Politicians Who Want Nothing To Do With Stephen Miller

Somehow, Stephen Miller's hairline is even more jarring than his personality. But, while the White House deputy chief of staff for policy's hair, or rather lack thereof, is certainly a stylist's nightmare, his personality troubles many in Washington, D.C. Miller is the mastermind behind some of the Trump administration's most eyebrow-raising policies, specifically when it comes to immigration. As the architect of their mass deportation efforts — he's the one who set the goal of 3,000 arrests per day — Miller's aggressive approach has irked not only Democrats, but Republicans as well. 

In June 2025, Florida State Senator Ileana Garcia took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to criticize Miller's conduct, arguing, "This is not what we voted for." While reiterating her support for President Donald Trump, Gracia professed that Miller's deportation spree was "unacceptable and inhumane." The senator added that she was "deeply disappointed" by his actions. Garcia's post was a response to Republican Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar, who also publicly criticized Miller's conduct. 

While agreeing that illegal immigrants with a history of criminal activity needed to be dealt with, Salazar pointed out that those already in the process of obtaining legal status or seeking asylum should get the chance to do so instead of being deported simply to fill Miller's lofty quotas. The Trump staffer has been on the receiving end of plenty of criticism from both Republicans and Democrats alike, making him arguably one of the most unpopular people in Washington these days (no small feat).

You don't need to be a political pundit to know that California Governor Gavin Newsom cannot stand Stephen Miller. Newsom has repeatedly compared Miller to Voldemort on social media, in viral posts, and he's continued to voice his disdain for the controversial Trump ally elsewhere too. Newsom's brutal roasts even knocked Donald Trump off his high horse, and Miller hasn't been spared. As Newsom attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January 2026, his press office took to X to take a jab at Miller, whose strongman persona seemingly vanished when he bumped into the governor at the event. 

"Stephen Miller refused to even make eye contact with @CAGovernor Gavin Newsom backstage at Davos. Total beta!" the post read. Miller, whose wife exposed a bizarre habit of his that hints he's even more narcissistic than Trump, probably didn't like this. Aside from taking shots at Miller's masculinity, Newsom has also voiced his concern that the White House deputy chief of staff is a dangerous man. In March 2026, the governor warned that JD Vance and Miller are "the dark heart of this administration" on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!"

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth might be Stephen Miller's colleague, but that doesn't necessarily mean he trusts him. The Trump loyalist has hinted that he's not Miller's biggest fan, and he did it in a none too subtle way on the White House staffer's wife's podcast, no less. When Hegseth and his wife, Jennifer Rauchet, sat down for an interview on the "Katie Miller Podcast" in December 2025, the defense secretary didn't exactly give Stephen a glowing review. Katie asked who in President Donald Trump's cabinet Hegseth would entrust with babysitting his kids, probably hoping that he'd plug her husband. Instead, Hegseth did the exact opposite, responding, "Not your husband. Or Marco [Rubio]."

Things went from bad to worse when Katie asked Hegseth who he thinks is "most likely to call you after hours with an emergency." The defense secretary instantly responded, "Stephen Miller." Rauchet added, "One hundred percent." At this point, Katie hid her face behind her notecards, though she notably joined the couple in their bout of loud laughter. "Stephen, you know it's true," Hegseth added. "There's others on the list, but he's on top of the mountain top." 

The moment went viral, and Stephen found himself forced to respond to Hegseth's comments during a subsequent Fox News interview. "I think, in fairness, he's worried that if I babysat his kids, that he'd come back after a couple hours and they would say, 'Daddy, why don't you send the military into Minnesota to help us with the Somali refugees?'" he tried to joke (via X).

Thom Tillis can be quite the spitfire, and Stephen Miller has found himself as the target of the senator's wrath on more than one occasion. Tillis, who announced in June 2025 that he would not be making a reelection bid, has become increasingly critical of President Donald Trump's staff, asserting that one of his reasons for leaving Congress was because people who can think for themselves are "an endangered species" in Washington nowadays, per the BBC. As such, Tillis probably deems Miller safe from extinction. The senator heavily criticized the White House official's comments about annexing Greenland and his ideals to nationalize election.

As Tillis told reporters, in relation to the latter, "He's probably focused too much on his Duke education and should go back to third grade math. My granddaughter can figure out we don't have the votes to get that done," (via CNN). Elsewhere, the senator also hinted that Miller has no clue what he's doing and is woefully incompetent. "Either Stephen Miller needs to get into a lane where he knows what he's talking about, or get out of his job," he snapped. Tillis' scathing criticism had the president calling him a "loser." 

When asked for comment on that, the senator replied, "That makes me qualified to be homeland security secretary and senior advisor to the president." After DHS Secretary Kristi Noem officially got kicked to the curb by Trump, Tillis argued that she wasn't the only one who should've been fired, asserting to CNN's Jake Tapper that he believed many of Noem's biggest blunders were a direct result of her following directives from Miller. When asked whether he thinks Miller should be fired, Tillis replied, "Of course I do."

Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar hasn't minced words when it comes to Stephen Miller. In April 2019, Omar decried Miller as "a white nationalist" (via CNN). This had President Donald Trump and Co. in a tizzy. He and his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., rushed to social media to defend Miller and condemn Omar, but later that year, leaked emails from the White House staffer showed she wasn't far off in her assessment. From directing colleagues to white nationalist websites to recommending questionable books with gruesome racist rhetoric, they actually seemed to confirm Omar's assertion.

The congresswoman continued to be highly critical of Miller during Trump's second term too. When tensions threatened to boil over in Minnesota, after ICE agents shot and killed two citizens, Omar called for Miller's head in a press briefing, along with then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem's. "When we say it is time for Kristi Noem to go, we mean it now," she raged (via YouTube). The congresswoman elaborated, "When we say there needs to be accountability for the architect of the terror we are facing in Minneapolis and so many other cities, which is Stephen Miller, we mean we need accountability for him now."

New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is known for her fiery clapbacks, and Stephen Miller has been on the receiving end a few times. In October 2025, the outspoken congresswoman took to Instagram Live to have a chat with her followers, and Miller came up. Ocasio-Cortez didn't hold back as she discussed the White House deputy chief of staff's conduct, surmising that he is, to put it in the words of Taylor Swift, "the smallest man who ever lived." As the congresswoman quipped, "Laugh at them, Stephen Miller is a clown! I've never seen that guy in real life, but he looks like he's, like, [4 feet, 10 inches tall]." 

She continued, "He looks like he is angry about the fact that he's [4 feet, 10 inches] and he has taken that anger out on any other population possible. Like, laugh at them." According to Ocasio-Cortez, men like Miller crumble when they are the butt of the joke, so using humor against them is one way to beat them. The congresswoman appeared to have been proven correct in her assertion, and Fox News' Laura Ingraham unintentionally helped her when she showed Miller a clip of Ocasio-Cortez saying he's short and suffers from a case of fragile masculinity. 

The Trump staffer's face grew increasingly stormy as he was forced to sit through the roast. When given the chance to respond Miller, appearing to grow increasingly red in the face as he spoke, said, "We knew her brain didn't work now we know their eyes don't work," per X. Miller continued, "She is a mess, right? What a trainwreck." Notably, by the time the White House official managed to dub Ocasio-Cortez "a walking nightmare," the blush had spread to his bald head.