Immigration isn’t the only policy White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller is pulling the strings on.
The highly influential and polarizing aide is also directing strategy at the Pentagon, according to a report.
An anonymous ‘senior administration’ aide is said to have told Rolling Stone that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth ‘does what Stephen wants to do.’
According to the magazine’s opinionated report, rumors are circulating that Miller’s influence extends far beyond the White House all the way to the Pentagon.
Other unnamed officials in Trump’s administration whisper about Miller’s unofficial titles and nicknames behind his back, including the ‘shadow sec def,’ ‘Prime Minister Miller’ and ‘President Miller.’
Miller is one of Trump’s fiercest immigration hawks in the administration.
On the campaign trail and in the White House, Miller has advocated for restricting legal and illegal immigration.
Rolling Stone also cited an anonymous woman who claims in 2017 that Miller berated her at a bar in DC about where her clothes were made.
Stephen Miller is one of Trump’s most fierce immigration hawks when it comes to restricting illegal and legal immigration
The report claims Miller, right, next to JD Vance, center, wields complete control over Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, left
A senior administration official claims Hegseth does whatever Miller tells him to do
‘The story involves being grilled about which country was named on the collar of her clothing (don’t say China), and getting accused of being a “globalist” because she wasn’t the right kind of conservative,’ the Rolling Stone report reads.
‘Stephen Miller has been one of President Trump’s longest serving and most trusted advisers for nearly a decade, and I can personally attest to the respect that President Trump has for Stephen because I witness it every day,’ White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the Daily Mail.
‘In addition to being extremely effective at his jobs, Stephen is a loyal colleague and friend. Any suggestion otherwise is false gossip from people who don’t actually know him.’
‘Secretary of War Pete Hegseth enjoys a great working relationship with Stephen Miller. They are completely aligned on carrying out President Trump’s America First agenda,’ Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell told the Daily Mail.
Despite the bombshell report, the Rolling Stone article is filled with opinionated inaccuracies with no credible evidence to back up its claims.
The story claims ‘under Miller’s guiding hand, the government can deport (or kidnap and rendition) you or your spouse, without due process, to a foreign gulag, if the president feels like it’.
That claim is inaccurate. Miller has advocated for policies that weaken due process protections for migrants, but the government could not deport a US citizen to a ‘foreign gulag’.
In March 2025, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an undocumented migrant, was arrested by ICE and deported to El Salvador without a hearing. His wife was not notified at the time of his deportation.
On arrival, he was reportedly taken directly from the plane into Salvadoran military custody, accused of guerrilla ties. But the US justified it as removal of a person in the country illegally.
After his wife filed a lawsuit, The Supreme Court unanimously instructed the government to release him. In August, Garcia was again arrested by ICE at an airport in Baltimore.
Throughout the piece, Rolling Stone authors also refer to federal law enforcement as ‘nameless, unaccountable secret police, working at the whims of the President and his staff.’
This assertion is also false: The Trump administration does not have a secret police organization capable of throwing citizens into the back of vans.
Recently, masked ICE agents have made sweeping arrests of undocumented criminal migrants in major cities. However, those migrants are still given due process before deportation.
Rolling Stone cited an anonymous woman who claims in 2017 that Miller berated her at a DC bar about where her clothes were made
Hegseth, a former Fox News host, is a key part of Trump’s inner circle
‘The administration has made censoring media organizations, comedians, and aging rock stars a policy priority, in an anti-free-speech crusade waged from the West Wing to the Federal Communications Commission.’
The White House has not censored comedians or media organizations, although Trump has criticized late-night hosts who taunt him.
