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The Story

Who is Stephen Miller? Trump's man behind 'America First'

The Story

The Times

Investigative Reporting, Daily News, Current Affairs, Uk News, News, Politics, Global News, News Analysis, In-depth Journalism, Long-form Audio, Audio Storytelling, Exclusive Interviews, Daily News Podcast

3.91.6K Ratings

🗓️ 12 January 2026

⏱️ 32 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The 40-year-old adviser to the US president has been the frontman of Trump's recent Greenland grab threats and capture of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. How did a kid from liberal Santa Monica become a hardline conservative? And how is his worldview shaping American policy?


This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: http://thetimes.com/thestory


Guest: David Charter, assistant editor, The Times (US).

Host: Rosie Wright.

Producers: Taryn Siegel and Micaela Arneson.

Read more: What is ICE? How the controversial agency was formed

Further listening: How Trump became America’s most powerful president

Clips: The Washington Post, CNN, Forbes, Fox News, YouTube / @FiveFools, Univision, Instagram / Cultura Movement, Occupy HLN, YouTube / Clinton Milagro, EWTN.

Photo: Getty Images.

Get in touch: thestory@thetimes.com

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Transcript

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0:00.0

From The Times and the Sunday Times, this is the story. I'm Rosie Wright.

0:11.4

Okay, thank you very much. This is big stuff.

0:14.6

Last week, when President Trump addressed the nation after the U.S. attack on Venezuela,

0:20.1

Assistant editor for the Times US, David Charter,

0:23.1

he had his eye on one particular man, and it wasn't Trump.

0:29.9

Several of his top aides file out behind him for the duration of the press conference.

0:36.6

And a little later when it comes to questions,

0:39.8

he's also, who exactly is going to be running the country that you've just decapitated?

0:45.7

What's the group you mentioned that would run Venezuela?

0:48.3

Well, it's largely going to be for a period of time, the people that are standing right behind me.

0:53.7

And Trump just turns around and gestures behind him and says, well, the people behind me,

1:00.2

I guess, are going to be running it for now.

1:04.0

And that includes Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, Pete Hexath, the War Secretary,

1:09.6

but also on the end of the line is this figure

1:13.5

who has been a bit of a shadowy figure for the, I guess, the general population, but not in Trump

1:21.0

world, is extremely well known, and that's Stephen Miller, who has come up through the ranks

1:27.3

as a speechwriter for Trump in his first term,

1:31.4

very quickly involved in all sorts of domestic policy.

1:35.2

And now, it seems, branching out into foreign policy as well.

1:39.2

You invaded the country, we took, went into the country and we seized the leader of Venezuela.

1:44.3

Damn straight we did.

1:48.3

One thing you can say about Stephen Miller, he doesn't mince his words.

...

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