WASHINGTON (AP) — More than a year before a US military operation ousted Nicolás Maduro, a senior aide to President Donald Trump argued that the Venezuelan leader was sending gang members to the United States.
“If you’re a dictator of a poor country with a high crime rate, wouldn’t you send your criminals into our open border?” Stephen Miller told reporters at the tail end of Trump’s 2024 comeback campaign.
Miller now serves as the White House chief of staff for policy, where he plays a prominent role in promoting Trump’s political agenda. His bombastic style and zero-sum world view made him a lightning rod within the administration. Critics argue that Miller’s rhetoric about foreign nations and immigrants echoes racist and imperialist ideas that have led to military actions by the United States and other nations for centuries.
A joint statement by the governments of Spain and five Latin American countries after the Venezuelan operation called for countries in the region to commit to “mutual respect, peaceful resolution of disputes, and non-intervention,” while Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., called the Venezuelan administration’s policy “old-fashioned imperialism.”
“Advocating policies that put American citizens first is not racist. Anyone who says that is either intentionally lying or just plain stupid,” said White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson.
Here’s a look at how Miller laid the rhetorical groundwork for this month’s attack on Venezuela and what his comments say about the administration’s broader worldview.
Miller argues that Western nations’ aid to the developing world was “reverse colonization”
Shortly after the US operation that captured Maduro, Miller wrote on social media: “Shortly after World War II, the West dissolved its empires and colonies and began sending colossal sums of taxpayer-funded aid to these former territories (despite having already made them far richer and more successful). not just full concession but preferential legal and financial treatment over native citizenship The neoliberal experiment, at its heart, has been a long self-punishment of the places and peoples who built the modern world.”
Miller argues that Venezuela’s oil has been stolen by the US oil industry
Two weeks before Maduro’s arrest, Miller in December echoed Trump’s claims that Venezuela’s oil industry was stolen from American oil companies:
“American sweat, ingenuity and suffering created the oil industry in Venezuela. Its tyrannical expropriation was the largest recorded theft of American wealth and property. These stolen assets were then used to finance terrorism and flood our streets with killers, mercenaries and drugs,” Miller wrote on social media.
Miller says the Venezuelan government is in the service of the United States
Miller claimed to reporters in January that US military might had ensured compliance from the Caracas government.
“We have an oil embargo in Venezuela for them to do any kind of trade. They need our permission. We have our massive fleet or armada still present there. This is an active and ongoing military operation of the United States government, so, of course, we set the terms and conditions,” said Miller.
He added: “Our conversations are that we are getting full, complete and total cooperation from the government of Venezuela, and as a result of that cooperation, the people of Venezuela will become richer than they have ever had before. And of course, the United States will benefit from this tremendously in terms of economic, security and military cooperation, against narcotics, against terrorism and every other dimension of our security.”
Miller calls for world order based on strength, says US military occupation of Greenland unopposed
During a wide-ranging January interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Miller repeatedly argued for the primacy of American power and criticized the international order that the United States once led.
“You can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else. But we live in a world, in the real world, Jake, which is governed by power, which is governed by force, which is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world,” said Miller.
Miller also dismissed concerns that Trump’s promises to take Greenland from Denmark, a fellow member of the NATO military alliance, could cause a military conflict with Europe.
“No one is going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland,” Miller said.
Miller argues that Western nations have engaged in ‘groveling’ towards ex-colonies
In the same interview, Miller said that it would be “absurd and absurd” and “not even a serious question” to propose that the administration support the offer of the leader of the Venezuelan opposition María Corina Machado to lead the country because the military would not support her.
Tapper then asked if the South American country should hold elections.
Miller replied: “The United States is using its military to secure our interests without excuses in our hemisphere. We are a superpower, and under President Trump, we will behave like a superpower. It is absurd to allow a nation in our own backyard to become the provider of resources to our adversaries, but not to us, to be from adversaries to positions against adversaries, as our asset. The United States, rather than on behalf of the United States.”
The anchor pressed Miller on whether sovereign countries have the right to run their own affairs.
Miller explained the administration’s position: “The Monroe Doctrine and the Trump Doctrine is all about securing America’s national interest. For years, we have sent our soldiers to die in the deserts in the Middle East to try to build them parliaments, to try to build them democracies, to try to give them more oil, to try to give them more oil, to try to give them more resources, the world depends on the future of America. ourselves and our interests without apology.” He called for the end of “This whole period that happened after the Second World War, where the West started apologizing and moving and engaging in these big reparations schemes.”
He also defended the operation of the administration and repeated his statements in the past that Maduro had sent criminals to the United States: “We will not allow tinpot communist dictators to send rapists to our country, to send drugs to our country, to send weapons to our country.”
Miller criticizes anti-ICE protests after Minneapolis immigration crackdown
Miller again championed the administration’s stance on domestic issues such as immigration and partisan politics.
On Tuesday, following nationwide protests after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a woman in Minnesota, Miller wrote on social media: “Americans vote overwhelmingly for mass deportation. Congress passed laws requiring it and then passed new legislation to fully fund it. The response of the Democratic Party and its activists was to enforce the violent resistance against the federal orchestra “.
He later added in a separate post, “In case it is not clear by now, if the Democrats had won they would have made every city in Mogadishu or Kabul or Port-au-Prince.”