#97: Let’s Make Stephen Miller Really Famous

Here’s what I’ve recently found interesting:

• Let’s go after Stephen Miller at every opportunity;
• Protests are helping to reduce harm and improve opposition morale during Trump’s first 100 days;
• Democrats need to step up their messaging efforts as we enter the “find out” stage of the Trump trade war;
• The group chats radicalizing our techbro elite against democracy;
• I’m fed up with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ insistence on following advice to play dead rather than oppose Trump;
• Clearing my tabs; and
• What’s giving me hope!

Here we go. I’m glad you’re here.

The Struggle

#1

• How Trump Accidentally Sabotaged His Own Case Against Abrego Garcia (Greg Sargent, The New Republic, Link to Article)
• Stephen Miller Has a Plan (Nick Miroff and Jonathan Lemire, The Atlantic, Link to Article)
• Trump Allies Sue John Roberts To Give White House Control Of Court System (Josh Kovensky, Talking Points Memo, Link to Article)

A few days ago, I posted on BlueSky that we need people to go after Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller at every possible opportunity.

That’s right: I want Miller to be famous for his cruel policy actions and rejection of Constitutional law. I want Democrats and people who care about our democracy to make him famous.

It’s the most popular post I’ve written on that social media site, and now I want to follow my advice here. Miller is an unpopular and unlikable figure. It is time to make sure every American voter understands the person behind this fascist and anti-Constitutional agenda.

This particular post was a reply Greg Sargent’s article about Miller’s actions in the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case. But it could have been about the plethora of cruel policies Miller has pushed in both of Trump’s terms.

Sargent explained how Trump’s admission that he could take action to have Abrego Garcia returned—even as he chooses not to do so—highlights how Trump has chosen to defy the Supreme Court. That’s a Constitutional crisis, and there is little doubt who is behind it. As Sargent writes:

Which lawyers have told Trump that he is not required to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return? What exactly transpired in these communications? Which top official—aside from Trump—is internally directing the lawyers to advise Trump this way? Are that official’s initials S and M?

“These lawyers appear to be obeying Stephen Miller and not the Supreme Court,” says Chris Newman, an attorney for the Abrego Garcia family. “Miller himself should be deposed under oath in federal court to determine his role in this ongoing affront to due process.”

<snip>

Drunk with hubris and high on his sad little fascist fantasies, Miller believes he can bury Americans in propaganda about criminal migrants, seducing them into embracing unchecked presidential power as essential to securing public safety. But Trump’s blithe admission that he can follow the law on Abrego Garcia anytime he wants to—and is not doing so because someone, somewhere told him he doesn’t have to—reveals this as entirely unmoored from anything resembling public order and the rule of law. It’s lawless, arbitrary, and dictatorial—proudly so, in fact.

That pride could lead to Miller’s eventual fall, and the Trump Regime with it, if Democrats are willing to make him an issue.

Nick Miroff and Jonathan Lemire explain how Miller learned from the limited progress he made in Trump’s first term.

Miller’s approach is different this time. He has unleashed an everything-at-once policy storm modeled after the MAGA guru Stephen K. Bannon’s “flood the zone” formula. Drawing on policy ideas worked up in conservative think tanks during the four years between Trump’s terms, Miller’s plan has been to fire off so many different proposals that some inevitably find a friendly court ruling, three administration officials told us.

This tactic also gives Miller multiple ways to seal the border, shut down the U.S. asylum system, and ramp up deportations. “It’s Do everything all at once everywhere,” says Mark Krikorian, the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a group aligned with Miller that has incubated some of his policy ideas.

Miller dug deep into the law books to find the rules he has asked Trump to implement in the first 100 days. That’s why Trump has dusted off the 1798 Alien Enemies Act. He has flooded the zone, and the Department of Justice is doing everything possible to keep the courts from doing their oversight work.

We also have just learned that the organization Miller founded and used as a base between Trump’s two terms is now attacking our court system. Talking Points Memo’s Josh Kovensky explains:

In a little-noticed lawsuit filed last week, the America First Legal Foundation sued Chief Justice John Roberts and the head of the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts.

