Katie Miller, the wife of President Donald Trump’s notoriously nativist speechwriter and policy adviser Stephen Miller, has for months been running a podcast widely panned as a dull and uninteresting attempt to whitewash her husband’s image and portray a softer side of Trump administration figures — a role she appears to relish as she plays up her own role as a wife +to a powerful and influential figure.
But according to an extensive new profile in Slate, Katie Miller, née Waldman, used to be a much more driven person with her own political ambitions, and was active in student government at the University of Florida — until it was derailed in a peculiar scandal.
“Back then, Florida’s student government had a reputation of operating a little like an autocracy,” wrote Tess Owen. “The governing party — which has changed its name over the years but was known as the Unite Party at the time Miller joined — was ruled by the iron fists of privileged frat boys and sorority girls, who controlled the school’s spending and were tapped for access to the exclusive Florida Blue Key society. After graduation, they were funneled into elected office and law clerkships.” The Unite Party was also notorious for strongarming Black and Hispanic affinity groups, cutting off their funding when they didn’t back their campaigns.
She “quickly established herself as a power player in this world and operated like a ‘henchman’ for the ruling party, said one former student,” according to the report — showing none of the typical genial attitude that members of opposing parties in student government usually gave each other. An opposition party senator, Jordan Ball, said, “Most people in student government would be cordial and nice and would try to work together. I feel like it was Katie’s whole life. She took it all very personally.”
“In 2012, her sophomore year, while serving on the rules and ethics committee of student government, Miller was embroiled in a scandal,” said the report. “The head football coach had endorsed a candidate from the opposition Students Party, and the Independent Florida Alligator, the college paper, ran a front-page story publicizing it. Two people — later revealed to be Miller and former Student Government President Pro Tempore Jason Tiemeier — were spotted dumping 268 copies of the newspaper on the eve of student elections.”
This incident led to a frenzy of finger-pointing and attacks, with numerous editorials demanding Miller be removed from her committee. Ultimately, despite going on offense against the newspaper, the Unite Party didn’t invite her to run for office again — and in her farewell address, she laid on the grievances.
“She was bitter about not being asked to run again and felt betrayed. She delivered a glowering, chaotic speech that was full of tacit threats,” wrote Owen. One opposition senator, Ford Dwyer, said, “The sense that everyone got was that they’d better all be careful or else, because she had information on them, and she better be respected because she had secrets that she might or might not reveal … I think she felt like a victim.”
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