TOI correspondent from Washington: US President Donald Trump on Friday promoted as White House chief of Staff Stephen Miller, a foreign policy hawk with hardline views on the H-1B visa program who once accused India of “cheating on immigration” and financing Russia’s war on Ukraine.The already powerful Trump aide, currently deputy chief of staff, was elevated after the MAGA supremo exiled incumbent Susie Wiles following the mid-term election debacle. Trump did not blame her directly, but amid a civil war and bloodletting in MAGA circles furious at the monumental Republican drubbing in mid-terms, she became one of the first casualties.“I am pleased to announce that Stephen Miller,…and one of my most trusted advisors, will become the Chief of Staff starting Monday. Susie Wiles, who has done an outstanding job, will be moving over to the Trump Political Operation. I want to thank her for her service – She has done a great job!” Trump posted on Truth Social, as he eased her out with finesse in what was clearly a choreographed transition.For much of the world, including New Delhi, Miller’s elevation is unsettling, given his publicly stated views on American primacy, including its purported right to invade and occupy any country in what it deems its sphere of influence. He has also dismissed US-India ties with hauteur, telling Fox News in an interview in August 2025, “India portrays itself as being one of our closest friends in the world; but they don’t accept our products, they impose massive tariffs on us, we also know they engage in a lot of cheating on immigration policy.“It was an extraordinary broadside, not least because Miller accused New Delhi of “cheating” on immigration policy, which is Washington’s remit with no role in it for the Indian government. He also bundled India’s trade policy and energy purchases into one indictment of its friendship with America. Although he added that Trump wanted a tremendous relationship with India and PM Narendra Modi, the accompanying message was unmistakable: strategic partnership would not buy New Delhi immunity from the America First treatment.Miller’s remarks were not a passing irritation with trade barriers. He has long been hostile to the expansion of legal immigration, including the H-1B program which both Indian and US technology companies use to provide services across the world. During Trump’s first term, he helped shape the administration’s push for the RAISE Act, legislation sponsored by Senator Tom Cotton that sought to slash legal immigration, including family-based migration. He also advocated changes to the H-1B system, including abandoning its existing lottery in favour of a system that would prioritise higher-paid applicants.Miller’s appointment, unlike that of Cabinet secretaries, requires no confirmation hearing, no committee interrogation and no opportunity for lawmakers to examine his views or what he would do with the enormous power that comes with becoming virtually a gatekeeper to the Oval Office and controlling access to the President. Given his reputation as a white American primacist, alarm began coursing through political circles soon after his elevation.Progressive commentator Kyle Kulinski called him a “Jewish Nazi,” described him as Trump’s “id,” and said he represented the president’s worst instincts. He also invoked the “Hitler in his bunker phase of Trumpism” to describe what he fears is coming next. While the Nazi comparison is largely polemical, it is a measure of how toxic Miller’s reputation has become among opponents of the Trump regime’s immigration program.Miller’s critics point to a record that goes well beyond conventional border enforcement. He championed the family-separation policy during Trump’s first term, defended mass deportations, described migrants as an invading force, and most alarmingly, suggested in 2025 that the administration was considering suspending habeas corpus — the very bedrock of American legal and democratic tradition — to accelerate deportations. He has also described the Democratic Party as a “domestic extremist organization.”In other worldviews beyond immigration, Miller has argued that international relations are governed by strength, force and power, defended American claims to Venezuela’s oil and said Greenland should obviously belong to the US His language about the primacy Western civilisation and his denigration of the developing world has also prompted critics to see something more than conventional American nationalism in his conception of national primacy. Among his more striking views was a defense of the British empire he made in a 2022 interview: “The British Empire has been such a benevolent force for good in the world. Its unraveling was a historic tragedy with empires like China, for example, filling that void.”