The White Nationalist Education of Stephen Miller
Jean Guerrero’s new book explores how Stephen Miller became one of the most powerful, anti-immigrant White House advisers in history
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White House senior adviser Stephen Miller has been the driving force behind the Trump administration’s most racist policies over the past few years, breathing life to an agenda long-imagined by white nationalists. But how did the descendant of Jewish refugees find himself crafting policies that would have certainly banned his family from coming into the United States in the first place? Investigative journalist Jean Guerrero tries to answer the question of Miller’s embrace of white supremacy in her new biography Hatemonger: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, and the White Nationalist Agenda, out on August 11.
Guerrero carefully charts the 34-year-old’s radicalization, from being mentored by right-wing activists in his teenage years to crossing paths with white nationalist Richard Spencer at Duke University, before landing as a public relations flack for some of Capitol Hill’s most conservative members. It’s in Donald Trump, however, that Miller sees a kindred spirit and a potential savior against the brown hordes he fears are invading America.
We spoke with Guerrero about how Miller became a case study in indoctrination, how he laundered the language of white nationalism to make Trump more appealing, and the impact his anti-immigrant policies will have on America for years to come.
GEN: Why did you want to write a book about Stephen Miller?
Jean Guerrero: It started when I was covering the family separation crisis at the border. I’d been interviewing all of these parents who had had their children taken away from them by U.S. officials. I was hearing the White House and then-DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen talking about how this policy was really about national security, and how they were only separating people who had broken the law. I was on the ground at the busiest border crossing in the United States; I knew that that wasn’t the case. It raised the question: If this isn’t about law and order, then what is it about? That’s what led me to Stephen Miller, the man behind most of the administration’s immigration policies. He had…
