Stephen Miller muncul sebagai arsitek utama serangan Trump terhadap kota-kota Demokrat | Politik berita

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Follow In the hours after a chaotic confrontation in Chicago last week that culminated with a federal agent shooting a local woman, top White House aide Stephen Miller delivered an urgent order to Department of Defense personnel: Prepare to send in the troops.

The facts on the ground at the time remained murky.

Federal officials claimed local police were refusing to provide backup as they struggled to maintain control of the scene.

The Chicago Police Department said otherwise, insisting officers were immediately sent to help out.

But inside a West Wing that had waffled for weeks over the momentous step of dispatching National Guard to the nation’s third-largest city, it offered a clear impetus, two sources familiar with the discussions said.

“Domestic terrorism and seditious insurrection,” Miller labeled the scene in a social media post, as administration officials hurried to draw up a deployment plan in a matter of hours.

The abrupt decision to send the National Guard into Chicago has ratcheted tensions between the White House and Democratic-led Illinois to new heights in the days since.

It’s opened a volatile new front in President Donald Trump’s offensive in blue cities, while further testing the limits of his rapidly expanding authority.

And at the center of the controversial operation is Miller — the White House deputy chief of staff for policy who has accumulated such sprawling influence over the administration’s activities that he’s often referred to in Trump circles simply as “the prime minister.” Miller attends a meeting with US President Donald Trump and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., in the Oval Office on July 22.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Miller’s existential showdown The 40-year-old immigration hardliner has spearheaded the federal government’s increasing encroachment into Democratic cities, marshaling federal law enforcement forces behind the scenes to carry out deportation raids and coordinate crackdowns that have put residents on edge and left local elected officials scrambling to respond.

Now, as the administration tries to expand its presence in Chicago and Portland over the objections of local leaders, Miller has taken on a far more public and pugilistic role — casting the effort as an existential showdown against American demonstrators and officials he’s branded as domestic terrorists for impeding his mass deportation campaign.

“The struggle that is taking place right now is between the lawful exercise of power by the American people through a duly elected government, versus the unlawful exercise of street violence in the form of domestic terrorism,” Miller told reporters earlier this week.

“We see this playing out over and over and over.” In a flurry of television appearances, interviews and social media posts, Miller has escalated his rhetoric to newly incendiary levels, attacking judicial orders blocking the Guard’s deployment as a “legal insurrection” and arguing that Trump should have largely unfettered power to direct troops where he wants within the country.

In an interview on Berita on Monday, Miller drew particular attention for referring to Trump’s “plenary authority” — a term that refers to unlimited power — before pausing when a technical glitch caused a different Berita channel’s audio to begin playing in his in-ear monitor.

A senior White House official said that was meant to refer to powers reserved to the president, and ones that the judiciary could not “second guess.” “The president has plenary authority to conduct his role as commander in chief, which includes, for example, the decision to call up the National Guard into federal service,” the official said.

Federal agents, including members of the Department of Homeland Security and Border Patrol, deploy a smoke grenade against protesters outside a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland, Oregon, on October 4.

Spencer Platt/Getty Images Miller has portrayed protesters in Chicago and Portland as violent threats to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, suggesting the cities, with minimal evidence, are overrun with left-wing agitators engaged in a coordinated rebellion against the federal government.

Miller has seized in particular on last week’s shooting in Chicago, which Homeland Security officials characterized as a “defensive” response to drivers ramming a Customs and Border Protection agent’s car.

The woman who was shot, Marimar Martinez, has disputed the government’s account.

Judges are still weighing whether to block Trump’s deployment of the National Guard, in a legal battle that the senior White House official said was expected, but which the administration believes it will ultimately win in the appellate courts.

In the meantime, Miller has vowed to find other ways to circumvent any restrictions if needed — raising the prospect that the White House could invoke the Insurrection Act to grant Trump sweeping powers to federalize the National Guard and dispatch the military into American cities.

“They are actually, as we speak, trying to overthrow the core law enforcement function of the federal government,” Miller said in the interview with Berita.

“It’s absurd, it’s unconstitutional and must be put down.” The dark overtones have set Miller at odds with elected officials in those cities who accuse ICE and other federal agents of being the ones provoking confrontation, and with judges who have repeatedly determined that the situation on the ground bears little resemblance to the administration’s characterizations.

Miller joins White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and President Donald Trump's grandchildren as Trump speaks to members of the media aboard Air Force One on July 29, while returning from a trip to Scotland.

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images A strategic offensive Even within Trump’s orbit, Miller’s forcefulness has surprised advisers who had long grown accustomed to his strident views, according to three people familiar with the dynamics, with some privately worrying that his militant language risks turning Americans against Trump on the crime and immigration issues where he’s traditionally held an advantage.

Yet allies say Miller’s harsh offensive is also a strategic one, rooted in a broader effort to catapult the administration’s portrayals of out-of-control crime into the public consciousness — and build support for a maximalist Trump agenda that relies heavily on exercising his executive authorities.

“There’s full comfort with him being on the air and driving the message,” said one of the people familiar with White House dynamics.

“He’s not a matinee idol.

