Stephen Miller’s rationale for White House actions in American cities and abroad

WASHINGTON (AP) — More than a year before a U.S. military operation ousted Nicolas Maduro, a senior aide to President Donald Trump argued that the Venezuelan leader was sending gang members to the United States.

“If you’re the dictator of a poor country with a high crime rate, wouldn’t you send your criminals across our open borders?” Stephen Miller told reporters at the conclusion of Trump’s 2024 comeback campaign.

Miller now serves as the White House chief of staff for policy, where he plays a key role in promoting Trump’s policy agenda. His bombastic style and zero-sum worldview have made him a lightning rod within the administration. Critics argue that Miller’s statements about foreign nations and immigrants echo the racist and imperialist ideas that have undergirded military operations by the US and other nations for centuries.

A joint statement by the governments of Spain and five Latin American countries following the Venezuela operation called on countries in the region to engage in “mutual respect, peaceful resolution of disputes and non-intervention,” while Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. He called the Venezuelan administration’s policy “old-fashioned imperialism.”

“Advocating policies that put American citizens first is not racist. Anyone who says so is either a willful liar or just plain stupid,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said.

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 aid to Western nations in the developing world was ‘reverse colonialism’.

Shortly after the US operation to capture Maduro, Miller wrote on social media: “Not long after World War II, the West dismantled its empires and colonies and began sending large sums of taxpayer-funded money to these former territories (making them already richer and more successful.) The West opened its borders, a kind of colonization, giving us reuss, reuss, reuss. These newcomers and their Not only families have full suffrage, but preferential legal and economic treatment over native citizens is, at its core, the long self-punishment of places and peoples that make up the modern world.

Miller argues that Venezuelan oil was stolen from the US oil industry

In December, two weeks before Maduro’s arrest, Miller echoed Trump’s argument that Venezuela’s oil industry was stolen from American oil companies:

“American sweat, ingenuity and toil created the oil industry in Venezuela. Its dictatorial seizure was the largest recorded theft of American property and assets. These looted assets were used to fund terrorism and flood our streets with killers, mercenaries and narcotics,” Miller wrote on social media.

Miller says the Venezuelan government is at the service of the US

In January, Miller told reporters that US military power had ensured compliance from the Caracas government.

“We have an oil embargo to do any kind of commerce in Venezuela. They need our permission. We have our huge fleet or armada still present there. This is an active and ongoing US government military operation, and therefore, we set the terms and conditions,” Miller said.

He added: “Our conversation is that we are getting very full, complete and total support from the Venezuelan government, and as a result of that support, the people of Venezuela are going to be richer than ever. And of course, the United States will benefit greatly from this in terms of economic, security and military support, counter-terrorism and all other forms of security.”

Miller calls for a force-based world order, saying there will be no opposition to US military occupation of Greenland

In 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 America once led.

“You can talk all you want about international beauty and all that stuff. But we live in a world, a real world, Jake, that’s ruled by force, ruled by force, ruled by force. These are the iron rules of the world,” Miller said.

Miller also dismissed concerns that Trump’s pledge to take Greenland from Denmark, a fellow member of the NATO military alliance, could lead to 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 are involved in ‘grooving’ former colonies

In the same interview, Miller said it would be “absurd and ambiguous” and “not even a serious question” to propose that the administration support Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado to lead the country because the military does not support her.

Tapper then asked if the South American country should hold elections.

Miller responded: “The United States is using its military to informally protect our interests in our hemisphere. We are a superpower, and under President Trump, we are going to conduct ourselves as a superpower. It is absurd that we allow a nation in our own backyard to become a supplier of resources to our adversaries, but we cannot afford to stand as, for ourselves, an ad. asset against the United States, not on behalf of the United States.”

Anker 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 are all about protecting America’s national interests. We sent our soldiers to die in the desert in the Middle East to try to build parliaments, to try to build them democracies, to try to give them more oil, to try to give them more resources. The future of the free world depends on an America without our interests, an America capable of us. Sorry.” He called for “an end to this whole period that happened after World War II, where the West started apologizing and engaging in these massive reparations schemes.”

He also defended the administration’s operation and echoed his past claims that Maduro had sent criminals to the US: “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 criticized the anti-ICE protests after the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis

Miller has returned to promoting 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 voting overwhelmingly for mass deportations. Congress passed the necessary laws and then passed new laws to fully fund it. Backlash against the Democrats and activists who support it. Enforcement.”

He later added in a separate post, “In case it wasn’t clear by now, if the Democrats won they would make every city Mogadishu or Kabul or Port-au-Prince.”