The top Trump adviser Stephen Miller advocated blowing up boats of migrants with drones, according to a new book by a former homeland security official previously revealed to be the “anonymous” author behind a famous warning about Trump White House extremes.
In his new book, Blowback: A Warning to Save Democracy from the Next Trump, Miles Taylor says in April 2018 Miller advocated an attack on a ship heading for the US, saying people onboard were not protected under the constitution as they were in international waters.
The passage was first reported by Rolling Stone, which said it had reviewed documentation that supported the claim.
Taylor says Miller made his argument to Paul Zukunft, an admiral then commandant of the US Coast Guard.
According to Taylor, Miller said: “Tell me why can’t we use a Predator drone to obliterate that boat?”
Taylor writes: “Admiral Zukunft looked nonplussed. ‘Because, Stephen, it would be against international law.’”
Taylor says Miller argued with Zukunft, telling “the military chief nearly 30 years his senior, ‘I don’t think you understand the limitations of international law.’”
A spokesperson for Miller told Rolling Stone: “This is a complete fiction that exists only in the mind of Miles Taylor desperate to stay relevant by fabricating material for his new book.”
Zukunft told Rolling Stone he had “no recollection” of the exchange as described by Taylor, but “vividly recall[ed] having a lengthy conversation with Stephen Miller regarding south-west border security in 2018”.
He added: “To use deadly force to thwart maritime migration would be preposterous and the antithesis of our nation’s vanguard for advancing human rights.”
Miller was a speechwriter and close adviser to Donald Trump, particularly associated with extreme policies on immigration.
As Rolling Stone pointed out, Miller has often been linked to outlandish policy suggestions, including a 2019 proposal to “secure [Isis leader] Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s head, dip it in pig’s blood and parade it around to warn other terrorists”.
That revelation came from a book by Mark Esper, Trump’s last permanent secretary of defense, who also described Trump asking if drug labs in Mexico could be hit with US missiles.
Taylor was chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security when he became “Anonymous”, the author of a New York Times column which in September 2018 caused a sensation as an insider’s account of dysfunction under Trump.
Taylor published a book, A Warning, before revealing his identity and endorsing Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
Regarding his account of Miller’s wish to target migrants with drone-fired missiles, Taylor told Rolling Stone: “The conversation happened.”
