Reports that President Donald Trump's advisor Stephen Miller has been "sidelined" by the president could be a ruse, senior administration sources said.
The Atlantic published a profile on Monday describing Miller as on the outs in the Trump administration. The Daily Beast on Tuesday reported that some insiders believe it might all be part of an effort to cover up Miller's high profile and his ability to maintain control of immigration policy.
According to the Atlantic, Miller has been frozen out of Homeland Security calls. However, Miller was also the one behind the harsh immigration policies that resulted in the shooting and killing of protesters. Former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem testified to the U.S. Senate that it was Miller who said that one of the Americans shot and killed, Alex Pretti, was a "domestic terrorist." He was not a terrorist, he was a nurse at the Veterans Administration.
Before speaking to the Senate, Noem told a person who relayed her remarks to Axios, "everything I've done, I've done at the direction of the president and Stephen." Noem also blamed Miller for setting daily arrest "quotas" for immigration agents, The Independent reported.
Reports then revealed that Miller was heavily involved in Noem's ousting.
Trump has vacillated on whether he believes ICE went "too far," the BBC reported.
Miller has since been replaced by Tom Homan and CBP commissioner Rodney Scott, The Atlantic report said. But, he's still pulling the strings, senior administration sources told the Beast.
Meanwhile, Miller isn't on television as much as he was before former Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) took over the Department of Homeland Security.
"The narrative and media briefing from the White House is a smokescreen which Miller has engineered to keep him running immigration policy while Homan, 64, absorbs the public heat," said the Daily Beast's Substack.
“Miller and Homan are in lock step. It’s almost like a tag team,” one official said.
The top Trump aide is also meeting regularly with Mullin to check in on immigration policy, tactics and results, sources told the reporter. They also said that it has been clear from the beginning of Mullin's appointment that Miller is the one in charge, not the former Senator.
Mullin came in and “told Miller how well he had been doing so far,” an insider told the Beast. It was described as a show of deference from Mullin to give props to the power behind DHS.
Sources said that Miller's efforts to downplay his profile are part of the effort to dodge his role in the increased violence in Minnesota for "Operation Metro Surge."
Miller demanded at least 3,000 arrests daily, but in March, it dropped to about 30,000 for the whole month. That was down from 36,000 in January. DHS never met the quotas that Miller set.
"But rather than fight the perception of being in retreat, Miller has chosen to weaponize it — letting Homan, an acting ICE director in the first Trump administration, publicly inherit Noem’s crown while the pair tighten their grip on day-to-day operations," the report noted.