Samo alum stephen miller to advise trump
Shawn Saunders/ contributor
Stephen Miller’s sophomore yearbook picture, taken from the digital design room
21 years ago Stephen Miller (’03), now President Trump’s nominee for Deputy Chief of policy, walked the halls of Santa Monica High School. Raised by a liberal- leaning Jewish family in the heart of Santa Monica, Miller’s childhood environment contrasted the political ideas he would later promote. Miller's time at Samo was marked by controversy, where he would deliver speeches to the student body and write conservative opinion pieces to various newspapers. Later he became a polarizing political figure as Senior Advisor to Trump’s 2016 administration.
Early displays of conservative ideology made Miller stand out in a liberal school community. His controversial statements and actions not only drew attention but also foreshadowed who he would later become. In a letter to the editor of The Lookout in 2002 he stated, "a number of students lacked basic English skills. There are usually very few, if any, Hispanic students in my honors classes."
Nathaniel Munoz Acker (’83) a Samo alumni and current AP Government teacher, was ASB advisor when Miller attempted to run for a student body president during his junior year.
“I remember him being booed soundly on the stage when he was running for ASB president… he lost miserably because he was not well liked,” Acker reflected. “He said something, to the effect that, we [Samo students] should throw our trash on the ground, so it'll give the janitors something to do.”
These controversial opinions often came with condemnation from Miller’s peers at Samo.
“We didn’t like him,” former classmate Natalie Flores (’03) told The Wrap. “He was rude, he was racist, he was a misogynist, he was absolutely obnoxious.”
While many students shared similar views to Flores, some of his peers such as Jenness Hartley (’04) found his bombastic nature to be fascinating.
“I do remember having a great time with him at an eighth-grade barbecue,” Flores told the Los Angeles Magazine. “He was entertaining and irreverent and said things that were entirely out of left field.”
The strong reactions Miller faced from his peers at Samo was rooted in the same controversial views that would later define his political career, leading to his role as a key figure shaping immigration policy under the Trump administration.
In the 2016 presidential election he was appointed to be a senior policy advisor for Trump’s presidential campaign. Following the 2024 election, commencing Trump’s second term, he will now be promoted to deputy chief of staff for policy. This job comes with overseeing the development and implementation of key policy initiatives. Some of Miller’s planned policy initiatives include large-scale deportations of undocumented immigrants, imposing travel bans, and enforcing strict border control. Miller previously set his initiatives in motion during Trump’s first term. In Trump's 2016 term, Miller signed and supported immigration bans against Muslims coming into the U.S (which was in motion for 120 days), separated thousands of children from their families at the border through the Family Separation Policy. Miller plans to amplify and add on to these initiatives in the 2024 term.
Miller has cited sources in emails sent to conservative allies at Breitbart News that were determined by the Southern Poverty Law Center and Anti Defamation League as hate websites and white supremacist journals.
Miller’s current political views stand in sharp contrast to the liberal environment of Samo. Miller’s embrace of right-wing ideas highlights significant differences from the values of racial diversity and equity that defined his highschool community. Even during Miller’s time at highschool he frequently voiced his disapproval of Samo’s political atmosphere. Notably, Miller concluded his letter to The Lookout claiming, “Osama Bin Laden would feel very welcome at Santa Monica High School.”