President Donald Trump’s most loyal advisers are locked in a bitter battle over who will take the fall for a disastrous and deadly immigration crackdown unfolding in Minnesota, according to his biographer.
On the latest episode of Inside Trump’s Head, author Michael Wolff described a hostile blame game erupting inside the White House after a second U.S. citizen was killed by federal agents in Minneapolis this month alone—sparking a national outcry over federal immigration tactics.
“The point, the understanding that someone is going to be blamed here and that person is not going to be the president of the United States,” Wolff told co-host Joanna Coles.
The administration, Wolff said, is scrambling to contain the backlash aimed at officials seen as responsible for the chaos, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem; her de facto adviser and alleged lover, Corey Lewandowski; and Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump’s harshest immigration policies.
“I think a lot of people are reporting that Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski are going to be blamed,” Wolff said. “ And that certainly is fair, but the policy, the root of the policy here is Stephen Miller.”
Indeed, Axios reported Tuesday afternoon that Noem was heard saying: “Everything I’ve done, I’ve done at the direction of the president and Stephen.”
Miller has long been the driving force behind the administration’s most aggressive immigration measures. He mandated a “minimum” of 3,000 immigration arrests per day—putting minimally trained agents into the field—and championed the “zero-tolerance” policy that led to family separations at the U.S.-Mexico border during Trump’s first term.
Still, Wolff suggested Miller views Noem as the immediate catalyst for the unrest in Minnesota, blaming her for failing to properly execute his vision.
“So they are going at this each against each other and it’s…unclear who the president will side with, if anyone,” Wolff said.
The rift between the two Trump loyalists became publicized after Miller was reportedly shut out of a closed-door White House meeting on Monday night attended by Noem, Trump, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, and other top officials. By Tuesday afternoon, Trump told reporters that Noem would not be stepping down.
Publicly, Miller backed up Noem after she falsely labeled ICU nurse Alex Pretti, 37, a “domestic terrorist” in the wake of his fatal shooting by immigration agents on Saturday in Minneapolis.
On X, Miller referred to Pretti as an “assassin”—a post later reshared by Vice President JD Vance.
But multiple videos of the shooting tell a sharply different story. Pretti never drew the handgun he was legally allowed to carry and appeared to have been disarmed by agents during a pile-on before he was shot several times while lying on the ground.
Yet as the footage circulated widely over the weekend, Miller doubled down. He responded to criticism from Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who wrote on X: “Get ICE out of Minnesota NOW. And Republicans in Congress: Stop your silence and stop being complicit.”
“A domestic terrorist tried to assassinate federal law enforcement, and this is your response?” Miller replied. “You and the state’s entire Democrat leadership team have been flaming the flames of insurrection for the singular purpose of stopping the deportation of illegals who invaded the country.”
Regardless of whose heads, if any, ultimately roll, Wolff is skeptical of the situation becoming the Trump administration’s “tipping point.”
“He may well change the subject, he may well go off in another direction, but the fundamental Donald Trump…his fundamental mission to grab as much power as he can…continues on,” he said.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
The White House has previously questioned Wolff’s credibility, repeatedly issuing the following statement: “Michael Wolff is a lying sack of s–t and has been proven to be a fraud. He routinely fabricates stories originating from his sick and warped imagination, only possible because he has a severe and debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his peanut-sized brain.”
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