The new White House chief of staff, Stephen Miller, has expressed his unwavering support for United States President Donald Trump, despite the personal risks that, as he has pointed out, he has taken on in defending him. In his first public appearance after being appointed to the post, he highlighted the role of the president in the country’s political transformation.
"It is the honor of my life to be the Chief of Staff of President Trump, and I swear to you and I promise you, Mr. President, my absolute loyalty, my unbreakable commitment, and my total devotion to his success and to the success of this country," he said.
Miller recalled that he has worked alongside Trump since 2015, when the then candidate announced his first presidential campaign, a stage that he has described as "a lifetime privilege." During his speech, the ultranationalist leader credited the president with having prevented the decline of the Armed Forces, of the economy and of border security, in addition to having protected the country from internal and external threats.
"This man saved America," he stated, before going on to say that, without his leadership, the United States would have seen the pillars that support the so-called 'American dream' collapse. Along the same lines, he has asserted that Trump has driven the recovery of the Republican Party, which, as he has defended, he has managed to put in a position of greater strength, popularity and resilience.
The newly appointed chief of staff has also praised Trump’s political career and recalled that he was shot and risked spending the rest of his life in prison. On the basis of this, he has appealed to the duty to reciprocate the commitment that, in his view, the president has shown toward the nation: "We need to be at the side of the man who has been at our side," he demanded.
This intervention marks Stephen Miller’s first public appearance, one of the most influential ideologues of the MAGA movement, since the dismissal last Friday of Trump’s previous chief of staff, Susie Wiles. The change has taken place only a few days after the Republicans’ debacle in the midterm legislative elections and has prompted indignation among the new Democratic leadership of the House over the even more extremist turn that, they consider, the president has taken.