Stephen Miller is fashion obsessed and agreed with Trump joke that he wants everyone to look like him, report says

When he’s not shaping the Trump administration’s policies on immigration, trade or foreign affairs, Stephen Miller reportedly turns his focus to an unexpected obsession: men’s fashion.

Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff and one of the most influential members of the administration, was described by colleagues as a “proud sartorialist” who regularly dishes clothing tips, The Atlantic reported.

“We would talk about the difference in fabrics for seasons, and lapel size and width of ties and these types of things,” Hogan Gidley, who served in the press office during Trump’s first term, told the outlet. He characterized Miller’s style as “sophisticated and smart and chic but also daring at times.”

The Atlantic observed that, in the past, Miller has demonstrated a certain preoccupation with his own looks.

In 2017, then-White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer was photographed lint-rolling Miller’s suit before an on-camera interview. In 2018, Miller appeared on CBS News’ Face the Nation sporting what viewers speculated was artificial hair sprayed onto his head — a look that quickly became fodder for late night television hosts.

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And, during a Vanity Fair photoshoot at the White House in November, the deputy chief of staff appeared concerned about how he would be perceived.

“When we were finished, [Miller] came up to me and he said, ‘You know you have a lot of power in the discretion you use to be kind to someone in your photographs,’” Photographer Christopher Anderson previously told The Independent. “And I look at him and I said, ‘You know, you do too.’”

While taking care to cultivate his own image, Miller has also reportedly sought to shape those around him in his likeness.

While helping President Donald Trump debate prep in 2024, Miller got into a back-and-forth on the subject of immigration with a Trump ally, according to The Atlantic.

“Stephen… if you had it your way, everyone would look exactly like you,” Trump said, according to someone with knowledge of the exchange.

Miller supposedly shot back, “That’s correct.”

That said, Miller has heaped praise on Trump’s own fashion choices. In 2024, he slammed a New York Times story that called former President Joe Biden’s wardrobe “dapper.”

“Donald Trump’s a style icon! He changed American fashion in The Apprentice,” Miller told Fox News. “People spent the next ten years trying to dress like Donald Trump. So if anybody deserves a puff piece on their sense of style, it’s Donald Trump and the first lady.”

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Meanwhile, Miller’s own outward appearance has drawn criticism from one of the nation’s best-known menswear experts. Derek Guy, whose fashion advice under the name Die, Workwear! has garnered him more than one million followers on X, has repeatedly skewered Miller’s style.

“Stephen Miller appears to have spent a considerable sum on a new wardrobe for his role in the Trump administration,” Guy wrote on X in March. “Unfortunately, none of the clothes fit.”

Two months later, he posted a lengthy thread focusing on what he saw as flaws in Miller’s style, including the recurring collar gap in his suits.

Other menswear aficionados, however, have praised Miller’s fashion sense, including one who described a suit he wore as “understated in an elegant way.”

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Miller isn’t the only member of the Trump administration to fixate on appearances.

In September, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth derided what he described as lax standards in the military.

“It’s tiring to look out at combat formations or really any formation and see fat troops,” he said, adding that he was instituting mandatory physical training for all service members.

He also said he would be implementing grooming standards, stating “We’re gonna cut our hair, shave our beards.”