Trump’s Security Adviser Stephen Miller & Himmler-Bormann
Introduction
Stephen Miller is Donald Trump’s homeland security adviser and may become the official National Security Adviser. Miller is a driven man whose psychology is a combination of those of Adolf Hitler lieutenants Martin Bormann and Heinrich Himmler. Miller’s Instagram posts suggest a potential Walter Mattner!
Trump biographer Michael Wolf says that the bond between Miller and Trump has grown to such an extent that Miller has been dubbed by some as “the president’s Id”. According to Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, the “Id” is the instinct-driven, pleasure-seeking part of the mind, focused on immediate gratification.
Freud also wrote about: “Superego” which is the “moral conscience”, representing societal and parental standards, striving for ideal behaviour; and “Ego” which is a rational mediator that balances the Id’s impulses with real-world constraints and the ideal standards of the “Superego”. (Freud’s original words in German referred to Id as “the it”, Ego as “I”, and Superego as “over-I”.)
If Heinrich Himmler was Adolf Hitler’s Id, then Martin Bormann was probably Hitler’s Ego. Stephen Miller has the extreme ideology bent of Himmler combined with the practical ambition for power and thuggish personality of Bormann. If he is Trump’s Id, he also has aspects of Trump’s Ego. Neither Himmler, Bormann, Miller or Trump have much use for Superego!
Miller-Himmler-Bormann: Id & Ego
In any personality there is a combination of Id, Ego and Superego that is not fixed at any time. Heinrich Himmler was, according to Albert Speer, not without “remarkable qualities: the quality of patience to listen; the quality of long reflection before coming to decisions; a talent for selecting his staff, who on the whole turned out to be highly effective people”. Despite having these Ego personality traits, they were ultimately subservient to Himmler’s racial cleansing Id ambitions – as may be the case with Stehen Miller who has a talent for “bureaucratic maneuvering”. Himmler was not an aggressive personality like Martin Bormann and Miller. Walter Schellenberg, an influential subordinate, described him as “a coward, not a brave man”; and General Heinz Guderian recalled Himmler’s “lack of self-assurance and courage in Hitler’s presence”; and Himmler was also clearly intimidated by Guderian’s powerful personality. Bormann was in many ways the opposite of Himmler because his Id was simply power itself and this fitted well with Ego personality traits.
An aide to Joseph Goebbels wrote in his diary that neither Himmler nor Borman trusted “the other out of his sight”. In Miller’s case the Id of Himmler and the Ego of Bormann are more concentrated in one person.
Since he was a teenager Miller has publicly expressed extreme ideas – particularly suggesting a feeling of racial superiority. Miller often lets the Himmler Id part of his personality operate with little Bormann Ego constraint. According to a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article, the teen-age Miller “was known for arguing with teachers, hijacking school events, and winning attention with his outrageous antics. In both high school and college, he would be repeatedly observed throwing trash on the floor and then insisting that the custodial staff pick it up. In a video from this period he is seen giving a speech with microphone in hand saying: “Am I the only one here who is sick and tired of being told to pick up my trash when we have plenty of janitors who are paid to do it for us?”
In “Hatemonger: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, and the White Nationalist Agenda”, author Jean Guerrero recounts one episode when he suddenly ditched a close friend, Jason Islas, on the grounds of his ethnicity. “The conversation was remarkably calm,” Islas, a Mexican American, is quoted saying. “He expressed hatred for me (his Id) in a calm, cool, matter-of-fact (Ego) way.”
After Trump launched his first presidential campaign in 2015, Miller was appointed a speech writer because of Trump’s focus on immigration. According to the WSJ, “the pair have been politically inseparable ever since. Miller wrote Trump’s dystopian ‘American carnage’ speech for his first inauguration in January 2017. As a senior policy adviser in the first Trump administration, it was Miller who was behind some of its most notorious policy initiatives. These included the so-called ‘Muslim ban’ on travellers from seven majority-Muslim countries and the practice of separating migrant children from their parents at the southern border.”
According to Trump biographer, Maggie Haberman, Miller continually urged Trump to call in the military to suppress The Black Lives Matter protests that followed the death of George Floyd in 2020.
When Biden later won that electoral-vote count to become president, Miller was at the forefront questioning its legitimacy. Miller stuck by Trump when many staffers quit their jobs after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. He had helped draft Trump’s speech that morning and worked until 12 p.m. on Jan. 20 — the day Trump’s first term ended — telling the officer taking his badge he would be back in four years.”
During the Biden presidency, according to the WSJ article, “Miller continued to play an active role across the Republican Party, even if his outreach wasn’t always welcome. Congressional aides fielded lengthy calls from Miller about illegal immigration, often without any specific requests. One likened him to a grandmother who wouldn’t stop talking and said his calls were akin to listening to a podcast. Others said he would call to scold aides about how they had framed a social-media post on a particular issue or criticizing the way they had worded a press release.”
