Independent: Trump admin arrested nearly 20 US citizen kids so far, two with cancer
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Washington Post: How Stephen Miller is running Trump’s effort to take over D.C.
The deputy White House chief of staff has emerged as a key enforcer of the D.C. operation in the month since Trump federalized the local police department.
From the head of the conference table in the White House’s Roosevelt Room, Stephen Miller was in the weeds of President Donald Trump’s takeover of policing in the nation’s capital.
The White House deputy chief of staff wanted to know where exactly groups of law enforcement officers would be deployed. He declared that cleaning up D.C. was one of Trump’s most important domestic policy issues and that Miller himself planned to be involved for a long time.
Miller’s remarks were described to The Washington Post by two people with knowledge of the meeting who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal White House business. The result is a behind-the-scenes glimpse of one of Trump’s most trusted aides in action, someone who has emerged as a key enforcer of the D.C. operation in the month since Trump federalized the local police department and deployed thousands of National Guard troops to patrol city streets. While widely seen as a vocal proponent for the president’s push on immigration and law and order, Miller’s actions reveal how much he is actually driving that agenda inside the White House.
“It’s his thing,” one White House official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters. “Security, crime, law enforcement — it’s his wheelhouse.”
Miller’s team provides an updated report each morning on the arrests made the night before to staff from the White House, Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security, among others. The readouts include a breakdown of how many of those arrested are undocumented immigrants.
He has also led weekly meetings in the Roosevelt Room with his staff and members of the D.C. mayor’s office. Last week, he brought Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, according to two people briefed on the meeting. It’s unclear why Bessent attended the meeting.
A person familiar with Bessent’s thinking said he was encouraged by D.C. officials’ enthusiasm and collaborative tone.
Miller frequently frames Trump’s approach to crime-fighting as a moral and spiritual war against those who oppose him.
“I would say to the mayors of all these Democrat cities, like Chicago, what you are doing to your own citizens is evil. Subjecting your own citizens to this constant bloodbath and then rejoicing in it is evil,” Miller said on Fox News last week. “You should praise God every single day that President Trump is in the White House.”
Trump has signaled that his crackdown on cities will continue, recently naming Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Baltimore and Oakland, California, as places that might require federal intervention. Critics have characterized the moves as counterproductive, a waste of federal resources and illegal. Supporters see the effort as bringing long-awaited relief to cities afflicted by violent crime.
In D.C., crime was already trending down before Trump moved to take over the police department, according to city data. But rates have decreased further when comparing the 15 days before the Aug. 11 order with the 15 days after Trump’s operation, with violent crime decreasing by roughly 30 percent and property crime decreasing by roughly 16 percent.
Since Trump initiated an unprecedented incursion into D.C. affairs, the city has transformed from a place that proudly welcomed immigrants into one primed for their deportations. D.C. police officers now work with agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who have detained people in front of schools and restaurants. Park Police officers, now operating as beat cops, have chased vehicles with tinted windows, fake tags and broken headlights — a major departure from a city policy to avoid pursuits that pose safety threats. D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) has attributed the drop in crime to the federal surge.
Miller and others close to Trump have celebrated the changes in Washington, which they see as a winning political issue and central to their plans to host a series of events for America’s 250th birthday next year. White House officials expect the increased federal law enforcement presence to continue in the District through the end of 2026 — a period that would not only come after the semiquincentennial celebrations but also the midterm elections. D.C. officials have not publicly committed to that timeline.
This week, members of the Republican National Committee were briefed on a call about the D.C. crime operation, getting data on arrests and talking points for how to tout the initiative in their states.
Bowser and other top D.C. officials have gone out of their way to show willingness to work with Trump and his staff, positioning themselves as allies in his public safety crackdown. They see that tactic as their best chance at maintaining power given D.C.’s unique status under the U.S. Constitution, which grants Congress ultimate say over city laws and budgets.
Miller has been less involved in working directly with the mayor.
City Administrator Kevin Donahue, Deputy Mayor of Public Safety and Justice Lindsey Appiah and the D.C. police department’s executive assistant chief Jeffrey Carrol have all attended Miller’s weekly meetings in the Roosevelt Room.
Bowser has maintained a separate line of communication with Attorney General Pam Bondi and Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, with Bondi speaking with Bowser sometimes daily, the White House official said.
Last week, as Trump’s complaints about the mayor escalated, Bondi and Wiles met with Bowser at the White House. Soon after, Bowser gave White House officials an executive order to review — which ultimately ordered indefinite coordination between the city and federal law enforcement officials. The president has since changed his tune on Bowser, holding her up as an example of how blue-city mayors should behave.
“Everyone at the White House is pleased with Mayor Bowser and the ongoing partnership,” a White House official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to share internal thinking.
Miller has made a point of being seen around the city since Trump infused it with federal troops. Last month, he appeared at a D.C. police station to address line officers and visited Union Station with Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Over the weekend, Miller and his family walked around the National Mall.
“Beautiful day to take in our monuments,” his wife, Katie Miller, wrote on X. “Thank you President Trump for Making DC Safe Again!”
She posted a picture in front of the Reflecting Pool, which stretches between the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial. Stephen Miller looked at his children and pointed toward the camera.
As deputy chief of staff, Miller oversees Trump’s domestic policy agenda. But he also serves in the lesser-known role of homeland security adviser, directing roughly 40 federal law enforcement officers in the Homeland Security Investigation division assigned to work on D.C. crime. Miller and his deputy on homeland security matters — a veteran law enforcement officer whose name the White House has declined to publicize — are also in close contact with the other federal and D.C. law enforcement agencies, the White House official said.
