Katie Miller: The Woman at the Centre of the Trump-Musk Drama
A rumoured feud between the US President and his billionaire ally, Elon Musk, has been making headlines recently. At the centre of it all is Katie Miller, wife of Stephen Miller, a longtime top Trump adviser. According to reports, Katie Miller has left her post at the White House to work full-time for Musk. This move has sparked questions about her background and why she would make such a drastic career change.
Katie Miller, née Waldman, is a University of Florida graduate with a master’s degree in public administration from George Washington University. During the first Trump administration, she served as the President’s special assistant and press secretary to then-Vice-President Mike Pence. Miller also worked as a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security under former secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. It was during this time that her husband, Stephen Miller, was a senior White House adviser and a major proponent of the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy.
The policy, which resulted in the separation of over 5,000 children from their families at the US-Mexico border, was widely criticised for its cruelty. According to The Cut, Katie Miller’s husband, Stephen, pushed for even more draconian policies that would have separated around 25,000 more families. In an interview with journalist Jacob Soboroff, Katie Miller said that she didn’t think her views on family separation would change even if she had kids. The Cut reported that Miller’s family and colleagues told her she’d “think about the separations differently” when she had kids, but she replied, “But I don’t think so.”
In 2020, Katie and Stephen Miller got married at the Trump Hotel in Washington, with a senior adviser to David Friedman, a former US ambassador to Israel, officiating the ceremony. According to The Cut, the couple apparently knew each other through their work but didn’t meet in person until friends introduced them in 2018.
Last December, Trump named Katie Miller as one of his first picks to join Musk’s DOGE advisory board, where she served as a “Special Government Employee.” This designation allows private-sector figures to also work for the federal government in a limited capacity. However, it appears that Miller has left her White House gig to work “full-time” with Musk. As The Cut reported, she is now arranging interviews for Musk “unrelated to his time in government.”
The implications of Miller’s departure from the White House are significant. Her alleged exodus has added fuel to rumours that Trump and Musk are either amid or heading toward a huge fallout. Musk’s exit came shortly after he appeared to take aim at Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, a tax-reform package designed to provide savings to the rich and allocate more money to military and immigration enforcement. According to The Cut, Musk told CBS News that he was “disappointed” by the legislation, which he sees as undermining DOGE and increasing the budget deficit.
The New York Times reported that Trump declined to explicitly respond to Musk’s criticisms or name him. However, Stephen Miller appeared to fire back on X, where he didn’t name Musk but asserted that DOGE cuts weren’t related to the spending bill and maintained that One Big Beautiful Bill will actually reduce the deficit if it passes the Senate. As The Cut noted, experts predict that the bill will actually make the cost of living even worse.
In conclusion, Katie Miller’s departure from the White House to work for Elon Musk has significant implications for the Trump administration and the billionaire’s relationship with the President. As The Cut reported, Miller’s background in the Trump administration and her husband’s role in shaping immigration policy have raised questions about her motivations and the potential consequences of her career change.
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