The case ostensibly proceeds as a FOIA lawsuit, with the Trump-aligned group seeking access to judiciary records. But, in doing so, it asks the courts to cede massive power to the White House: the bodies that make court policy and manage the judiciary’s day-to-day operations should be considered independent agencies of the executive branch, the suit argues, giving the President, under the conservative legal movement’s theories, the power to appoint and dismiss people in key roles.

Multiple legal scholars and attorneys TPM spoke with reacted to the suit with a mixture of dismay, disdain and laughter. Though the core legal claim is invalid, they said, the suit seems to be a part of the fight that the administration launched and has continued to escalate against the courts over the past several months: ignoring a Supreme Court order to facilitate the return of a wrongly removed Salvadoran man, providing minimal notice to people subject to the Alien Enemies Act, flaunting an aggressive criminal case against a state court judge.

This case may not work, but Miller is not subtle. We have all seen how successful the Trump Regime has been in taking initially wacky ideas and making them mainstream after finding a MAGA judge—and their mouthpieces on Fox News and other right-wing media outlets—to approve them.

Miller is going big, and our response to him has to be equally so. We cannot allow him to lurk in the shadows as he seeks to dismantle our judiciary and immigration systems to achieve his white nationalist goals.

And, seriously, Democrats, The Daily Show has already done a bunch of work for you. Start here and work to make him an issue in every state and Congressional District nationwide.

#2

• Don’t believe the doubters: protest still has power (Jan-Werner Müller, The Guardian, Link to Article)
• One Way to Keep Trump’s Authoritarian Fantasy From Becoming Our Reality (Jamelle Bouie, The New York Times, Link to Article)
• One Hundred Days In: The People Who Have Put These Days to Good Use (James Fallows, Breaking the News, Link to Article)

This is not an easy time for those who oppose the anti-Constitutional actions of the Trump-Musk Regime’s first 100 days.

Far too many of the Democratic Party’s elected leadership failed to oppose Trump’s initial atrocities. People have been upset by what they’ve seen Trump-Musk do to federal agencies and employees.

But politics abhors a vacuum, and regular people started to fill in the leadership gaps. While severe damage has been done, the actions people around the country have taken have reduced the harm while strengthening the spines of key institutions.

The Tesla Takedown, Hands Off, Earth Day, and May Day protests are part of a national movement that has held double the number of protests this year compared to what the U.S. had during the same time period in Trump’s first term. It is exciting to see so many people connecting and building momentum to resist the Trump-Musk Regime!

This movement’s policy successes have been relatively small so far—but that’s not the only reason public protests are essential. As Jan-Werner Müller explained in The Guardian:

Yet immediate policy change is not the only metric of success. Especially in light of the defeatist elite stance earlier this year, people coming out and seeing each other can be a major morale booster. What is so often dismissed as performative – music, drums, people parading with handmade signs to have their photos taken by others – is not a matter of collective narcissism; rather, it has been recognized by many modern thinkers, starting with Rousseau, as an important part of building community.

The Fighting Oligarchy Tour with Senator Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez proved that many Americans were hungry for someone to step up and lead the opposition.

As these actions gained press coverage and Trump-Musk’s polling deteriorated, more Democratic elected officials stepped up. Senator Cory Booker held a record-breaking filibuster, and Senator Chris Van Hollen went to El Salvador. As they gained appreciation, press attention, and fundraising success, other Democrats have joined in making more good trouble.

Jamelle Bouie explains how institutions learned that the situation was not helpless—and how leadership can create even more power.

By exercising political leadership, by acting like an opposition, both lawmakers and ordinary citizens have turned smooth sailing into rough waters for the administration. And while there is still much to do (Abrego Garcia has not been released, there are reports that the administration has sent at least one detainee to Rwanda, and there is also at least one person who is missing from all records), it’s also true that Trump and his people are not an unstoppable force.