But he’s a very effective messenger for what the president’s trying to do.” A video monitor in the White House's press briefing room shows Miller with Vice President JD Vance, as Vance hosts an episode of "the Charlie Kirk Show" on September 15, following the activist's assassination.

Jonathan Ernst/Reuters In a sign of Trump’s approval, the president and other senior officials have adopted Miller’s heated rhetoric in recent days.

After Miller on Monday characterized Illinois Gov.

JB Pritzker as providing “aid and comfort” to protesters he called domestic terrorists, Trump later called for Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to be jailed.

“I’ve seen the law, and when you have a group of people where the police call off the safety for ICE officials — I’ve understood that, and I’ve read it today in numerous journals — that that’s illegal,” Trump said on Wednesday.

“And the governor knew.” In a statement, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt praised Miller as “one of President Trump’s most trusted and longest serving aides for a reason — he delivers.” The White House also noted that Miller’s vast purview as deputy chief of staff for policy as well as homeland security adviser naturally grants him a role in executing on all of Trump’s policy priorities, and that he regularly coordinates with a range of Cabinet secretaries including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

A protester is detained by police and federal officers outside a US.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland, Oregon, on October 6, 2025.

Ethan Swope/AP Sprawling influence Still, within the administration, officials say Miller has emerged as a singular driving force behind a constellation of initiatives meant to assert greater federal power to shape large swaths of US policy and society.

The anti-immigration focus that drove his ascension in Trump’s first term has since widened well beyond the southern border to include mass deportation efforts across the country, due in large part to his secondary role as homeland security adviser.

The position grants him a seat on the White House Homeland Security Council, which has taken on far greater prominence than in past administrations.

From that perch, Miller has grown deeply involved in the sweeping range of anti-immigration and anti-crime initiatives underway across government.

In addition to Chicago and Portland, the White House is in talks with Louisiana state officials about dispatching the Guard to New Orleans, the senior White House official said.

Those efforts come on top of an already wide-ranging portfolio that Miller manages as deputy chief of staff for policy, including coordinating several unprecedented investigations into universities and cultural institutions.

And in recent weeks, he’s taken up a fresh anti-crime push supercharged by the assassination of Charlie Kirk, a close Miller ally whose murder has spurred investigations Democratic donors and groups that officials claim are fueling left-wing violence.

“We’re deploying the full might of the federal law enforcement to crack down on antifa and other domestic terrorist organizations, led by Stephen Miller,” Bondi said during a White House event on Wednesday.

Miller’s reach has extended even into foreign policy as well, where multiple current and former officials described him as the leader, alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio, of a counter-drug mission that has carried out lethal strikes in the Caribbean on vessels the administration unilaterally deems to be trafficking drugs.

It was Miller, not Hegseth, who led the internal push earlier this year to use the military to target drug cartels, one source familiar with the process told Berita.

Pentagon officials now routinely present Miller and Rubio with operational options and relevant data.

They then decide what to do with it and work directly with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine to execute their military plans, said the source, who characterized the two men as far more involved than Hegseth in deciding how the military is used.

That deep involvement in the minutiae of initiatives across the government has prompted grumbling at times among a contingent of detractors uncomfortable with the immense power wielded by a single senior staffer — though few are willing to air their criticisms in public for fear of inviting his wrath.

Miller walks to speak with members of the press outside the West Wing on August 29.

Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images “I don’t fault him for trying, but just because he tried doesn’t mean it’s legitimate,” retiring North Carolina Republican Sen.

Thom Tillis said of Miller’s persistent advocacy for norm-breaking initiatives like the National Guard deployments, even after courts have intervened.

Miller made some effort in recent years to build relationships on Capitol Hill with a selection of like-minded lawmakers.

But he’s irritated other congressional Republicans with what two GOP Hill sources described as a go-it-alone attitude that’s prioritized the administration’s scorched-earth deportation tactics with little regard for the political fallout that members are then forced to manage.

One group of center-right Republicans, known as the Main Street Caucus, sat down with Miller over dinner in early September to press him for more details of his deportation strategy – and why he seemed to be diverging from the White House’s plan to go after violent criminals, one of those sources said.

Those members received little in the way of clarity.

Related article Stephen Miller attends a rally for Donald Trump in Washington, DC, on January 19.

Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters From immigration to DOGE, Stephen Miller is more powerful in the White House than ever Yet even among Trumpworld critics who have wielded the “prime minister” moniker more as an insult than a compliment, there is grudging respect at Miller’s ability to steadily work his way into the small circle of Trump’s most-trusted advisers by — as he’s described it to others — remaining completely dedicated to implementing Trump’s vision, no matter where that goes.

Even when Miller is not in the room with Trump, the president will often hold off on making final decisions before soliciting his input, one of the people familiar with White House dynamics said.

And while no one in Trump’s vicinity is ever regarded as untouchable, advisers and allies described Miller as perhaps the closest one to it.

The result is a growing mindmeld between Trump and Miller, they said, that has bent the administration’s agenda in increasingly hardline ways — and thrust Miller to the fore in its execution.

Berita’s Sarah Ferris contributed to this report.

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