The Evil Twins

"My two Steves" is what dt calls them.

One is Steve Bannon, former head of Breitbart News, known for its anti-immigrant and anti-Semitic stance.

The other is Stephen Miller, the 31-year-old classmate of my daughter at Santa Monica High School.  He graduated in 2003, went to Duke University, and now is one of dt's inner circle.

"Miller was a major architect of the refugee and visa ban," writes Brian Bennett of the Los Angeles Times in a report in today's paper.

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-immigration-20170129-story.html

It was the two Steves who insisted that the executive order against travelers from seven countries be written and signed without input from the State Department or military leaders.

“Stone-cold crazy,” tweeted Susan Rice, former President Obama’s national security advisor, sarcastically asking, “Who needs military advice or intell to make policy on ISIL, Syria, Afghanistan, DPRK?” using acronyms for Islamic State and North Korea.

Another top Trump aide, Stephen Miller, effectively ran the National Security Council principals meeting Saturday, according to two Trump administration officials, a highly unusual move. Miller was a major architect of the refugee and visa ban.

Miller's power along with Bannon's is evidence of a right-wing coup in the White House.  Trump himself is not as far-right as these guys, yet they are controlling his decisions.

Even as a kid in high school, Stephen Miller was known on campus for his unusual racism against Mexicans and immigrants.  

Three classmates made a six-minute video on him for their film-making class.  My daughter speaks in it, describing Stephen's contempt for the janitors on campus as evil.  

While running for a student council position, he had said that students should not have to pick up their own trash on campus.  "That's what the janitors are for," he argued.

Was it just a joke, an attention-getter to win an election?  If so, it was certainly in poor taste.

Stephen's mother would not allow the video to be seen on campus or anywhere else.

On another occasion young Stephen verbally attacked a mother who had been invited to a history classroom to speak about her experiences as an immigrant.

This is the young man who made his way into a Capitol Hill job with Sen. Jeff Sessions, met Stephen Bannon, and was behind the dt executive order to keep out refugees and travelers from seven countries.

dt put him on the National Security Council, though he has no military experience and has never been elected to any office. 

Instead, dt removed the Director of National Intelligence as well as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff--two generals.

See this fact check statement from NPR:
http://www.npr.org/2017/01/30/512489785/fact-check-spin-aside-trumps-national-security-council-has-a-very-big-change