What Trump REALLY Thinks About Stephen Miller
A secret transcript exclusive to The Bulwark reveals more than Trump ever would.
As we send this newsletter, Donald Trump is speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. Before he came on, his buddy, Salvadoran dictator Nayib Bukele, warmed up the crowd with some stories about how “God worked a great miracle through our hands” in his war against Satan-worshiping gangs that the “global mainstream media” refused to cover. Then televangelist Paula White came on to gas Trump up as “the greatest champion of faith that we have ever had in the executive branch,” who had “brought religion back to this nation and beyond.”
And then—glory hallelujah!—came the big guy himself, to offer his latest thoughts on whether he’s likely to get to heaven: “I really think I probably should make it. I mean, I’m not a perfect candidate, but I did a hell of a lot of good for perfect people.” Happy Thursday.
An Early-Morning Phone Call
by William Kristol
Cracks have appeared even in the Oval Office. The president, aware of polls showing that much of his immigration agenda isn’t popular, has told advisers he wasn’t comfortable with how far [Stephen] Miller has gone on some fronts, according to people who have spoken with Trump. The president has said that business officials are calling and complaining to him about longtime workers being thrown out of the country. . . . Even after Trump signaled his displeasure, Miller continued to argue for large raids . . . In another TV appearance, Miller talked about Venezuela, prompting Trump to ask aides why Miller was speaking. ‘He doesn’t do foreign policy,’ Trump said, according to a senior administration official.
—Wall Street Journal, February 4, 2026. “The Aide Stoking Trump’s Impulses”
CLASSIFICATION: SUPER-DUPER DOUBLE SECRET.
TRANSCRIPT OF PHONE CONVERSATION BETWEEN PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP AND WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF SUSIE L. WILES.
CALL INITIATED BY PRESIDENT TRUMP AT 4:17 A.M., THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2026.
Wiles: Uh, uh . . . hello?
POTUS: Susie. We got a problem. Bigly.
Wiles: Mr. President, always good to hear from you. Even at . . . four o’clock in the morning.
POTUS: Did you see the news last night?
Wiles: Uh . . .
POTUS: They chanted “Fuck ICE!” last night at a wrestling match! In Vegas! Can you believe it? ICE has gone too far even for idiot pro wrestling fans! Those are my people! Even they think ICE is out of control.
Wiles: Sir, I hadn’t heard that. That is concerning . . .
POTUS: And I’m not going to the Super Bowl because they told me the crowd will boo me. At the Super Bowl! God, Susie, I love football. As a kid I remember watching your dad kick that 49-yard field goal in the snow with two minutes left to win the final regular-season game in 1958 for the Giants and send them to the playoffs.
Wiles: Yes, sir. I was only one year old then, but we used to watch video of that kick growing up.
POTUS: Yeah, that’s when football was great. The Giants. The Colts. The Packers. Twelve teams. None of that expansion bullshit. No black quarterbacks.
Wiles: Um . . . yes. Sir, it’s four o’clock in the morning.
POTUS: My fucking point is that no one likes me any more. Did you see that new poll from that college with a ridiculous Indian name?
Wiles: Quinnipiac, sir?
POTUS: Yeah. Colleges used to have American names. Now they’ve all gone woke. But I guess Quinnieyack or whatever it is has pretty good pollsters. They had me ahead at the end in 2024. And now they have me at fucking 37 percent approval. I’m at 38 percent on immigration—38 percent! On immigration, my issue! ICE’s approval is at 34 percent! ICE is killing me.
Wiles: [sotto voce] You’re not the only one they’re killing.
POTUS: What was that?
Wiles: Nothing, sir. Just clearing my throat. Anyway, that’s why we got rid of Bovino and moved Homan into the spotlight. That’s why he announced the token withdrawal of some guys from Minneapolis. And you did a good job yesterday telling NBC we’re going to have a “softer touch.”
