“A vital book for understanding the still-unfolding nightmare of
nationalism and racism in the 21st century.” –Francisco Cantu,
author of The Line Becomes a River
Stephen Miller is
one of the most influential advisors in the White House. He has
crafted Donald Trump’s speeches, designed immigration policies that
ban Muslims and separate families, and outlasted such Trump stalwarts
as Steve Bannon and Jeff Sessions. But he’s remained an enigma.
Until now. Emmy- and
PEN-winning investigative journalist and author Jean Guerrero charts
the thirty-four-year-old’s astonishing rise to power, drawing from
more than one hundred interviews with his family, friends,
adversaries and government officials.
Radicalized as a
teenager, Miller relished provocation at his high school in liberal
Santa Monica, California. He clashed with administrators and
antagonized dark-skinned classmates with invectives against
bilingualism and multiculturalism. At Duke University, he cloaked
racist and classist ideas in the language of patriotism and heritage
to get them airtime amid controversies. On Capitol Hill, he served
Tea Party congresswoman Michele Bachmann and nativist Alabama Senator
Jeff Sessions.
Recruited to Trump’s
campaign, Miller met his idol. Having dreamed of Trump’s presidency
before he even announced his decision to run, Miller became his
senior policy advisor and speechwriter. Together, they stoked
dystopian fears about the Democrats, “Deep State” and “American
Carnage,” painting migrants and their supporters as an existential
threat to America. Through backroom machinations and sheer force of
will, Miller survived dozens of resignations and encouraged Trump’s
harshest impulses, in conflict with the president’s own family.
While Trump railed against illegal immigration, Miller crusaded
against legal immigration. He targeted refugees, asylum seekers and
their children, engineering an ethical crisis for a nation that once
saw itself as the conscience of the world. Miller rallied support for
this agenda, even as federal judges tried to stop it, by courting the
white rage that found violent expression in tragedies from El Paso to
Charlottesville.
Hatemonger
unveils the man driving some of the most divisive confrontations over
what it means to be American––and what America will become.