Stephen Miller is using his social media and Signal messages to get his hardline messaging to Trump, report says

Stephen Miller, one of the most powerful White House staffers, reportedly uses social media, an encrypted app and dramatic imagery to relay his hardline views and wield influence in Trump’s administration.

By employing these communications methods, the 40-year-old deputy chief of staff is able to bypass intermediaries, some of whom clash with his uncompromising worldview, multiple people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.

“Miller rarely leaves a written trail of his orders,” the outlet reported.

Instead, he is said to rely on Signal — a privacy-focused app — to deliver orders. His dependence on the app surfaced early last year, when a reporter was accidentally added to an administration group chat that discussed an upcoming military operation, igniting a scandal.

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Miller is also said to use “gory images” to strike a chord with Trump, whom he has built a reputation for learning how to manage.

Last summer, he delivered a large photo of a Department of Government Efficiency Staffer known as “Big Balls,” who had been attacked in an attempted car-jacking. The photo shows a shirtless and bloody man sitting on the ground. Miller told the president that crime in the nation’s capital was increasing. Shortly after, Trump himself posted the image on social media and announced he was deploying the National Guard to the city.

But Miller’s influence isn’t only wielded in private. The California-born operative often goes directly to the public with his hardline views — sometimes getting ahead of the White House.

For example, after federal immigration agents shot Alex Pretti dead in Minneapolis on January 24, Miller wrote on X that the deceased nurse was a “domestic terrorist” who had attempted to “assassinate federal law enforcement.”

Other White House officials were still scrambling to determine what had led to Pretti’s death, and Miller’s language had not been approved, unnamed officials told the Journal.

When contacted by the outlet, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that “Stephen brings together all corners of the government to ensure every single policy, both foreign and domestic, is implemented at record speed. The results over the course of the past year speak for themselves.”

“Stephen Miller has faithfully served President Trump for eleven years because he’s intelligent, hardworking, and loyal,” Leavitt said in a statement provided to The Independent.

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Miller, who has been by the president’s side for a decade, has consolidated extraordinary power during Trump’s second term.

Known for working longer hours than his colleagues, he has reportedly drafted or helped edit every single executive order Trump has signed. He was also the brains behind many boundary-pushing actions, including the administration’s campaign to blow up alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and to deport immigrants to a prison in El Salvador, according to the outlet.

“Stephen had the unique ability to take the President’s idea on complex topics and hammer through a set of policies that drive the action and deliver,” Steve Bannon, Trump’s one-time chief strategist at the White House and still an influential figure in the MAGA movement, told the Journal. “He doesn’t overwhelm you with a charm offensive—it’s action.”

After protests erupted in Minneapolis, following a surge of ICE agents, Miller mentioned to Trump the idea of invoking the Insurrection Act — an emergency power that hasn’t been tapped for over three decades. Trump later said he was considering doing using the measure.

In the past, Miller has signaled that government service is his only true passion. After cutting off a staffer during a meeting in Trump’s first term, he said: “I didn’t mean to come across as harsh,” according to The New Yorker. "It's just that this is all I care about. I don’t have a family. I don’t have anything else. This is my life.”

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Miller’s aggressive communications style has received pushback from some White House aides, a handful of Republicans in Congress — and even the president himself.

After federal agents detained a pair of American citizens in Minneapolis, the deputy chief of staff defended their actions, “while other aides grimaced,” according to the Journal.

Senator Thom Tillis, a retiring North Carolina Republican, recently said that Trump should cast Miller aside, following his decision to characterize Pretti as a terrorist.

“That is amateur hour at its worst,” Tillis said. “Stephen Miller never fails to live up to my expectations of incompetence.”

The president — who is aware that his immigration crackdown is polling poorly — has privately confided to aides that he is uncomfortable with “how far Miller has gone on some fronts.”

Trump allies, though, have recognized that the deputy chief of staff is likely here for the long haul. The Journal noted that, in recent weeks, his proximity to the president has remained unchanged.

In fact, his portfolio has expanded to include elements of national security. Last month, Miller told CNN that the U.S. has a right to take over Greenland, stating, “Nobody’s going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland.” White House officials were reportedly stunned by the comments, which had not been greenlit by the president.

The Independent has asked the White House for comment.