Before Katie Miller was MAGA, she was MTV.
The conservative lifestyle podcaster—who is married to Stephen Miller, the architect of Donald Trump’s most severe immigration policies—appeared on an MTV reality show as a teenager, the Daily Beast has learned.
Katie Miller, 34, was featured in the sole season of the 2008 series The Paper, which chronicled the lives of journalists at The Circuit, a student newspaper at Cypress Bay High School in Weston, a wealthy suburb in Miami, Florida.
“Katie was one of those people who was rumored to have joined newspaper to try and be on MTV, because none of us really knew why she was there,” said Emmi Weiner, who previously served as entertainment editor at The Circuit.
Set in an upscale Broward County community, the show followed power struggles among student editors as they juggled print deadlines, high school parties, and college admissions essays at a campus that today enrolls roughly 4,800 students in grades 9–12.
Katie Miller, then Katie Waldman, came aboard as a photo editor around the time students in the affluent South Florida enclave learned that MTV cameras were gearing up to follow its high-achieving student journalists. But after she failed to click with her fellow newspaper staffers, she was passed over for a main role.
“She didn’t want to be friends with any of us—she was just always better than everybody,” Weiner said.
Since she was snubbed, Miller—who did not respond to requests for comment—has turned against the press, frequently decrying “fake news” and the so-called “mainstream media.”
Much of The Paper has since vanished, unavailable on any streaming platform in the United States. Still, the Daily Beast identified a two-minute clip from the show featuring a teenage, ponytailed Miller wearing wire headphones she never removes. Multiple sources confirmed that the girl in the clip was the former White House aide.
Seven students made up the main cast of the MTV show, with several others in supporting roles. Katie was neither, yet footage from the show prominently places her between principal cast members as deadline drama unfolds.
“She was just kind of there…she was so random,” a former cast member, who requested anonymity, told the Daily Beast.
Several former classmates and castmates described Miller as “insignificant” in high school—an experience they said may have fueled what they characterized as her later “MTV-try-hard” tendencies. Because of those traits, they weren’t all that shocked to learn of her engagement to the president’s deputy chief of staff.
“She was one of those people who will do anything to get anywhere,” the castmate said.
Miller, whose father was an attorney, had no shortage of examples of what to strive for among the well-heeled student body.
“Cypress Bay was definitely one of the most impressive high schools I’ve ever seen,” said Jason Van Brusselen, who worked on the show as a cameraman. “It was an all-American high school, in a beautiful little town of Weston, and the kids had everything they needed there.”
Former classmates say the one-time White House aide and former DOGE spokesperson still reminds them of her younger self—particularly her penchant for on-air meltdowns.
“Katie liked to have her opinion heard,” the cast member said. “She was argumentative but for no reason—that’s why it’s so funny seeing all of her bits on TV now..the only thing that’s changed is she’s taking a [political] side.”
In August 2020, Vanity Fair reported on Miller’s confrontation with her high school English teacher, Simone Waite, one of the few African American faculty members at the school. Waite had been teaching Toni Morrison’s Beloved when the Trumper-in-training grew frustrated with her observation that much of Black Americans’ history had been erased by slavery. “Couldn’t they just tell each other about their history?” Miller reportedly asked. The disagreement escalated, and Waite ultimately suggested moving on.
Miller later petitioned against Waite, describing the lesson as “psychologically damaging” and “sickening.” Her father was eventually called in, and it was agreed that she would no longer take Waite’s class.
Reflecting on the incident years later, Weiner put it bluntly: “Little a–holes grow up into big a–holes.”
She later took her talents to the University of Florida, where one former student recalled her operating like a “henchman” after joining the ruling party in the university’s student government.
These days, Miller is still searching for stardom—this time through her podcast, The Katie Miller Podcast.
Miller, who is expecting her fourth child, announced the show after leaving the White House in May and completing a brief stint working for Elon Musk. At first, she framed the project as the “conservative answer to ‘Call Her Daddy,’” but critics say it’s evolved into political propaganda, with the guest list largely made up of Trump A-listers.
Her debut episode featured Vice President JD Vance, and she has since hosted U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Elon Musk, and others.
And her early brush with journalism hasn’t exactly translated into hard-hitting interviews. Katie is known to pepper high-profile guests like Vance with questions about ice cream, hot dogs, and his favorite song—“Fade Into You” by Mazzy Star. During an interview with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, her most provocative line of inquiry was which member of Trump’s cabinet he would trust to babysit his kids.
While episodes with prominent guests like Musk have drawn hundreds of thousands of views, Katie’s typical installments—such as an interview with health guru Dr. Kelly Ann—attract fewer than 3,000.
“It’s so much harder to start your own thing than you think it is,” Katie said on a podcast in November.
Some former classmates said they were unsurprised by her underwhelming podcast content. “She’s still the same, as in she still has no substance,” a former The Paper cast member snarked. “I tried to listen to the podcast for literally 5 seconds, and I’d rather watch paint dry. Mind-bogglingly boring—she was insignificant then and she’s still insignificant now.”
Miller joins a long list of reality television alumni with ties to Trump’s White House, including the president himself. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is also an MTV alum, while Dr. Oz—now administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services—rose to fame through his long-running daytime talk show.
Miller’s husband, Stephen, also has a partiality for performing. She revealed on a podcast in November that he has compiled an extensive catalog of his media appearances dating back to when he was 16.
“Somewhere to my left or right are piles of DVDs or CDs from every single radio or TV show he’s ever done,” she said at the time.
Miller has also gushed over their “love story,” which sparked during meetings about the construction of Trump’s border wall during his first term.
“Where does all true love happen? Over border security,” she joked.
Meanwhile, her former classmates have jokes of their own. Weiner said that she quips to her high school friends: “Can you believe like, we’re sitting here, like, about to enter World War III and Katie Waldman is involved?”
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