White House officials emphasized that Miller is acting on behalf of the president, who is personally invested in producing a successful operation. The officials said that his top domestic policy priority at the moment is reducing crime in large cities nationwide. Every day, those around him say, Trump inquires about the details of the D.C. operation. He has asked questions about the people arrested and how many guns and drugs officers seized from the streets, the White House official said.
“As President Trump has said himself many times, making D.C. safe and beautiful again is a top priority for the entire Trump Administration,” said White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson. “The results of the highly successful operation speak for itself. President Trump has driven down crime in the District, removed countless violent criminals from the streets, and kick-started beautification efforts to make D.C. the greatest city in the world.”
Miller and his homeland security deputy, along with Terry Cole, the Drug Enforcement Administration chief whom Trump named D.C.’s “emergency police commissioner” last month; Gady Serralta, director of the U.S. Marshals Service; Bondi; and representatives from the FBI have all met with Trump a handful times since Trump signed the emergency declaration about D.C., according to the White House official.
By law, Trump’s federalization of the D.C. police force lasts 30 days and is set to expire next week. The White House has not announced its next steps, but those who know Miller say he almost certainly has a plan.
We must remember that Stephen Miller is an unrepentant bigoted racist whose #1 goal in life is to make America white again. The actions they are taking in L.A. and D.C. are targeted at Democrat mayors; the many Republican mayor of cities with HIGHER crime rates are getting a free pass. This is all about racism and politics, not public safety.
How Stephen Miller is running Trump’s effort to take over D.C.
The deputy White House chief of staff has emerged as a key enforcer of the D.C. operation in the month since Trump federalized the local police department.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/09/05/trump-dc-takeover-stephen-miller-white-house
No paywall:
Market Watch: Trump closes the ‘de minimis’ shipping loophole. Etsy and eBay shares have tumbled.
‘De minimis’ exemption for shipments worth $800 or less now has ended
Shares of Etsy Inc. and eBay Inc. have been down sharply over the past week, with analysts pinning the moves on the Trump administration’s closure of a trade loophole on Friday.
The “de minimis” exemption has made it possible for shipments worth $800 or less to avoid tariffs and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol scrutiny. It was ended in May for shipments from China, hurting e-commerce companies Shein and PDD Holdings Inc.’s (-1.34%) Temu, and the loophole now has gone away for all other countries, as well.
President Donald Trump rolled out an executive order targeting de minimis treatment on July 30, specifying that the exemption would end at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time Friday.
Trump’s order is “removing a key channel for low-value cross-border shipments,” Cantor analysts said in a report, and Etsy (-1.43%), eBay (-1.70%) and Shopify (SHOP -0.06%) “likely have notable direct exposure.” They noted that Etsy and eBay have underperformed the Nasdaq Composite Index (-1.15%) over the past week. As of Thursday’s close, Etsy shares are down 14% over the past five trading sessions, while eBay has dropped 6% and Shopify is down 1%. The Nasdaq is up 1% over the same period.
“Over the medium term, supply diversification from domestic sellers should mitigate the impact on demand,” the Cantor analysts wrote.
Etsy has offered a guide to its sellers as the de minimis exemption comes to an end, promising to “continue to share updates over the next few months that make it easier to facilitate cross-border transactions and incorporate the cost of tariffs into your shop operations.” The chief executive for eBay, Jamie Iannone, said during an earnings call on July 30 that the company is “not immune to the increased costs from tariffs” but believes it is “relatively resilient from that perspective, more so than others.”
The overall impact to the U.S. economy of eliminating the loophole is “likely to be limited,” Evercore ISI analysts said in a note. Shipments claiming the de minimis exemption were valued at $65 billion in the past fiscal year, amounting to around 2% of total U.S. imports.
While postal carriers for a number of countries have announced they’re temporarily suspending shipments to the U.S. due to operational uncertainty around the new policy, the Evercore analysts noted that Customs and Border Patrol data show that more than 90% of de minimis packages are carried by private express carriers and logistics providers, who are “not indicating any disruption when the policy takes effect.”
“The move will have an impact on some consumers who will now bear at least a share of tariffs as well as the higher administrative costs associated with processing smaller packages for tariff collection,” the Evercore analysts said. They noted that a recent study found that both high- and low-income households have taken advantage of the de minimis exemption, but that “low-income households benefit disproportionately as a share of their income.”
In addition, Evercore’s team noted that all existing tariffs now will apply to packages under $800, except during a six-month transition period when there will be an option of paying either a percentage rate equal to the country-specific tariff or a flat fee ranging from $80 to $200 that scales with the country’s tariff rate.
Peter Navarro, Trump’s senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, predicted on Thursday afternoon that ending the de minimis loophole “will save thousands of American lives by restricting the flow of narcotics and other dangerous and prohibited items, add up to $10 billion a year in tariff revenues to our Treasury, create thousands of jobs and defend against billions of dollars more lost in counterfeiting, piracy and intellectual-property theft.”
Navarro also criticized foreign postal carriers that have suspended shipments to the U.S.
“Foreign post offices need to get their act together when it comes to monitoring and policing the use of international mail for smuggling and tariff-evasion purposes,” the Trump adviser told reporters during a briefing. “We are going to help them do that, but at this point, they are vastly underperforming express carriers like FedEx (-0.29%), DHL (-0.36%) and UPS (+0.24%) .”
The Alliance for American Manufacturing is among the organizations praising Trump’s move.
“Closure of the de minimis loophole is an important step forward, but there’s still more work to be done in leveling the playing field for U.S. manufacturers,” AAM President Scott Paul said in a statement. He said the loophole hurt American manufacturers and was “exposing American consumers to illegal, counterfeit and toxic products.”
