WASHINGTON (AP) — More than a year before U.S. military action ousted Nicolás Maduro, a top aide to President Donald Trump argued that the Venezuelan leader had been sending gang members into the United States.
“If you were a dictator in a poor country with high crime rates, wouldn’t you send your criminals to our open borders?” Stephen Miller told reporters during the final stretch of Trump’s 2024 comeback campaign.
Miller now serves as director of the White House Office of Policy and plays an important role in promoting Trump’s policy agenda. His bombastic style and zero-sum worldview have made him a lightning rod within the administration. Critics argued that Miller’s comments about foreign countries and immigrants echoed centuries of racist and imperialist ideas that have informed U.S. and other countries’ military operations.
After the Venezuela action, Spain and five Latin American governments issued a joint statement calling on countries in the region to “respect each other, peacefully resolve disputes and non-intervention,” while Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders called the administration’s Venezuela policy “old-fashioned imperialism.”
“Advocating for policies that put American citizens first is not racist. Anyone who says so is either knowingly lying or being stupid,” White House Press Secretary Abigail Jackson said.
Here’s how Miller laid the rhetorical foundation for this month’s attack on Venezuela, as well as his comments about the administration’s broader worldview.
Miller believes that Western countries’ aid to developing countries is “reverse colonization”
Shortly after the U.S. operation to capture Maduro, Miller wrote on social media: “Shortly after World War II, the West dismantled its empires and colonies and began flooding these former territories with massive taxpayer-funded aid (albeit making them richer and more successful). The West opened up “At the heart of the neoliberal experiment is the long-term self-punishment of the places and peoples that built the modern world.” “
Mueller argues Venezuelan oil was stolen from U.S. oil industry
Two weeks before Maduro’s arrest, Miller echoed Trump’s sentiment in December that Venezuela’s oil industry was stolen from U.S. oil companies:
Miller wrote on social media: “American sweat, ingenuity and toil created Venezuela’s oil industry. Its brutal expropriation is the largest theft of American wealth and property on record. These looted assets are then used to fund terrorism and fill our streets with killers, mercenaries and drugs.”
Miller says Venezuelan government is serving U.S.
Miller claimed to reporters in January that U.S. military power ensured compliance by the Caracas government.
“We have an oil embargo in Venezuela that prohibits them from engaging in any kind of commerce. They need our permission. We still have a large fleet or fleet of ships stationed there. This is an active and ongoing military operation of the U.S. government, so, of course, we have terms and conditions,” Miller said.
He added: “Our conversation is that we are receiving full, complete and comprehensive cooperation from the Venezuelan government, and the Venezuelan people will be richer than ever because of this cooperation. And of course the United States will benefit greatly from it in terms of economic, security and military cooperation, counternarcotics, counterterrorism and every other aspect of our security.”
Miller calls for a world order based on strength, saying he will not oppose U.S. military occupation of Greenland
In a January interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Miller repeatedly advocated for the primacy of American power and criticized the international order the United States once led.
“You can talk all you want about international etiquette and everything else. But we live in a world, and in the real world, Jack, it’s ruled by force, it’s ruled by force, it’s ruled by power. Those are the iron laws of the world,” Miller said.
Miller also dismissed concerns that Trump’s vow to seize Greenland from Denmark, a member of the NATO military alliance, could trigger a military conflict with Europe.
“No one is going to fight militarily against the United States for the future of Greenland,” Miller said.
Miller sees Western countries ‘kowtow’ to former colonies
In the same interview, Miller said proposing that the government support Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Colina Machado in her efforts to lead the country was “ridiculous and preposterous” and “not even a serious issue” because the military would not support her.
Tapper then asked whether the South American country should hold elections.
Miller responded: “The United States is unapologetically using its military to secure our interests in the Western Hemisphere. We are a superpower, and under President Trump we will act like a superpower. It is ridiculous that we allow a country in our backyard to become our adversary instead of our resource supplier, to hoard weapons from our adversaries, to be positioned as an asset against the United States rather than on behalf of the United States.”
The anchor pressed Miller on whether sovereign states have the right to handle their own affairs.
Miller explained the administration’s position: “Both the Monroe Doctrine and the Trump Doctrine were about securing America’s national interests. For years, we sent our soldiers to die in the deserts of the Middle East, trying to build parliaments for them, trying to build democracies, trying to give them more oil, trying to give them more resources. Jack, the future of the free world depends on the United States being able to stand up for itself and our interests without apologizing.” He called for an end to “the whole period after World War II when the West started apologizing, groveling, and engaging in these massive reparations programs.”
He also defended the government’s actions and reiterated his past statements about Maduro sending criminals into the United States: “We will not let an incompetent communist dictator send rapists into our country, send drugs into our country, send weapons into our country.”
Miller criticizes anti-ICE protests following Minneapolis immigration crackdown
Miller has returned to promoting the administration’s positions on domestic issues such as immigration and partisan politics.
“Americans voted overwhelmingly for mass deportations. Congress passed laws requiring it and then passed new legislation to fully fund them. Democrats and their activists responded by supporting and orchestrating violent resistance to federal law enforcement,” Miller wrote on social media on Tuesday after nationwide protests were sparked after the fatal shooting of a woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minnesota.
He later added in another post, “If it’s not clear by now, if the Democrats win, they will turn every city into Mogadishu, Kabul or Port-au-Prince.”