Under siege, Trump reaches for his most trigger-happy lieutenant

Detailed summary

Observers wondered whether Donald Trump’s final two years in the White House would be “lame duck” or “raging bull”. The appointment of Stephen Miller suggests it’s the latter.

Washington: You regularly see Stephen Miller around Washington. Not in the flesh, mostly, but on posters stapled to walls by left-wing activists, or on cardboard signs carried by protesters at the city’s many anti-Trump rallies.

He is frequently described as a fascist or drawn as a Nazi, even though he and his wife, Katie, are Jewish. Upon his appointment as the president’s chief of staff on Friday, one-time White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci labelled him “little Himmler”, a reference to Holocaust architect Heinrich Himmler.

For many who oppose this administration there is no more loathed figure than Miller. He is seen as far more sinister than Donald Trump; much more of an ideologue, sometimes acting as a shadow president, willing his boss towards more extreme positions on immigration in particular.

Even among Republicans and inside the administration there is…

Opening of the article, excerpted from The Sydney Morning Herald. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.