The partnership between President Donald Trump and centibillionaire Elon Musk appears to be intact despite rumors of friction between the Tesla/SpaceX CEO and members of Trump's inner circle. That may be due to work done behind the scenes by top White House advisor Stephen Miller.
WIRED reported Thursday that Miller and his wife Katie are the "power couple" that shepherded Musk's journey from a tech magnate who sparred with Trump on Twitter into being the 47th president's key instrument in smashing the federal bureaucracy. Katie Miller is regarded as the "comms sherpa" for the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. And Stephen Miller is Trump's top immigration advisor — a position he held in Trump's first administration. An unnamed Republican even referred to Miller as Trump's "prime minister," while another GOP source referred to Miller as "PM" (a designation for "prime minister") to WIRED.
"Stephen Miller’s knowledge of the federal apparatus, Katie Miller’s contacts on Capitol Hill and the couple’s good standing among Trump loyalists, coupled with Musk’s relentless ambition and effectively infinite resources, made the scale of the DOGE government takeover possible," WIRED's Jake Lahut wrote. "Musk is not the independent actor he’s often portrayed as and taken to be, in other words, but is rather carrying out actions essentially in concert with the man to whom the president has delegated much of the day-to-day work of governance."
READ MORE: Stephen Miller melts down on live TV: 'I will be as excited as I want to be!'
Like Musk, Katie Miller is officially a "special government employee," which means she can only work 130 days in a given 365-day period and that she is subjected to fewer ethics rules that typical government employees have to follow. Lahut reported that she has become "key intermediary" between DOGE and the Trump administration. As the primary go-between, she delivers "the DOGE message of the day" to agencies, and personally delivers any bad news to Musk.
Both the South African centibillionaire and Stephen Miller reportedly have a shared mission of shredding the federal workforce. The longtime Trump advisor has previously associated federal workers with "radical left communists" and "criminal cartels." Miller was also involved in the Heritage Foundation's far-right Project 2025 playbook, with his organization America First Legal serving as one of Project 2025's central partners. One cornerstone of Project 2025 is firing federal workers en masse so they can be replaced with political loyalists.
Lahut described the Millers as "glorified babysitters for Musk" who make sure that he "stays within bounds, insofar as that's possible." One Republican source anonymously characterized Musk as a "preteen child."
"[Musk] gets a lot of grace,“ the Republican told WIRED. "Many people aren’t nervous, because Stephen Miller is deeply involved. And Katie.”
READ MORE: 'Here's a civics lesson for you': Stephen Miller schooled by Democratic congresswoman
Click here to read WIRED's report in full (subscription required).