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Miller has spent years attacking LGBTQ+ rights and building policies rooted in white nationalist ideology.
President-elect Donald Trump, the twice-impeached former president and first convicted felon to lead the United States, is about to bring Stephen Miller back to Washington, D.C., with a role in the White House—and this time, he’s giving him a level of power that has LGBTQ+ and civil rights advocates bracing for impact. Known for his track record of hostility toward immigrants, people of color, and LGBTQ+ communities, Miller is expected to serve as deputy chief of staff for policy, placing him in a prime position to reshape the administration’s agenda. His return signals a deeply troubling shift for marginalized communities, as Miller has spent years attacking LGBTQ+ rights and building policies rooted in white nationalist ideology.
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Miller has been a key player in Trump’s orbit for years, mostly credited as the architect behind some of the administration’s most extreme policies. During Trump’s first term, Miller, 38, was known as the mastermind of the Muslim travel ban, the brutal family separation policy at the U.S.-Mexico border, and other policies defined by their rigid nativist approach. His ideology aligns closely with the “America First” agenda, a stance that many civil rights advocates recognize as thinly veiled white nationalism.
Miller’s reputation as a white supremacist stems from leaked emails in 2019 that revealed he frequently shared articles from white nationalist sources, pushing conspiracies about non-white immigration “replacing” white Americans. His family has even spoken out against his hardline beliefs—Miller’s uncle publicly condemned his nephew’s policies as hypocritical, calling them an affront to their own family’s immigrant roots.
In 2021, Miller founded America First Legal. Through AFL, Miller has aggressively attacked LGBTQ+ protections, civil rights laws, and reproductive rights, laying the groundwork for a broader, far-right agenda that AFL has detailed as a contributor to Project 2025, a draconian blueprint for Trump’s second term.
Miller’s track record on LGBTQ+ rights is about as grim as it gets. For LGBTQ+ Americans, his record is one of relentless antagonism. America First Legal has launched some of the most high-profile anti-trans campaigns in recent history, including a 2022 ad blitz that falsely claimed Democrats were pushing “radical gender experiments” on children. These ads flooded swing-state airwaves and mailboxes with misinformation, stoking fears around gender-affirming care with baseless warnings of child “sterilization.” The campaign was strategically targeted at minority communities, with Spanish-language ads spreading similar anti-trans messaging to Latine voters. During the 2024 election cycle, Republicans and the Trump campaign built on this type of advertising, spending hundreds of millions of dollars on ads targeting men with anti-trans messages during televised sports events.
More recently, AFL filed a lawsuit againstArizona’s Mesa Public Schools, attacking the district’s trans-supportive policies as a “violation” of parental rights. AFL’s suit alleges that schools should be forced to notify parents if a student expresses a gender identity different from their sex assigned at birth, regardless of the potential danger it could pose to the student.
Miller’s group has also targeted LGBTQ+ visibility in corporate settings. In August 2023, AFL filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against Kellogg’s for Pride-themed Pop-Tarts featuring RuPaul, claiming the product was an attempt to “target children” with LGBTQ+ imagery.
Miller’s appointment as deputy chief of staff for policy signals a grim chapter for LGBTQ+ rights in America. As a top advisor, Miller will have a powerful hand in shaping the administration’s policy agenda, and his record leaves little room for optimism. Civil rights advocates anticipate an aggressive rollback of LGBTQ+ protections, with policies that could restrict gender-affirming care, scale back workplace protections, and even threaten marriage equality. For LGBTQ+ youth in particular, Miller’s influence could mean the end of critical protections, placing them in environments that ignore or outright deny their identities.
Miller’s return to the White House isn’t just another political appointment—it’s a warning sign. His record shows a clear intent to reshape the federal government in ways that privilege an exclusionary and deeply conservative vision. For LGBTQ+ communities, people of color, immigrants, and allies, Miller’s role signals an urgent need to prepare for the fight ahead.