Trump wants us to be demoralized. He wants his despotic plans to be a fait accompli. They will be if no one stands in the way. But every time we — and especially those with power and authority — make ourselves into obstacles, we also make it a little less likely that the administration’s authoritarian fantasy becomes our reality.

The people still have the power to create reality in our nation. That means hope remains alive.

James Fallows created an honor roll for the people “defending the values and institutions that Trump and his allies are attempting to destroy.” It’s a lengthy list, and Fallows does all of us a favor by reminding us of the first resister of this second Trump term: Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde. It seems like a lifetime has passed since the inaugural National Prayer Service on January 21, 2025—but we should not let the past few months of chaos overshadow the heroes.

Keeping up our morale is an essential part of resisting an authoritarian regime. That’s why I don’t mind seeing people sing, dance, and enjoy themselves while protesting.

In the previous issue of this newsletter, I started closing by highlighting the people and events that are giving me hope right now. I plan to continue doing so, because the possibility of hope is essential. I hope you’ll share with me what is giving you hope so I can include them in future issues. You can email me at craig@thelongtwilightstruggle.com.

#3

• China-to-U.S. Container Shipments Shrink as Tariffs Bite (Costas Paris, Wall Street Journal, Link to Article)
• The Slowdown at Ports Is a Warning of Rough Economic Seas Ahead (Aarian Marshall, Wired, Link to Article)
• The last boats without crippling tariffs from China are arriving. The countdown to shortages and higher prices has begun (Vanessa Yurkevich, CNN, Link to Article)

We are about to enter the “find out” stage of President Trump’s trade war. I think Democrats should be doing more to ensure that the Trump Regime and Congressional Republicans are blamed for the empty shelves, increased prices, and layoffs that shipping experts expect to see in the next week or so.

It’s a serious situation. Worldwide shipping doesn’t start and stop on a dime. The impact of tariff decisions takes time to be felt. Wired’s Aarian Marshall explains:

As the effects of President Donald Trump’s new tariffs on foreign goods—and the trade war they’ve ignited—set in, many shippers who usually send goods across the Pacific Ocean have paused or canceled their shipments. Data from the supply-chain research firm Sea-Intelligence shows that blank sailings to the US’s West Coast spiked 13 percent this week, and is due to jump to 28 percent the week after. The Port of Los Angeles, the nation’s largest, expects 17 total blank sailings in May, which means the port will lose 224,000 “twenty-foot equivalent units of capacity,” the standard metric used to measure the contents in one container. In total, the port’s data shows, import volumes will be down 31 percent next week compared to the same week last year.

<snip>

What does that mean for consumers? Right now, the US government has said that it is negotiating tariff levels with many countries, including China, so the container shipping picture could change quickly as deals are signed or dashed. But at this point, some shortages are baked in. Experts say low-cost retail goods, like toys, are very likely to get more expensive in the US, as fewer ships make it to port and scarcity pushes up prices.

Trump acknowledged as much in a Cabinet meeting this week: “Maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, and maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more,” he said.

Hello, Democrats? These Trump statements about dolls and pencils are deranged. They should provide all sorts of ammunition for the needed efforts to ensure the proper people get the blame.

Democrats must also emphasize that Congressional Republicans could end this trade war tomorrow. They could strip the president of the emergency powers that he is misusing. Will voters understand this dynamic? Only if Democrats make it an issue, day after day.

#4

• The group chats that changed America (Ben Smith, Semafor, Link to Article)
• Extremist blogger to debate Harvard professor at unsanctioned campus event (Ben Makuch, The Guardian, Link to Article)
• Global elites are rotting their brains in group chats (Max Read, Read Max, Link to Article)
• Democracy dies in billionaire group chats (Ryan Broderick, Garbage Day, Link to Article)
• Trump’s Win Has Tech Bros Delighted They Can Say Slurs Again (Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling, The New Republic, Link to Article)

Semafor’s Ben Smith gives us a peak into these conversations that appear to have been strategically used to radicalize the tech elite who were not thrilled with the response to the COVID-19 pandemic—as they are the real victims—and who have decided that democracy is not the answer for 21st Century challenges.