POTUS: Yeah, yeah. That’s all okay. And if we need to make some fake concessions on the funding bill, that’s okay, too. But we gotta make sure the funding for DHS isn’t touched, and that ICE and those great Border Patrol guys can be deployed this fall to the Democrat cities. But the Dems aren’t even asking for funding cuts. Let’s hope they stay clueless. Anyway, the elections are key. Getting rid of the illegals is good. But the important thing is staying in power. And if my numbers keep going down, I’m not sure even we can rig the elections that much.
Wiles: Yes, sir.
POTUS: So we gotta calm things down on the immigration front. And I’ve decided that can’t happen until Stephen goes. So I’m making the move. It’s Miller Time, Susie.
Wiles: That is good news, sir! The staff will be thrilled. That guy creeps out all of us—even Steven Cheung! But what do you want me to do?
POTUS: You did a good job with the leaks to the Journal yesterday. But we need more stuff out there on how he’s screwed up. On how he’s hurting the cause. We need to get people ready for him to leave. Get some of the Fox clowns to start saying maybe he should go.
Wiles: Will do, sir.
POTUS: And explain to Bannon that he shouldn’t complain too much when it happens, that this is for the sake of the big enchilada. For the elections. The elections are what matters. A few more or less illegals—who really gives a shit?
Wiles: Yes, sir.
POTUS: Anyway, as Roy Cohn—God, I wish he were still around!—as he used to say, “Two steps forward, one step back.” Roy was amazing. He came up with all these great expressions.
Wiles: Yes, sir.
POTUS: Roy also had this thing about “If you’re going to do something, do it fast.” But he said it better. Anyway, let’s have Miller “resign” soon, to spend more time with his family.
Wiles: [murmuring] Poor Katie.
POTUS: Tough. Anyway, we need Stephen out before the State of the Union. We’ll get good press from Ross and Bari. The Wall Street Journal will decide we’re being reasonable again. The business guys will get back to making money and stop bothering me.
Wiles: Yes, sir.
POTUS: And of course you need to tell Stephen privately that we’ll bring him back a year from now. We do need him inside to work on 2028. For now, make sure he can keep some kind of special government status so he can stay in the big house on the military base that he likes so much. And we’ll get him something with Witkoff or Don Jr. or Thiel, have them cut him on some of the big crypto deals, let him make some money, keep him happy. But tell him no press for the rest of the year. If he stays out of the news, he’ll be rich and he’ll be back in the White House in 2027.
Wiles: Yes, sir.
POTUS: Meanwhile, as Roy used to say—he was kind of a poet, really—you can tell Steve, “Parting is sweet but also sad.”
Wiles: Got it, sir. Sir, it’s awfully early in the morning, but I want to say you’ve made my day . . .
POTUS: Don’t I always?
[POTUS HANGS UP. CALL TERMINATED AT 4:27 A.M.]
AROUND THE BULWARK
The Ukraine War’s New Front Line Is in Mar-a-Lago… The latest phase of the war is less about maneuvers and operations than alliance politics and shifting allegiances, observes MARK HERTLING.
It’s the Democracy, Stupid… It turns out voters care about rights and freedoms after all, argues MATT JOHNSON.
Trump and the Kennedy Center: Renaming, Rebuilding, Revolting… For locals, this demolition project hits home, writes JILL LAWRENCE.
Hegseth Threatens to Cut Scouts’ Funding Over “Woke” Policies… In the latest Command Post, MARK HERTLING joins BEN PARKER to discuss the clash between the Pentagon and Scouting America, as Secretary Hegseth threatens to cut support over DEI policies and integrated troops.
Quick Hits
A STEP FORWARD IN MINNESOTA: Two months after the launch of “Operation Metro Surge,” ICE is starting to draw down its presence in Minnesota’s Twin Cities. White House border czar Tom Homan told reporters Wednesday that the government would pull 700 immigration enforcement officers from the region, leaving about 2,000 officers in place. Homan characterized the pullback as the result of increased cooperation between ICE and state and local officials, although he did not specify what changes Minnesota officials might have agreed to.
