|
July 7, 2025 
|
|
|
 | By Laura Reston Deputy Editorial Director, Opinion |
|
If you follow politics, you probably know at least a little bit about Stephen Miller. You may even remember chapters in his life from past profiles: the son of wealthy California Democrats, the student provocateur, the architect of President Trump’s family separation policy. The piece we’re publishing today is different: It’s a sweeping look not just at how he went from obscure Senate aide to Trump’s right-hand man in less than a decade, but also how he held on to that power — and what his singular position at Trump’s side means for the future of the conservative movement.
Jason Zengerle and I began talking about this essay some months ago. He’d reported on the Department of Homeland Security during the first Trump term and was struck by how much had changed this time around. All roads in this administration now seemed to lead back to Miller; he had emerged from the four years when Trump was out of power with the skills and knowledge he needed to impose his transformative vision on the United States.
With ICE getting tens of billions of dollars from Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill,” Miller will effectively have a standing army at his disposal, poised to execute a plan that has been years in the making. And by Miller leveraging key lessons from his journey through the interregnum, Zengerle writes, his influence now extends beyond immigration, to the “battles the Trump administration is fighting on higher education, transgender rights, discrimination law and foreign policy.”
What interests me now is how long this can last. Trump is famously mercurial, and while Miller has outlasted many of his rivals in the fight for the president’s attention and loyalty, there may come a moment when Trump feels that Miller has pushed too hard, too fast.
Read more:
Here’s what we’re focusing on today:
