Alex Wong/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump offered praise for White House aide and immigration hardliner Stephen Miller on Wednesday but pushed back on the notion that Miller is the force behind his tough approach to border security and the ongoing leadership shakeup at the Department of Homeland Secretary.
“Frankly, there is only one person that is running it. You know who that is? It’s me,” Trump said, pointing at his head, when asked about the Department of Homeland Security and whether he would ever consider appointing Miller to lead DHS.
Even as he pushed back, the president offered warm words for Miller.
“Stephen is an excellent guy. He is a wonderful person. People don’t know him. He has been with me from the beginning. He is a brilliant man,” he said of Miller.
The president’s comments come amid reports that Miller has been heavily influencing the president’s decision-making as he has executed top firings at DHS and is looking to crack down on border crossings and make it harder for migrants to apply for asylum.
The president did not directly answer a question about whether he’s weighing implementing a so-called “binary choice” policy to allow migrant parents the choice of being separated from their children or submitting to their children remaining in long-term detention with them as their appeals for asylum are being heard in a U.S. immigration court.
Trump did, however, blast the nation’s asylum rules more broadly.
“I think that the whole asylum rules, laws, and regulations have been taken advantage of by people that are very bad people in many cases. These are the people running the cartels. They are gaming the system,” Trump said.
He went on to make the case that the nation’s strong economy is attracting migrants to journey to the US.
“The only difference is our economy is now so strong that more people come up….But the power of the economy is like a magnet. It is bringing more people than we’ve seen in a long time.”
President Trump’s outgoing DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen is set to formally resign Wednesday, after initially submitting her forced resignation on Sunday. The current leader of Customs and Border Protection, Kevin McAleenan, will assume the role of Acting DHS secretary at the president’s request.
Trump’s appointment of McAleenan resulted in another forced resignation of the department’s acting deputy, Claire Grady, who was next in line to succeed Nielsen under DHS rules. The administration also announced on Monday that the head of the Secret Service would soon be departing the administration.
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