The deputy chief of staff for policy at the White House is not usually a high profile role. Even hardcore political junkies couldn’t tell you who handled the job during the administrations of Joe Biden or Barack Obama — or even in Donald Trump‘s first term. But Stephen Miller, who is currently serving in this role , is downright famous. There are many reasons for this, including suspicions that he is the true power behind the throne, and that his hatred of immigrants is driving Trump’s efforts to turn Immigration and Customs Enforcement into an American Gestapo.
But let’s be honest: The main reason Miller is memorable is because he is petulant. Miller started off as Trump’s infamously terrible speechwriter, but he mostly made a name for himself by being such a creep that he stood out even by MAGA standards. He loves going on cable news shows and throwing comically over-the-top tantrums. Whether he is spilling racist lies or insisting his boss has unlimited power, Miller always adopts the same posture of maximum outrage. He clearly thinks he’s a terrifying villain in the Darth Vader tradition, but he actually reads more like Veruca Salt screaming “I want a golden goose” at Willy Wonka. It’s all very exhausting, as Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., noted on X, begging Miller to “stop yelling” because it’s “very shrill.”
It’s technically called “The Katie Miller Podcast,” but a better title would be “The Banality of Evil.” The premise of every interview seems to be that just because the guests are far-right authoritarians, it doesn’t mean they’re interesting.
So it was surprising that Miller’s wife, Katie Miller, started hosting a YouTube show, the purpose of which appears to be lulling viewers to sleep. It’s technically called “The Katie Miller Podcast,” but a better title would be “The Banality of Evil.” The premise of every interview seems to be that just because the guests are far-right authoritarians, it doesn’t mean they’re interesting. Each episode is roughly an hour of scintillating content like which sorority Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., pledged in college, or how former ESPN host Sage Steele feels about wedding planning. Even her much-discussed premiere episode, which featured a 45-minute interview with Vice President JD Vance, was a big nothingburger. The biggest news that came out of it was that Stephen Miller eats a lot of mayonnaise.
The show was so bad that when I got to the fourth interview — in which we learn that Airbnb cofounder Joe Gebbia taught himself to code by designing his own websites — I was begging for the sweet release of death. But I was also puzzled. All Katie Miller’s faux-pleasant, tedious small talk is just so different from her husband’s persona of relentless top-volume aggrievement. He could never be on her show. His screeching bigotry would feel out of place in her pastel-colored dreamland, where nothing interesting ever happens.
Don’t get me wrong. Both their personal styles are horrible, just in very different ways. He comes across like he’s murdering you with a hammer, while she will drive you into an early grave with whispery chit-chat about nothing. It’s hard to believe they’re married.
That’s probably the point: To create the illusion that Stephen Miller is a normal person. The unsubtle goal is “The Katie Miller Podcast” is to “humanize” its subjects with “they’re just like you!” interviews. The underlying message is that fascists can’t be so bad, if they also tell dad jokes or feel bad about eating too much chocolate. All that, in turn, serves the larger message of the show, which is that the Millers aren’t sick monsters who hate America, because gosh — that Mrs. Stephen Miller just acts so darn normal. Or at least boring, which is what passes for normal in the twisted far-right mind. Another alternate title for the show: “The Opiate of MAGA.”
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Why it has to be Katie Miller, however, is a mystery. There are other dull MAGA wives who could also have hosted a talk show where guests discuss what they ate for breakfast. Stephen Miller has spent over a decade establishing himself as a proud villain in the public eye, so it’s odd that he and his wife would suddenly want to show his “softer” side through her brain-killing small talk routine. He seemed like he was having a good time being America’s Top Creep, so why mess with that branding?
Unfortunately, I can only think of one reason why the Millers have decided it’s time to try to humanize the most shudder-inducing member of the Trump White House: Stephen Miller thinks he has a good shot at being president soon.
I know, I know. You are scoffing and wanting to shut your computer off, but hear me out.
The entire internet is on Trump Death Watch these days, because the 79-year-old president has swollen ankles and weirdly bruised hands. Stephen Miller is closer to Trump than anyone, including Melania Trump. He probably has an even better idea of how weak his boss is, and how the odds rise daily that there will soon be a power struggle to be the next king of MAGA.
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By getting out there and doing soft-focus interviews, Katie Miller might just be trying to cast an image of herself as first lady material. She’s presenting herself as a sweet, affable wife whose ability to make small talk with important people offers a useful moderating force on her snarling bully of a husband. For those who worry that the veins popping out on Stephen Miller’s pencil neck would undermine the diplomatic role of a president, she is presenting herself as calming presence who will make everything okay.
Her ruse is certainly not persuasive to anyone outside of the GOP voting base. But for people within it, especiallly those who might be choosing between figures like Stephen Miller or JD Vance, being able to tell themselves that Stephen Miller’s “nice” wife will rein him in might be just enough to win their support.
That, or it’s a ham-fisted effort to shut down the rumors about Katie Miller running off, however temporarily, with Elon Musk. But quashing that speculation would likely require content more scintillating than this drivel. No, this all reads very much as what fascist freaks think looks “human” to the normies. The anesthetizing effect, in that case, feels quite deliberate, coming from people who very much want Americans to sleepwalk into an authoritarian state.
