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<\/a><\/p>\nWhite House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller attends a Halloween event hosted by first lady Melania Trump at the White House on October 29, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Finn Gomez\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
In a letter congratulating Miller, groups including the Combat Antisemitism Movement, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, the Zionist Organization of America expressed an interest in working with Miller to \u201chold institutions accountable when they fail to protect Jewish Americans from discrimination and harassment.\u201d<\/p>\n
The writers, who also included the American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, the Coalition for Jewish Values and the Israeli-American Civic Action Network, described Miller\u2019s appointment as \u201ca meaningful reflection of the longstanding contributions of Jewish Americans to public service.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just days after the Republican Party incurred massive losses in the midterm elections, Trump announced that he was replacing former chief of staff Susie Wiles with Miller, who had previously served as her deputy. In a Truth Social post, he described Miller as one of his \u201cmost trusted advisors.\u201d<\/p>\n
The chief of staff holds one of the most powerful White House positions, acting as a gatekeeper to the president and helping to shape his daily agenda.<\/p>\n
Liberal Jewish voices warned that Trump\u2019s promotion of Stephen Miller to the role of White House chief of staff could make Jewish communities more vulnerable. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe expect this appointment to only reinforce some of the most dangerous ways the administration has normalized antisemitism and broader extremism,\u201d Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, noting Miller\u2019s embrace of anti-immigrant rhetoric popular on the far right. <\/p>\n
Spitalnick said there is a throughline between the hard-line immigration policies Miller has shaped as a longtime confidant to Trump and the flourishing of antisemitism in recent years. <\/p>\n
\u201cAt the core of the anti-immigrant agenda Miller has spearheaded are deeply antisemitic conspiracy theories about \u2018replacement\u2019 and \u2018invasion\u2019 that have already fueled a cycle of deadly violence targeting Jews and others,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
The dueling sentiments from across the Jewish political spectrum were a signal of how divided the community has become during the second Trump term over the best means of combating antisemitism: Through aggressive policing of elite institutions, which Trump favors, or through opposition to what liberal groups say is the president\u2019s systematic corrosion of civil rights protections.<\/p>\n
The groups on the right that welcomed Miller\u2019s appointment have generally been pleased by the steps Trump has taken to counter antisemitism on the left. In January 2025, Trump issued an executive order requiring new measures for combatting antisemitism. The Justice Department then launched a multi-agency Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism. This past May, the department announced the formation of an Advisory Committee on Anti-Semitism, while emphasizing a \u201ccommitment to protecting Americans from unlawful discrimination and antisemitic threats.\u201d Much of the focus has been on allegations of antisemitic harassment on university campuses.<\/p>\n
While it\u2019s unclear what Miller will do on these specific issues, his supporters see his key role as likely to strengthen such efforts.<\/p>\n
Miller has longstanding links to Trump, including on a personal level. Miller\u2019s wedding officiant at the Trump D.C. hotel was Rabbi Aryeh Lightstone, who was involved with the administration\u2019s Abraham Accords to establish peaceful relations between Israel and several Arab neighbors. <\/p>\n
But Miller\u2019s critics have pointed out that he, along with Trump and other top Republicans have embraced troubling conspiracy theories that can be linked to Jews. Namely, that Democrats want to flood America with immigrants who are likely to vote against Republicans. At Trump\u2019s October 2024 campaign rally at Madison Square Garden, Miller declared, \u201cAmerica is for Americans and Americans only.\u201d<\/p>\n
A more extreme version of the conspiracy theory, which blames Jews for organizing an \u201cinvasion\u201d of people of color to replace whites, fueled a number of deadly attacks over the past decade, including the massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018.<\/p>\n
The White House press office, which fields media communications for the chief of staff, did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n
Spitalnick also slammed the current administration for failing to \u201cprotect the civil rights of Jewish \u2013 and all \u2013 people,\u201d by rolling back programs aimed at countering hate, including at the Office for Civil Rights in the Department of Education and extremism prevention programs at the Department of Homeland Security. <\/p>\n
Spitalnick also referred to a 2019 letter sent by Jewish Democratic members of Congress urging Trump to dismiss Miller, who was his senior adviser at the time. The lawmakers argued that his \u201csupport for white nationalist and virulently anti-immigrant tropes is wholly unacceptable and disqualifying for a government employee.\u201d<\/p>\n
Regarding the current appointment, Spitalnick warned that Miller\u2019s role could \u201cmake Jewish and so many other vulnerable communities less safe, instead of advancing the civil rights and pro-democracy policies we know are inherent to our security.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the president and vice president are now seemingly pinning the U.S. election results on Israel, we should be concerned about further scapegoating of the Jewish and Israeli American communities,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n
The liberal pro-Israel lobby J Street, meanwhile, posted a Haaretz analysis that likened Miller to Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right minister in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s coalition known for his extreme nationalistic rhetoric. <\/p>\n
\u201cStephen Miller and Itamar Ben-Gvir both owe their prominence and access to power to their enablers \u2013 Trump and Netanyahu \u2013 and both traffic in racism and nativism to attempt to build power and incite fear,\u201d the J Street post stated.<\/p>\n
Robert Reich, U.S. secretary of labor in the Clinton administration, wrote in a Facebook post that Miller\u2019s appointment was \u201cnot a positive development for anyone interested in mending our government or healing our nation.\u201d Reich, who is Jewish and also served in the Ford and Carter administrations, expressed concern that Miller would have outsized influence on the president\u2019s decisions. <\/p>\n
\u201cMiller is bigoted, xenophobic, and vicious \u2014 the architect and chief advocate of Trump\u2019s loathsome immigration policy,\u201d Reich stated, accusing him of conducting a \u201cbrutal Kristallnacht against undocumented immigrants.\u201d Kristallnacht refers to the wave of deadly anti-Jewish violence in parts of Nazi-occupied Europe in 1938.<\/p>\n
Katie Miller, who is also Jewish and married to Stephen Miller, defended her husband this weekend, after Michigan Democratic Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed called him a \u201cbroken man\u201d on ABC\u2019s \u201cThis Week with George Stephanopoulos.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cStephen has contributed far more to America at 41 than Abdul El-Sayed will in a lifetime,\u201d she wrote on X, alongside a photo of Miller running around with their children. <\/p>\n