Stephen Miller was the center of controversy after leaked emails showed the top White House adviser apparently pushing anti-immigration and white nationalist talking points, but he will reportedly not face any discipline from President Donald Trump for the revelation.
The emails allegedly showed Miller sharing the ideas with Breitbart writer Katie McHugh in 2015 and included disputed crime statistics and articles from the white supremacist website American Renaissance . The leaked emails led to calls for Trump to fire Miller from his White House post, but the administration has been quiet on what punishment, if any, he might receive.
As Talking Points Memo noted, it now appears clear that Miller is not facing any kind of discipline for his alleged actions. The report noted that the adviser accompanied Trump on Air Force One earlier this week, showing that he remains in the president’s good graces despite the calls for his firing.
The White House had already signaled that Miller’s place in the Trump administration was safe. Immediately after the emails were leaked, Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham responded by attacking the Southern Poverty Law Center, the organization that published the leaks. She claimed that the organization was a “far-left” organization meant to smear those on the right, though neither Grisham nor anyone else disputed the veracity of the emails.
Another report from The Daily Beast noted that the president had no intention of firing Miller.
“Stephen is not going anywhere,” a senior White House official told the outlet. “The president has his back.”
The report added that top White House aides laughed at the idea of Miller being fired, as his anti-immigration views are apparently well-known in the administration. He is accused of pushing many of the hard-line immigration policies that Trump has since adopted, including the child separation policy that led to international controversy. He has also pushed for strict limitations on immigration and a peeling back of the rights of asylum seekers, leading to the president forcing many of them to remain in Mexico while asylum bids are being processed.
Though Trump appears to be standing behind Miller, critics have not let up on the pressure on the administration to have him sacked. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez launched a petition at www.MillerMustGo.com calling for him to be fired, which has steadily grown to now close to 130,000 signatures. The Southern Poverty Law Center has also continued to report on Miller and his leaked communications with McHugh.