(Headline USA) President-elect Donald Trump is naming longtime adviser Stephen Miller, a border-security hardliner, to be the deputy chief of policy in his new administration.
Confirming the appointment, Vice President-elect JD Vance posted a message of congratulations on Monday to Miller on X and said, “This is another fantastic pick by the president.”
This is another fantastic pick by the president. Congrats @StephenM! https://t.co/2kQCmbcRy3
— JD Vance (@JDVance) November 11, 2024
Miller is one of Trump’s longest-serving aides, dating back to his first campaign for the White House. He was a senior adviser in Trump’s first term and has been a central figure in many of his policy decisions, particularly on immigration.
Miller has also helped craft many of Trump’s speeches, and was often the public face of those policies during Trump’s first term in office and during his campaigns.
Since leaving the White House, Miller has served as the president of America First Legal, an organization of former Trump advisers fashioned as a conservative version of the American Civil Liberties Union, challenging the Biden administration, media companies, universities and others over issues such as freedom of speech and religion and national security.
He was also a frequent presence during Trump’s campaign this year, traveling aboard his plane and often speaking ahead of Trump during the pre-shows at his rallies.
Miller drew large cheers at Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden during the race’s final stretch, telling the crowd that, “your salvation is at hand,” after what he cast as “decades of abuse that has been heaped upon the good people of this nation—their jobs looted and stolen from them and shipped to Mexico, Asia and foreign countries.”
He said the Biden open-borders policies had “ripped away” the lives of victims from their loved ones due to an influx of violent gangs and other criminals.
“We stand here today at a crossroads,” he went on, casting the election as “a choice between betrayal and renewal, between self-destruction and salvation, between the failure of America or the triumph of America.”
Because it is not a Cabinet position, the appointment does not need Senate confirmation.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