In February, [Mark Andreessen] described the group chats to the podcaster Lex Fridman as “the equivalent of samizdat” — the self-published Soviet underground press — in a “soft authoritarian” age of social media shaming and censorship. “The combination of encryption and disappearing messages really unleashed it,” he said. The chats, he wrote recently, helped produce our national “vibe shift.”

The chats are occasionally marked by the sort of thing that would have gotten you scolded on Twitter in 2020, and which would pass unremarked-on on X in 2025.

They have rarely been discussed in public, though you can catch the occasional mention in, for instance, a podcast debate between Cuban and the Republican entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, which started in a chat.

But they are made visible through a group consensus on social media. Their effects have ranged from the mainstreaming of the monarchist pundit Curtis Yarvin to a particularly focused and developed dislike of the former Washington Post writer Taylor Lorenz.

Oh, Curtis Yarvin. It’s not a surprise to see him pop up here given how the Silicon Valley elite have taken to his anti-democratic philosophy. The Guardian’s Ben Makuch does a great job of putting Yarvin in context in his article about an upcoming unsanctioned debate he will have with a Harvard professor:

An extremist blogger, who has become the Trump administration’s so-called “dark enlightenment” sage, is debating a Harvard professor of political philosophy at an unsanctioned event on its campus next week.

Curtis Yarvin, who was for a time an obscure darling of Silicon Valley and the broader spectrum of the fringe right wing, has emerged as a major philosophical influence on key Capitol Hill power brokers. He is considered a favorite of Vice-President JD Vance, an ally of the tech mogul Peter Thiel, and having the ear of senior state department official, Michael Anton, among others.

Yarvin’s outlandish politics vouching for dictatorships and a new “American Caesar”, as he discussed in a 2021 podcast with Anton, in place of liberal democracy has made him both a much-maligned and loved figure.

Yarvin has also promoted blatant rightwing extremism, in the present and past: under his pen name Mencius Moldbug, he argued the racist, Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik was no more a terrorist than Nelson Mandela; he has also recently asserted the well-trodden, bigoted and historical trope that Black Americans under slavery in the old south, enjoyed much better living standards as chattel.

So, yeah, it’s a bit problematic that so many billionaires and centimillionaires are looking to Yarvin for their political outlook. This story emphasizes why I have been so focused on our techbroligarchs turn to the right thanks to philosophies that reject democracy for the rule of people like them.

Meanwhile, because the right-wing always seem to be better at using the internet to radicalize people, we learn that some leading alt-right activists understood they had a rare opportunity to earn the backing of some of the most wealthy and powerful people in the nation. As Max Read writes:

But others see it slightly differently: “Two of its conservative participants said they see [Chatham House] as a way to shift centrist Trump-curious figures to the Republican side,” Smith writes. The race-science enthusiast conservative Substacker Richard Hanania recounts for Smith a group chat “of smart right-wing people” he created at Andreessen’s behest. “Marc radicalized over time,” Hanania tells Smith, no doubt helped along by the “elite law students and federal court clerks” in the chat, not to mention Tucker Carlson. The right-wing activist Chris Rufo is (as always) particularly explicit: “I looked at these chats as a good investment of my time to radicalize tech elites who I thought were the most likely and high-impact new coalition partners for the right,” he says.

Chris Rufo, Richard Hanania, and Tucker Carlson—it’s a white nationalist bingo!

Rufo (who created the critical race theory moral panic out of nothing and now is leading the charge to defenistrate higher education) naturally took advantage of his access to people who are not as saavy as they believe they are. These tech brologarchs were ripe for the picking.

