Holy Nosferatu, Batman. Who knew that the Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari was going to become the template for the Trump Cabinet? You think I jest? How I wish I were jesting. Rick Wilson predicted yesterday that whomever replaces Mike Waltz as National Security Advisor will be much worse than Waltz was and Wilson didn’t want to name names. Now I understand why. Axios is reporting Stephen Miller as the top contender for the NSA job.
President Trump‘s top policy adviser, Stephen Miller, is garnering buzz inside the White House as a top candidate to be the next national security adviser, five sources familiar with the situation tell Axios.
Why it matters: Miller — the deputy chief of staff and the brain behind Trump’s controversial immigration crackdown — is one of the president’s longest-serving and most-trusted aides.
- Miller’s name surfaced shortly after Trump removed Mike Waltz as national security adviser on Thursday and nominated Waltz to become the next United Nations ambassador.
- Secretary of State Marco Rubio is temporarily taking over Waltz’s responsibilities, but sources familiar with his thinking say he’s busy enough running the State Department.
Zoom in: Miller already is the administration’s Homeland Security adviser, and is an aggressive defender of the administration’s legal push for immediate deportations of unauthorized immigrants without court hearings.
- One White House source told Axios via text that Miller has made the Homeland Security Council run “like clockwork,” and that it’s “infinitely more effective than the NSC [National Security Council] with a tiny fraction” of the staff.
Zoom out: Trump has a penchant for putting his faith in a small number of advisers and piling responsibilities on their plate, so insiders say it wouldn’t be unusual for Miller hold multiple titles, just as Rubio does.
- “Marco and Stephen have worked really closely on immigration and it might be a perfect match,” said another White House source.
- “Given how well he’s worked with Marco, many see him as the perfect person to restore the role of the NSA to a staff-level policy role that reports to the chief of staff, instead of some inflated Cabinet position,” said another insider.
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- A fourth source said Miller signaled interest in the job Thursday, but Miller couldn’t be reached for comment to confirm.
- A fifth source said Miller might not want the job “if it takes him away from his true love: immigration policy.”
What’s next: Those who understand the president’s thinking say it’s unclear how long he wants to keep Rubio as national security adviser.
- But one of the administration sources said that “if Stephen wants the job, it’s hard to see why Trump wouldn’t say yes.”
A few ideas at first blush: Maybe getting Miller out of immigration would be a blessing, since the Tom Homan/Stephen Miller duo is making life sheer Hell not only for people who are illegal migrants but for people who have done nothing at all. You probably caught the story here a few days ago about the woman who was rousted from her bed by ICE and the FBI, and forced to stand out in the rain in her underwear, along with her three daughters. These were U.S. citizens. Their “crime” was to move into a house in Oklahoma where the previous occupants had gotten on the ICE radar.
And we still have yet to resolve the issue with Kilmar Abrego Garcia and his abduction from Maryland. Even the Supreme Court has been ignored by Trump’s goons.
So while moving Miller away from immigration might dial down the rancor and malice a few notches, the idea of Miller in national security is horrific on its face. National security is a field where diplomacy matters and strong arm, aggressive tactics blow up in peoples’ faces. Finesse is the watchword in national security and Miller is known for practicing the dead opposite of that.
Let’s keep an eye out. With any luck, Marco Rubio sees this as a horrific match as much as we do. So Rubio may decide to quash this notion. Or better yet, let’s ask Vladimir Putin what he thinks? We all know that he would love to see Steve Witkoff in the post. Would Putin view Miller as a useful idiot or just an idiot, period?
🤦🏻♂️. Good Tetragrammaton… no.
It’s almost getting to that level. I read another piece by Rick Wilson today and he said, again, he didn’t want to name the likely replacement for Waltz. Dear Gawd, maybe it will be Miller.