What to know about Stephen Miller, Trump's potential next national security adviser

Stephen Miller, President Trump's top policy adviser, is in the running to be his next national security adviser and has for nearly a decade been wearing many hats for the president.The big picture: The deputy chief of staff has already been shaping policy, particularly — and controversially — on immigration, from inside the White House and is one of Trump's longest-serving and most-trusted aides.Stephen Miller's backgroundMiller, 39, grew up in a Jewish and liberal Democratic household in Santa Monica, California, he said in a 2021 episode of Newt Gingrich's podcast.He said he first connected with conservative literature in middle school, and became Republican and conservative in his thinking by age 16.Miller graduated in 2007 from Duke University, where he studied political science and served as a conservative columnist for the school paper.He then launched his career in D.C., where he worked for then-Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and then-Arizona Rep. John Shadegg, followed by then-Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions.Trump's first campaign and administrationMiller is one of the few officials in Trump 2.0 who also served in the first administration — and he served all four years, which was a rarity.He left Sessions' team to join the Trump campaign in 2016 as a senior policy adviser. He often wrote speeches for Trump, including the keynote at the 2016 Republican National Convention, and was later named head of Trump's economic policy team. Once Trump was elected, Miller became national policy director of Trump's transition team and then a senior advisor to the president — a role initially intended for setting domestic policy that later become centered chiefly around immigration policy.Miller's role in Trump 2.0: Immigration architectMiller is currently Trump's deputy chief of staff and the administration's Homeland Security adviser.He is considered to be the brain behind Trump's controversial immigration crackdown, which includes plans for mass deportations. Miller is an aggressive defender of the legal push for immediate deportations of unauthorized immigrants without court hearings, Axios' Marc Caputo reports.More from Axios: Scoop: Stephen Miller emerges as top contender for Trump's next national security adviserTrump's Hill weaponStephen Miller's outside army

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