Here we see evidence of the Ego part in Miller’s personality as he tries to operate in a similar way to Bormann who always aimed to appear to be practically constructive with Hitler.
But, according to the WSJ, Miller was later “a regular visitor to Mar-a-Lago during the 2024 campaign and always wanted to talk more about immigration – his Id! Trump’s top pollster, Tony Fabrizio, and his other aides wanted to keep the message on the economy – that is, on Ego.
The WSJ says that Miller is now “wielding more power than almost any other White House staffer in recent memory”. “Miller, who isn’t a lawyer, first suggested using the wartime Alien Enemies Act to deport migrants, which the Justice Department pursued. He also privately, then publicly, floated suspending habeas corpus, or the right for prisoners to challenge their detention in court, which the administration hasn’t tried.” “Miller’s orders to increase arrests regardless of migrants’ criminal histories set off days of protests in Los Angeles. Miller coordinated the federal government’s response, giving orders to agencies including the Pentagon, when Trump sent in the Marines and the National Guard.”
Apart from these Himmler-type Id issues, Miller has become involved in many Bormann-type Ego issues where the focus is on real-world constraints. According to the WSJ, “Miller now tells other staffers how to behave around Trump and has upgraded his office from one on a different floor to one step from the Oval Office.” Miller tries to be involved in “almost every issue Trump is interested in. In recent months, he talked to CEOs about a coming tariff announcement; joined a meeting between Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and Trump about the company’s antitrust case; and met with other tech companies on artificial intelligence.” “Even some posts at cabinet agencies have been described by administration officials as reporting directly to Miller, effectively bypassing cabinet secretaries.”
Martin Bormann, according to Albert Speer, was “little more than Hitler’s shadow” who “never dared go on any lengthy business trips, or even to allow himself a vacation, for fear that his influence might diminish”. Like Bormann with Hitler, Miller sticks close to Trump and, according to the WSJ he “has written or edited every executive order that Trump has signed”. “Miller keeps in Trump’s good graces by giving Trump ideas — but more importantly, helping the president carry his own out.”
The WSJ reported that “Administration officials noted how Miller shut down discussion about whether the U.S. should bomb Houthi targets in a Signal chat that was accidentally shared with The Atlantic’s editor in chief. As the vice president and top national security officials discussed options, Miller weighed in. ‘As I heard it, the president was clear’, Miller said. ‘Green light’, he added.”
Speer recalled that Bormann’s approach – ie mostly Ego centric – was admired by Hitler but also meant that Bormann had more power than Hitler would have actually intended: “In a few sentences he would report on the memoranda sent to him. He spoke monotonously and with seeming objectivity and would then advance his own solution. Hitler usually merely nodded and spoke his terse, ‘Agreed’. On the basis of this one word, or even a vague comment by Hitler, which was hardly meant as a directive, Bormann would often draft lengthy instructions. In this way ten or more important decisions were sometimes made within half an hour. De facto, Bormann was conducting the internal affairs of the Reich (ie Germany).” Walter Funk, the Minister of Economics, complained that it was “incredibly hard to have a reasonable conversation with the Fuhrer because Bormann butts in all the time. He cuts me short and constantly interrupts.”
Relationship with Leader
Trump – who is very Ego transactional most of the time when he manages to supress his Id – appears wary of some of Miller’s Id “masturbatory fantasies of immigration and deportation”. According to Trump biographer Michael Wolff, Trump has referred to Miller as Weird Stephen.” According to the New York Times, Trump told a campaign meeting in 2024 that if it was up to Miller there would only be 100 million people living in the US – and all of them would look like Miller.
Nevertheless, Trump values Miller for his combination of Himmler Id and Borman Ego personality. Asked by Kristen Welker, the moderator of NBC’s Meet the Press, about speculation that Miller might become National Security Adviser, a White House post currently filled temporarily by Secretary of state, Marco Rubio, after the previous incumbent, Mike Waltz, was fired Trump replied: “Stephen is much higher on the totem pole than that.”
Is there any sort of personal relationship between Miller and Trump?
While Himmler spent a lot of time with Hitler, there is little evidence of a close personal relationship because Hitler regarded Himmler as “inartistic” – an almost career ending comment! Speer recalled that one day in March 1943, Hitler invited himself and Goebbels to lunch: “Oddly enough, on such occasions he refrained from asking Bormann – who was otherwise indispensable – to join him. In this respect, he treated Bormann entirely as a secretary.” Speer elaborated on this: “Bormann’s control – and power – only went as far as Hitler allowed it to go. Hitler trusted him implicitly but, although Bormann was always there, he had no personal relationship with him. He valued him immensely for his quite incredible diligence and as a totally loyal vassal, but always as a vassal. In all my years near Hitler I don’t think I ever heard Hitler make a private remark to him.” Speaking of Bormann, Speer opined that “a few critical words from Hitler and all his enemies would have been at his throat”.