Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, has responded angrily to the Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, after a social media account linked to Newsom labelled Miller a “fascist”.
“STEPHEN MILLER IS A FASCIST,” the Governor Newsom Press Office X account posted. It has been seen over 31 million times.
The account, which routinely deploys provocative language, posts spoof videos, and mocks political opponents, while his official account routinely retweets some posts, though not this particular one.
Miller responded on X to the post, writing: “Why do you think they posted this?”
“Because you’re a fascist”, the Governor Newsom Press Office replied.
On Tuesday this week, Miller appeared on Hannity and addressed Newsom and the social media post.
“It is a message that his team is sending to all the crazies and lunatics out there,” he said.
“We’re not going to absolve Democrats of responsibility anymore. There’s a reason why all of these killers and lunatics and terrorists adopt the same language. They say they are trying to kill the fascist and stop the fascists. This is deliberate.”
Speaking about recent incidents of political violence, including the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, Miller accused the Democratic Party of encouraging such attacks.
“They have been radicalized by Democrat Party rhetoric that describes anyone who doesn’t share their warped and twisted world view as fascists, worthy by implication of execution,” Miller said.
“They are using this language to mark people, to put a target on them.”
“The Democrat Party has become a party that openly aids, encourages and foments violence,” he added.
His remarks about the Democratic Party follow previous comments about it being an “extremist organization”, which have led political analysts to wonder if the Trump administration could outlaw its main opposition party.
In an August interview, Miller said, “The Democrat Party is not a political party. It is a domestic extremist organization.”
“The Democrat Party does not fight for, care about, or represent American citizens. It is an entity devoted exclusively to the defence of hardened criminals, gangbangers, and illegal alien killers and terrorists.”
Miller himself has previously described opponents, including the Democrats and the Biden administration, as “fascists” in numerous social media posts.
“The Democrat Party is now a Fascist Party. Using corporate and government power to punish dissent and dissenters,” he wrote in 2024.
In April 2022, Miller said that the Biden Administration had launched a “fascist Ministry of Truth.” A year later, he wrote in response to a message from Charlie Kirk saying, “We have descended into third world fascist tyranny.” At the time of the midterm elections that year, he urged his followers to “vote out the fascist Democrats.”
In September 2023, he began a tweet by saying, “We now live in a fascist country.”
In June 2024, Miller reposted a photo of then-President Joe Biden, calling him a “Fascist.” A few months earlier, in February 2024, Miller accused the Democratic Party of engaging in “Fascist Democrat Lawfare.” That same month, Miller promoted an interview he was doing with Tucker Carlson, in which he would address “leftwing fascist lawfare.”
His use of the slur is not reserved for the Democratic Party. In October 2022, he accused the United Nations of “Fascist repression of thought and speech.” Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta was also accused of being “fascist” over its now-defunct fact-checking practices.
