With nearly everyone else gone, Stephen Miller’s racist influence on Donald Trump is stronger than ever
Going back to the 1970’s, Donald Trump has exhibited racist behavior. He discriminated against black people and other minorities in his real estate businesses. Then came the Central Park Jogger case where he wanted five young black men nailed to the cross even before they were tried. Where, when and why his racism originated may be up for debate, but currently it is being fanned by one of his few remaining White House senior advisers, Stephen Miller.
Miller grew up in the quite liberal city of Santa Monica, California. Even as a teen, Miller was disliked by his schoolmates and teachers because of his outrageous provocation. His father came from Belarus to escape Jewish persecution. Under Trump’s travel ban, Miller’s father would never have been allowed to move into the United States. Ironic, isn’t it, that the travel ban idea was pushed so hard by Stephen Miller!
Soon after his Bar Mitzvah, Miller started embracing his white nationalist extremism. During this ceremony, there was only one “friend” in attendance. Shortly after, Stephen let the young man know that they could no longer be friends because of his Latino heritage. In his high-school yearbook, he wrote a quotation from Teddy Roosevelt: “There can be no fifty-fifty Americanism in this country. There is room here for only 100 percent Americanism, only for those who are American and nothing else.”
Miller’s first national exposure came during the Duke University lacrosse-team scandal. It was here that he started writing for the school’s paper, The Chronicle, about the subject. He wrote, “Three of our peers faced a devastating year-long persecution because they were white and their accuser black.”
In 2007, he became the first coordinator of the Terrorism Awareness Project designed to make students aware of the “Islamic Jihad threat.” Soon after Miller’s television appearances, nearly 3,500 Duke alumni signed an open letter to him, decrying his political views. “We,… see nothing in your actions that furthers the values of intellectual honesty, tolerance, diversity, and respect that we seek to promote in the world,” the letter stated.
In January 2016, Stephen Miller joined the Donald Trump presidential campaign as chief policy advisor bringing his white-supremacy values with him. It was like pouring gasoline on a camp-fire. At every turn, you can see and hear Trump’s racist values explode. With so many others having departed the White House, Trump is now unfortunately more reliant on the racist Miller than ever.
I’m a retired clinical pharmacist. Always for the underdog. I’m a Democrat, a dog lover and love to cook!