President Biden’s sometimes robotic week of signing executive orders on more issues than he advocated for in the campaign has won criticism from a top aide to former President Donald Trump who said the Democrat appears as if he is being controlled by his leftist staff.
“It’s literally like wind him up and go,” said Stephen Miller, the architect of several Trump policies, notably those on immigration.
“We are not getting the impression that these are passion projects for Joe Biden that represent the culmination of waiting 40 years to get into the White House and get these things done,” he told Secrets.
Biden’s near-daily walk before cameras to sit at a simple table to sign executive orders has been praised by the media for issuing in a calmer style than Trump. But often, the coverage doesn’t question what is being signed.
“I’m watching the news right now with great interest,” Miller said. What he’s seeing is the display of the so-called “empty vessel theory” that critics leveled at Biden during the 2020 campaign.
“It’s the idea that he’s just a vehicle and that progressives around him will use that vehicle to drive wherever they want to go,” he said.
During the campaign, Biden was often accused of bending to the political winds and charges he objected to. He pointed to his decades in Washington and how his issues evolved, or flipped, depending on who’s judging.
But Miller said that unlike the well-defined agendas of former President Barack Obama and Trump, the Biden administration’s moves and the stack of executive orders have yet to give a good idea of his governing agenda besides his goal of fighting climate change.
“He has always been a weather vane for the Democratic Party,” said Miller, who is known for his passion on issues.
“If you understand that he is willing to be that spectacularly flexible, that’s the answer to a problem of who you select to lead your party when there’s no agreement on a lot of fundamentals. The answer is just put someone in there who will do everything everybody wants,” Miller said.
