WASHINGTON (AP) — More than a year before a U.S. military operation ousted Nicolás Maduro, a top adviser to President Donald Trump has alleged that the Venezuelan leader sent gang members to the United States.
“If you are the dictator of a poor country with a high crime rate, wouldn’t you send your criminals to our open border?” Stephen Miller told reporters in the latter part of Trump’s 2024 comeback campaign.
Miller is now the White House chief of staff for policy, where he plays a prominent role in advancing Trump’s policy agenda. His bombastic style and zero-sum worldview made him a lightning rod in the administration. Critics argue that Miller’s rhetoric about foreign nations and immigrants echoes the racist and imperialist ideas that have underpinned US and other nations’ military actions for centuries.
A joint statement by the governments of Spain and five Latin American countries following the Venezuela operation called on countries in the region to commit to “mutual respect, peaceful settlement of disputes and non-intervention,” while Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., called the administration’s policy in Venezuela “old-fashioned imperialism.”
“Supporting policies that put American citizens first is not racist. Anyone who says that is either lying on purpose or just plain stupid,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said.
Here’s a look at how Miller laid the rhetorical groundwork for this month’s attack on Venezuela and what his comments say about the administration’s broader worldview.
Miller argues that Western nations’ aid to the developing world was “reverse colonization”
Shortly after the US operation that captured Maduro, Miller wrote on social media: “Shortly after World War II, the West dissolved its empires and colonies and began sending colossal amounts of taxpayer-funded aid to these former territories (despite the fact that they had already made them much richer and more successful). not only full franchise, but preferential legal and financial treatment over citizens natives. The neoliberal experiment, at its core, has been a long self-punishment of the places and peoples that built the modern world.”
Miller claims that Venezuelan oil was stolen from the US oil industry
Two weeks before Maduro’s arrest, Miller echoed Trump’s claims in December that Venezuela’s oil industry had been stolen from American oil companies:
“The sweat, ingenuity and toil of Americans created the oil industry in Venezuela. Its tyrannical expropriation was the greatest theft of American wealth and property on record. These looted assets were then used to finance terrorism and flood our streets with killers, mercenaries and drugs,” Miller wrote on social media.
Miller says the Venezuelan government is in the service of the US
Miller told reporters in January that U.S. military power had ensured the compliance of the government in Caracas.
“We have an oil embargo on Venezuela for them to do any kind of trade. They need our permission. We have our massive fleet or armada still present there. This is an active and ongoing military operation by the US government, and of course we set the terms and conditions,” Miller said.
He added: “Our conversations are that we are getting full, complete and total cooperation from the government of Venezuela, and as a result of that cooperation, the people of Venezuela are going to be richer than they’ve ever been before. And of course, the United States is going to benefit massively from that in terms of economic, security and military cooperation, counter-narcotics, counter-terrorism and every other dimension of our security.”
Miller calls for force-based world order, says US military occupation of Greenland would not oppose
During a wide-ranging interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Miller repeatedly asserted the primacy of American power and criticized the international order the US once led.
“You can talk all you want about international beauties and whatever. But we live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that’s ruled by force, that’s ruled by force, that’s ruled by power. Those are the iron laws of the world,” Miller said.
Miller also dismissed fears that Trump’s vows to take Greenland from Denmark, a fellow member of the NATO military alliance, could spark a military conflict with Europe.
“Nobody is going to fight the United States militarily for the future of Greenland,” Miller said.
Miller argues that Western nations have engaged in the “catch-up” to former colonies
In the same interview, Miller said it would be “absurd and preposterous” and “not even a serious question” to suggest the administration support Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado’s bid to lead the country because the military does not support her.
Tapper then asked if the South American country should hold elections.
Miller responded: “The United States uses its military to unapologetically secure our interests in our hemisphere. We are a superpower and, under President Trump, we will behave like a superpower. It is absurd to allow a nation in our own backyard to become the supplier of resources to our adversaries, but not to us, to be held against adversaries, as assets, as adversarial assets. The United States, rather than on behalf of the United States.”
The anchor pressed Miller on whether sovereign countries have the right to run their own affairs.
Miller explained the administration’s position: “The Monroe Doctrine and the Trump Doctrine are all about securing America’s national interest. For years, we’ve sent our soldiers to die in the deserts of the Middle East to try to build them parliaments, to try to build them democracies, to try to give them more oil, to try to give them more oil, to try to give them more resources and more freedom of America. we ourselves and our interests without apology.” He called for an end to “this whole period that happened after the Second World War, where the West started apologizing and fumbling and engaging in these massive reparations schemes.”
He also defended the administration’s operation and echoed his earlier claims that Maduro had sent criminals to the US: “We will not let tinpot communist dictators send rapists into our country, send drugs into our country, send weapons into our country.”
Miller criticizes anti-ICE protests after Minneapolis immigration crackdown
Miller returned to promote the administration’s position on domestic issues such as immigration and partisan politics.
On Tuesday, following nationwide protests after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a woman in Minnesota, Miller wrote on social media: “Americans voting overwhelmingly for mass deportation. Congress passed laws requiring it and then passed new legislation to fully fund it. The response of the Democratic Party and its activists has been to support violent resistance and federal orchestra”.
He later added in a separate post: “In case it’s not clear by now, if the Democrats had won, they would have turned every city into Mogadishu, Kabul or Port-au-Prince.”