Stephen Miller Expands His Apocalyptic War on the Left
The most powerful unelected figure in Washington outlined his fascist pet project with ghoulish glee. His boss used a primetime address to lie about supposed voter fraud. Welcome to Trump's DC.
On this day in 1984, at the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco, Rev. Jesse Jackson delivered his ‘Rainbow Coalition’ speech, calling for government in the name of the many, not the few. Alas, the eventual nominee, Walter Mondale, lost 49 of 50 states to President Ronald Reagan.
Happy Friday! It’s Andrew here, looking forward to the weekend – or as Donald Trump understands it, the days he prefers to make news and war and ramp up his authoritarian blitz. Perhaps he’ll go easy on us, because yesterday was truly enough: If you thought Trump’s lying address in primetime was bad, wait until you see what fresh hell Stephen Miller has in mind for all of us.
In today’s ‘First Draft,’ we unpack Miller’s speech about “left-wing violence,” take in Trump’s mess of election fraud lies, consider the brewing disaster over Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, and take a look at what happened when acting Attorney General Todd Blanche was finally forced to meet a group of Epstein victims. Let’s read on.
Fascist’s Fantasy
Stephen Miller is the most powerful unelected figure in Washington. His title is deputy White House deputy chief of staff, but the true nature of his role lands somewhere between Trump’s policy architect, and the actual U.S. attorney general, and the real Homeland Security chief – or perhaps the shadow president.
As I’ve reported with my colleague Swin, “Everything you loathe or love about Donald Trump’s America, you hate or cherish about Stephen Miller’s republic of fear.”
Miller has been given enormous latitude to carry out the president’s agenda, and his own, despite helping tank Trump’s poll numbers on his signature issue, immigration, by leading a racist mass-deportation campaign too cruel, too violent, and too in-your-face for Americans with a conscience to stomach. But that is why Trump keeps Miller around and empowered: Trump and Miller are both fascists, and Miller is Trump’s fascism strategist. He is the guy who gets it done.
A Rush Limbaugh fan as a teen, Miller has always dreamed of crushing the left. Now, he’s getting to use the full force of the federal government to lead an all-out war on liberals, progressives, and leftists – and he’s throwing it in all our faces with his characteristically apocalyptic and authoritarian rhetoric.
“We have taken the necessary and essential action of formally recognizing left-wing violence as a form of political terrorism that is a direct threat to our national security and the survival of our republican form of government,” Miller said Thursday.