State and local Democrats cautiously welcomed the news, which both Gov. Tim Walz and Mayor Jacob Frey called “a step in the right direction.” But they argued that the drawdown didn’t go far enough. “Operation Metro Surge has been catastrophic for our businesses and residents,” Walz said in a statement. “It needs to end immediately.”
Meanwhile, it seems to be dawning on Trump that he can’t afford many more debacles like Minneapolis. “I learned that, uh, maybe we could use a little bit of a softer touch,” he told NBC News in an interview last night, going on to lament—at four separate points—that “I don’t think we’re good at public relations.”
Trump also suggested that, at least for now, he’s opposed to further dramatic ICE scale-ups in blue cities and states. “They have to ask, and they have to say please—the mayor or the governor,” Trump said. “I don’t wanna go and force ourselves in a city, even if their numbers are terrible.”
I COULDN’T BE LESS INVOLVED IN MY VENGEANCE CAMPAIGN: Donald Trump wants you to know he really had nothing to do with the FBI raid on a Fulton County elections office last week. “I’m not doing anything, but the FBI went in,” he said during his NBC interview last night. “They went in and they got the ballots, I guess, right?”
“I’m not involved in it,” Trump added. Why was Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on the scene? “I don’t know,” he said, “but you know, a lot of the cheating comes from—it’s international cheating.”
These protestations—that he isn’t involved in his administration’s election-meddling efforts and that the DNI was only there because foreign actors were probably involved in the Great Fulton County Rigged Election of 2020—would ring hollow even if Trump hadn’t given away the game by talking on speakerphone with Gabbard and the the FBI agents who carried the raid out immediately after it happened. Whatever’s going on, you can bet it’s sinister: It’s typically only when he’s doing his most naked retribution plays that he resists the urge to take personal credit.
LE GETS THE HOOK: As a government lawyer, standing up in court and telling a judge your job sucks is a great way to find yourself reassigned. So it wasn’t a huge surprise that Julie Le, a DHS lawyer detailed to the U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota, found herself yoinked one day after she told Judge Jerry Blackwell that “I wish you would just hold me in contempt, your honor, so that I can have a full 24 hours of sleep.”
Le also told Blackwell that many inside DHS did not take orders from federal judges seriously, despite her best rhetorical efforts to make them see otherwise. “It took a long, long, long time, and many orders to show cause to explain and let them know that if you don’t fix it, I’m going to quit and you’re going to be dragging yourself into court,” she said.
As Politico reported yesterday, Le’s case is not some strange outlier:
Court records and transcripts reveal widespread miscommunication, bungling of court filings and suddenly rampant violations of judges’ orders. The administration’s handling of its immigration operation provoked a five-alarm emergency among federal judges in the state, who have grown increasingly frustrated at what they see as overt defiance—caused not by the local prosecutors in Minnesota but by DOJ and DHS leadership in Washington. Contempt threats are now almost routine.
Several top lawyers from the U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota resigned amid the Trump administration’s mass deportation push, dubbed Operation Metro Surge, leading to a shortage of personnel to handle an unprecedented number of emergency cases. Other attorneys have threatened to resign in recent days.
Cheap Shots
Lets have a two minute “moment of noise” tribute at the Super Bowl - lead the entire world in a record-breaking “FDT” chant - let him hear it on TV while throwing hamberders at the wall.
Based on Matthew 25: 31 - 46 Trump won’t make it. When has he ever fed the hungry, clothed the naked, visited those in prison or cared for the stranger within your midst. He will be among the goats who the Son of Man says be gone form me. These are the criteria which Christ uses for those who qualify for his kingdom . Note it isn’t about how many 5 year olds he deported or how many Haitians he accused of eating cats and dogs or how many illegal aliens he got out of the country period. By these metrics and honestly many more Trump has fallen way short of the glory of God. What an obscene breakfast.