A top communications staffer for Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., is joining Donald Trump’s campaign to win the Republican presidential nomination.
Stephen Miller is leaving his job as Sessions’ communications director for a position as senior policy advisor for Trump’s campaign, Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks confirmed to the Washington Examiner. Miller worked for Sessions for seven years, a tenure that saw Miller lead Sessions’ communications team through the effort to stop the Gang of Eight immigration bill that Senator Marco Rubio, R-Fla., helped draft in 2013, a fight that set the terms for much of the GOP primary season.
Sessions is the GOP’s foremost immigration hawk, based on his concern that low-skilled immigrants depress wages for working-class people. Similarly, he has been a steady opponent of the free trade agreement that President Obama has been negotiating with a dozen Pacific nations, saying that the deal would not benefit middle-class Americans.
Miller was deputized to help write Trump’s immigration plan earlier this year, when the businessman turned to Sessions for advice. Trump’s opposition to illegal immigration seems to coincide with Sessions’ position on the issue, and Sessions joined Trump at a rally in Mobile, Alabama, but Sessions has yet to endorse anyone.
Miller’s arrival in Trump’s camp may presage a renewed emphasis on trade as a means to attack other GOP candidates, such as Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. Rubio voted to give President Obama fast-track trade authority, which means Congress has to approve or reject Obama’s trade deals on an up-or-down vote, and Cruz only opposed it after providing initial support for the talks.
The news was first reported by the Washington Post.
Miller, as Sessions’ top communications aide, has been assiduous in promoting news stories and policy white papers that buttress his boss’s views on immigration and trade. Earlier this month, for instance, he provided reporters with a series of “resources on foreign currency manipulation.”
To the extent that he works against Cruz, though, Miller will be at odds with another ally of Sessions. Cruz has adopted much of Sessions’ immigration rhetoric, including the worry about how immigration affects working-class wages. In October, Cruz even broke with Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, his closest friend in the Senate, to join Sessions in opposing a criminal justice reform measure.
Ryan Lovelace contributed
