Frantic Stephen Miller Tries Shifting Blame for Minneapolis Disaster; The Daily Beast, January 28, 2026

Catherine Bouris , The Daily Beast; Frantic Stephen Miller Tries Shifting Blame for Minneapolis Disaster

"Stephen Miller is seeking to shift blame for the death of Alex Pretti at the hands of Customs and Border Patrol agents away from himself and back onto Kristi Noem.

The White House deputy chief of staff released a statement to CNN just hours after Homeland Security Secretary Noem appeared to draw battle lines, throwing 40-year-old Miller under the bus...

Miller, the president’s top aide in the White House, is widely considered the architect of the aggressive immigration crackdown that has quickly come to define President Donald Trump’s second term in office.

Miller’s hint at an investigation or evaluation into the agents involved in the Saturday killing of Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, is a departure from prior inflammatory comments in which he labelled Pretti a “would-be assassin.”...

Miller seeking to distance himself and the White House from the actions of the agents involved in Pretti’s killing suggests that Noem is not the only senior Trump official trying to emerge unscathed, particularly as the public backlash against him continues to grow.

The Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal’s editorial board wrote in a Tuesday editorial that Miller’s immigration policies are costing the White House credibility and “building distrust.”"

Donald Trump Can Be Stopped; The Atlantic, January 27, 2026

Jonathan Chait , The Atlantic; Donald Trump Can Be Stopped: The president’s retreat in Minneapolis is a stinging defeat for the national conservatives.

"Of the many lessons to be drawn from the administration’s retreat in Minneapolis, the most important is that Donald Trump can be stopped.

He spent his first year acting as though the 2024 election were the last time he would ever have to give a thought to public opinion. Now the myth that Trump is invincible has been exploded...

Trump’s capitulation would never have occurred if not for the heroic, disciplined resistance in Minneapolis. Faced with something like an occupying army that was systematically flouting the law, the people of Minneapolis thrust its abuse into the public eye, raising the political cost of Miller’s war until enough Republicans decided that they couldn’t bear to pay it.

Political theorists have long debated whether Trump and his movement should be described as fascist. On an intellectual level, the answer depends largely on which definition of fascism you choose (there are several). I have generally resisted the term because the definition I prefer, and the one most Americans probably think of when they hear the term, is not mere political oppression but a form of it so extreme that opposition becomes impossible.

That may be more or less Trump’s aspiration, and possibly our destiny. But this is not a fascist country, at least not yet."

“He Will Bring All The Power He Can”: Terry Moran on Trump’s Attacks On The Free Press and His Firing From ABC; The Bulwark, June 16, 2025

TIM MILLER AND 

TERRY MORAN

, The Bulwark ; “He Will Bring All The Power He Can”: Terry Moran on Trump’s Attacks On The Free Press and His Firing From ABC

"Journalist Terry Moran was fired from ABC after a tweet criticizing Stephen Miller sparked an overblown backlash from the Trump administration. But Moran isn’t done. He joins Tim Miller to talk about Trump’s attacks on the free press, his Trump interview and what comes next."

The White House Marching Orders That Sparked the L.A. Migrant Crackdown; The Wall Street Journal, June 9, 2025

Elizabeth Findell

Ruth Simon

  

Michelle Hackman

and 

Tarini Parti, The Wall Street Journal; The White House Marching Orders That Sparked the L.A. Migrant Crackdown

"After deportations fell short of President Trump’s campaign promises, federal agents summoned to a meeting in Washington were told to ‘just go out there and arrest illegal aliens’"