Few people who held senior positions during US President Donald Trump’s first term have remained in similarly influential roles during his second. Fewer still wield as much influence over the direction of the administration as Stephen Miller.
Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security, has evolved from a young, uncompromising immigration adviser into one of the president’s most powerful aides – and perhaps one of the central architects of Trump’s agenda in his second term.
One of Miller’s greatest sources of power is his longstanding proximity to Trump. He first emerged as a prominent speechwriter and policy adviser during Trump’s initial campaign and first administration. Unlike many of his former colleagues, Miller has remained a constant presence in Trump’s inner circle, helping translate the president’s political instincts into government policy.
Raised in a Jewish family in Santa Monica, California, Miller embraced conservative politics as a teenager, later worked for then-sen. Jeff Sessions, and joined Trump’s first presidential campaign in 2016. After leaving the White House in 2021, he co-founded America First Legal, using litigation to challenge Biden administration policies, before returning with a broader mandate.
In May 2025, Miller and then-Homeland security secretary Kristi Noem told ICE leaders to aim for at least 3,000 arrests a day – roughly triple the early-term pace, underscoring Miller’s authority in the White House. The administration’s broader immigration campaign has targeted both illegal and aspects of legal immigration, including visa policies, asylum procedures and birthright citizenship – reflecting Miller’s longstanding view that the US immigration system has been far too permissive. But while Miller is best known for advancing Trump’s mass deportation agenda, his influence extends well beyond immigration.
Reporting in 2025 and 2026 placed him among the senior officials helping shape the administration’s approach to Venezuela and to drug cartels in Latin America; in March, Miller argued publicly that the cartels could be defeated only through military power.
In his White House role, Miller has also been deeply involved in domestic policy and in the administration’s efforts to exercise presidential authority more aggressively. He is no longer simply an immigration specialist. Miller has become a senior administration official helping shape its broader governing philosophy: a powerful presidency, extensive use of executive authority and a willingness to challenge institutional constraints that have been accepted for decades.
In a January 2026 Bloomberg Businessweek profile, former House speaker Newt Gingrich – described as a close Trump adviser – said Miller “seems comparable to a cabinet member,” adding that the president treats him as a journeyman able to play “six or seven different positions.”
Some later accounts described a partial shift of day-to-day immigration operations away from Miller after changes at the Department of Homeland Security. Still, he has remained a principal center of policy power in the West Wing.
His critics view his influence with concern, arguing that Miller’s hard-line approach is pushing the administration toward policies that threaten constitutional protections and civil rights. His supporters, by contrast, see him as one of the few advisers capable of turning Trump’s broad political promises into concrete government policy.
Miller’s Jewish identity has itself become part of the debate around him. He has described himself as a practicing Jew and an American Jew. Jewish organizations and rabbis have sharply criticized immigration policies associated with him, invoking Jewish values and American Jewry’s long history of advocacy for immigrants and refugees.
And that may be Miller’s greatest significance. Trump makes clear what he wants to happen. Miller helps turn those instincts into policy.