Stephen Miller's Most Embarrassing On-Air Moments Will Haunt Him Forever

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It's safe to say that the only person in the White House more dramatic than President Donald Trump is his Deputy Chief of Staff, Stephen Miller. Like his boss, Miller regularly loses his temper with journalists and has had his fair share of embarrassing on-air moments to boot. Stephen Miller's wife also exposed her hubby's bizarre habit that hints he's even more narcissistic than Trump. Turns out, the public aren't the only ones subjected to his awkward TV appearances — the White House official also makes himself sit through them. 

As Katie Miller told "The Alex Marlow Show," in 2025, "Somewhere sitting to my left or my right are DVDs or CDs he's cut from over time. It's just piles and piles and piles of every single radio or TV show he's ever done." That's a whole new horror subgenre we didn't need to know existed. The Trump staffer's embarrassing on-air moments are nothing new. In 2018, Stephen Miller's jarring colored hairspray fail made headlines and was the butt of late-night jokes, while the response was brutal when Miller declared Trump a style icon. 

In fact, California Governor Gavin Newsom has even taken to comparing Stephen Miller to Voldemort, as his contentious TV appearances continued to pile up during Trump's second term. The White House staffer either doesn't realize how much he's embarrassing himself on the regular, or he simply can't help it. Either way, Miller continues to provide his detractors with plenty of popcorn-worthy moments.  

Stephen Miller clearly loves the sound of his own voice just as much as his boss does, to the extent that CNN's Jake Tapper cut him off during the network's 2018 State of the Union. Tapper had plenty of questions about the claims in Michael Wolff's then-newly-released book, "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House." Among other things, the author detailed Russian interference in the 2016 presidential elections, and how much the Trump family was really aware of it. Miller declared the book "a pile of trash through and through" and reprimanded Tapper for even covering the story in the first place, angrily arguing, "Your network has been going 24/7 with all the salacious coverage and I know that it brings a lot of you guys a lot of joy; you're trying to stick the knife in." 

The interview went from bad to worse as the White House staffer grew increasingly agitated with the line of questioning and started talking over Tapper. At one point, he seemed close to throwing a childlike tantrum, which prompted Tapper to urge, "Stephen, settle down. Calm down." Miller continued to try and hype up the president, leading Tapper to give up entirely, telling him, "I think I've wasted enough of my viewers' time." He then announced the following segment of the program, ignoring Miller jabbering away.

Following the ad break, Tapper quipped, "Welcome back to 'State of the Union' — and planet Earth," per Politico. Donald Trump came to Miller's defense on X, formerly known as Twitter, writing, "Jake Tapper of Fake News CNN just got destroyed in his interview with Stephen Miller of the Trump Administration." That assertion was debatable. 

Evidently, Jake Tapper and Stephen Miller can't stand each other. To the White House staffer's credit, however, he has continued to grant the CNN anchor interviews. Another awkward one ensued in January 2026, when Tapper questioned Miller about the Trump administration's attack on Venezuela and the president's claims that he would be moving to annex Greenland and might even do so using military force. Miller again failed to answer Tapper's questions in a straightforward manner, refusing to rule out the possibility.

Stephen Miller goes on a rant defending Trump's imperialist aggression against Venezuela: "We're a superpower... we are going to conduct ourselves as a superpower."

Jake Tapper: "I don't even know what you're talking about right now." pic.twitter.com/CoViwNmYfa

— Blue Georgia (@BlueATLGeorgia) January 5, 2026

On the topic of President Donald Trump's capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and his plans to run the country for the foreseeable future, Miller defended his boss' actions in a screeching ramble that left Tapper so confused that he eventually just conceded, "I don't even know, honestly, what you're talking about right now," (via X). Undeterred, the White House official momentarily continued on his tirade before seemingly losing confidence, before ultimately proceeding to chastise Tapper, "You love doing that smarmy thing, Jake."

Netizens rushed to acknowledge their secondhand embarrassment in the comments. "Why is he screaming?" one X user questioned. "He's completely out of his mind," another opined. A third noted, "Miller was having a full blown psychotic meltdown on national television." 

