miller was speaking. “He doesn’t do foreign policy,” Trump said, according to a senior administration official.

After the killing of Charlie Kirk, Trump signed an executive order targeting liberal groups he said were promoting political violence. Miller held calls with the Treasury Department and other administration officials to figure out how they could investigate the groups’ financing. He pushed officials to use the same methods employed on foreign terrorist organizations after the 9/11 attacks, according to officials familiar with the calls. He has also sought to raise the price of visas, knowing the president wanted the government to make money from the program and saw expensive visas as a way to attract affluent immigrants, White House officials said.

When Miller celebrated his 40th birthday last year at the swanky, members-only Ned’s Club in Washington, House Speaker Mike Johnson and most of Trump’s cabinet members showed up, attendees said.

Stephen Miller, right.

Stephen Miller, right. Joey Sussman/ZUMA Press

Days after the Pretti shooting, Miller’s spot in Trump’s orbit appeared unchanged. Miller and his wife were at the exclusive Executive Branch, a private club in Washington affiliated with Trump family members, following the screening of the Melania Trump documentary.

The performer Akon took the stage, attendees said, and Miller worked the room.

This weekend, Miller milled about with the president and cabinet members during the wedding of another top White House aide at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla.

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