And it isn’t really that new of a story. We have been seeing similar radicalization stories play out on the internet in a variety of venues since the start of the pandemic shutdowns. As Ryan Broderick explains:

Networked oligarchy, but, also, the most typical radicalization story you could ever tell. Men, isolated by the pandemic, found each other on a public network, Clubhouse, and moved to a dark social platform, Signal, to speak more freely and openly and then spent years radicalizing each other. This is as true for the Silicon Valley dorks as it is for QAnon as it is incels as it is for ISIS. And it’s darkly funny that some of the men who built the internet as we currently use it were not immune from the indoctrinating social pathways they funded or built. Or to put it more simply: Silicon Valley has secretly getting very high on their own supply for years.

And now the fate of our democracy stands in the balance. It is important that Semafor’s Ben Smith was able to get these chat transcripts. I hope they inspire us to work hard to stop them.

#5

• Hakeem Jeffries Reportedly Fed Up With Democrats’ Trips to El Salvador (Malcolm Ferguson, The New Republic, Link to Article)

Thanks to Senator Chris Van Hollen and a few members of Congress who followed up to El Salvador, Democrats were making progress is getting the American people to see why due process is important.

Even Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley got an earful from constituents who wondered if they too could ignore judicial orders if Trump could defy the Supreme Court.

Since the strategy is working, it makes total sense to stop pushing it? What the hell, Mr. Leader?

When the right thing also happens to be popular, you don’t abandon the effort.

So, while Jeffries may be fed up with his colleagues trips to El Salvador, I’m fed up with his failure to follow James Carville’s horrible advice to “to play dead” instead of opposing an authoritarian president.

Clearing My Tabs

• Are Em Dashes Really a Sign of AI Writing? (Miles Klee, Rolling Stone, Link to Article)
  That’s ridiculous—and this decidedly human writer won’t stand for such calumny.
• Paul Clement Joins Arrested Milwaukee Judge’s Legal Team (Alex Ebert, Bloomberg Law, Link to Article)
  It is great to see that Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan has the support of some conservative titans in her fight to clear her name against the Trump Administration’s outrageous decision to arrest her.
• 45-year mystery behind eerie photo from The Shining is believed to be solved (Catherine Zhu, CBC Radio, Link to Article)
  The previously unknown story behind the film’s famous photo takes us to a 1921 Valentine’s Day dance in London and ballroom dancer Santos Casani. This research doesn’t have a scary ending.

The Possibility of Hope

• Voters in Canada and Australia rejected MAGA-interested political parties in national elections last week, including voting out the right-wing party leaders from the districts in which they were running.
• Paul Clement supporting Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan is a reminder that some conservative attorneys still respect the Constitution.
• Our libraries continue to do amazing work on behalf of the residents of their communities. I know some people are concerned about supporting media outlets that have been bowing to Trump, but still want to stay informed. Use your libraries! Many of them offer library card holders free short-term passes to the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and many magazines. Stay informed while supporting your library!
• Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker: Unlike some Democratic elected officials, this Governor appears to understand the assignment.

Post-Game Comments

Today’s Thought from my Readwise collection:

“Somewhere ‘out there,’ beyond the walls of the courthouse, run currents and tides of public opinion which lap at the courtroom door.”—Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Address at Suffolk University Law School; quoted in The New York Times (April 17, 1986)

Follow me on BlueSky to see what browser tabs I open in real time.

Craig Cheslog (@craigcheslog.com)

GenXer against fascism. Talking politics, women’s soccer, WNBA, Manchester United men and women, USWNT, USMNT, Green Bay Packers, Boston Celtics, Chicago Cubs, and Taylor Swift. (he/him/his) My newsletter: https://thelongtwilightstruggle.com/.

Bluesky Social

Thank you for reading my newsletter. Please let me know what you think about what you’ve read—and send me things you’ve found interesting or are giving you hope today! You can email me at craig@thelongtwilightstruggle.com. 

If this newsletter has helped you make sense of the day’s news, please hit “forward” and share it with (at least) one person who matters to you.

The Long Twilight Struggle is free and supported voluntarily by its readers. If you liked what you read and can afford it, please consider becoming a paid subscriber! Or, if you prefer, feel free to buy me a coffee using the tip jar.