When President Donald Trump forcefully removed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from his home country and brought him to the United States to stand trial, he announced that the U.S. would effectively be in control of Venezuela for the time being. As Trump proudly informed reporters, "We will run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition," per Reuters, adding, "We can't take a chance that someone else takes over Venezuela who doesn't have the interests of Venezuelans in mind." The only interests the president seems to truly have in mind were that of American oil companies, and the spoils they could acquire from Venezuela. 

As the public pondered this, CNN's Kaitlan Collins questioned Stephen Miller about his boss' assertion that his administration would be running Venezuela, and what his role, specifically, would be. What followed was another excruciatingly awkward moment for the White House deputy chief of staff for policy. Miller laughed uncomfortably at Collins' question before proceeding not to answer it at all, making it blatantly obvious that he had no idea what his responsibilities, if any, would entail. 

The journalist pressed Miller, asking again, "But what are you specifically doing?" to which he offered a meek reply: "I don't make a habit of talking too much about myself," (via X).  Awkward. Netizens had a field day in the comments. "Choking there, Stephen," one X user wrote with several laughing emojis. "In other words he's saying he hasn't a clue. It's an entire government without a clue," another weighed in. 

As it turns out, CNN isn't the only network that causes Stephen Miller to lose his cool. The White House deputy chief of staff also lost his temper on Fox News, which was noteworthy since the network typically reports favorably on the Trump administration. Miller was questioned by Martha MacCallum about the alleged gang members they were deporting in droves with the help of the Alien Enemies Act. She played him a clip of attorney and MSNBC legal analyst Andrew Weissmann criticizing President Donald Trump's use of the Act, pointing out that he was abusing it because it was only meant to be implemented in times of war or an invasion. Weissmann further explained that the government must be able to prove that the people they're arresting and deporting are, in fact, part of a gang. 

The Trump administration did none of this, and Miller wasn't too happy with his assessment. After watching the clip, he went off on a shouting spree as he vociferously defended the White House's questionable actions. Miller got so riled up, in fact, that MacCallum eventually attempted to interrupt him. Miller called Weissmann "an absolute moron," a "fool," and a "degenerate," to which the Fox News host responded, "You can call Weissmann names, and he can call you names, and that's what's great about living in America." She then unsuccessfully cut Miller off as he tried to get in the last word on the topic. It's worth noting that, despite Miller's valiant defense of Trump's actions, several judges ruled that his use of the Alien Enemies act "was not validly invoked," per ABC News. 

Ahead of the 2024 presidential elections, Stephen Miller was out campaigning for Donald Trump and laying the groundwork for his future immigration crackdown. He told reporters that Venezuela's crime rate is very low compared to the United States, citing numbers offered up by the country's dictatorial president, Nicolás Maduro. Reporter José María Del Pino pressed Miller on this claim, asking whether he really trusted numbers provided by an autocrat. Miller did not take kindly to this line of questioning. "Let's put it this way, if you're a dictator of a poor country with a high crime rate, wouldn't you send your criminals to our open border?" he demanded in response (via X). Del Pino repeated the question multiple times as the politician continued to deflect. 

I asked Stephen Miller, one of Donald Trump's top advisors, what is the evidence for saying that Caracas and Venezuela are safer than the United States. He began by answering that it is the government's numbers. I asked him if he trusted Maduro's numbers. And this was his... pic.twitter.com/qkXTNiGmt0

— José María Del Pino (@josemdelpino) September 11, 2024

Finally, Miller lost his temper completely and started yelling at Del Pino, blaming Former Vice President Kamala Harris for the influx of illegal immigrants. "I have been very respectful, why are you yelling?" the journalist asked, continuing his original line of questioning. Miller's temper continued to flare as he tried to change the subject, to no avail. Eventually, after yelling, getting increasingly red in the face, and visibly sweating, he simply gave up and walked away from the microphone as Del Pino once again repeated himself.

Miller found himself in a similar situation in February 2025 when CNN's Brianna Keilar questioned him about the 300 employees who were fired and then just as quickly rehired by the National Nuclear Security Administration. When asked who was to blame, Miller started losing his cool. "Stephen, let's calm down," Keilar cautioned (via YouTube) as the deputy chief of staff turned up the volume. Unsurprisingly, her pleas fell on deaf ears as Miller continued his on-air tantrum.