Former school acquaintances of Stephen Miller’s wife have laid bare her “Mean Girls” past.
Katie Miller, 34, gained a reputation for questionable behavior long before she married the Trump aide known for the president’s most divisive policies, according to those who knew her back when she was Katie Waldman.
Raised in an upscale gated community in Florida, 15-year-old Katie reportedly made an impression on her classmates at Cypress Bay High School in Broward County. A former classmate recalled being struck by Miller’s answer when students were tasked with giving a speech about themselves.
“She got up and said, ‘My father is a litigator, and my mom is a MILF. She does nothing but drive up and down the highway in her SUV until it’s time to pick me up from school,’” the former classmate told Slate.
“What she meant was, ‘My dad is a rich guy, and my mom’s hot. That’s who I am, and that’s where I come from.’ She was super proud.”
Other classmates remembered her as a social climber, obsessed with social status. “She was someone who was very interested in befriending others for status, more so than being a friend,” one classmate recalled. “She would drift towards whoever was in control or popular or whatever. A friend to many, but not really a good friend to any.”
She wore Juicy Couture tracksuits, effectively the popular girl high school uniform, others said. “She was very Valley Girl–ish,” said Ryan Terrell, the captain of the debate team who coached Miller for a semester, “a teenage girl from an upper-income family in a wealthy neighborhood. She kind of talked like that, just without the California accent.”
Miller worked as a photo editor for the student newspaper, the Circuit. The entertainment editor at the time told Slate that she is not surprised by Miller’s divisive personality, because she had form for it even back then.
“You’re never surprised when you hear about something bad that Katie Waldman did,” said Emmi Weiner, using Miller’s maiden name.
In August 2020, Vanity Fair reported on a flashpoint between Miller and English teacher Simone Waite, one of the few African American faculty members at the school. She had been teaching Toni Morrison’s Beloved when Miller reportedly took umbrage.
She didn’t like Waite noting that Black people had their history scrubbed as a result of slavery. “Couldn’t they just tell each other about their history?” Miller reportedly asked. The educator and student reached an impasse, and Waite suggested moving on.
But Miller is said to have raised a stink, starting a petition against Waite that claimed her lesson was “psychologically damaging” and “sickening.”
Miller’s father was called in, and it was agreed that she would not take Waite’s class.
After high school, Miller went 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.
“She looked down on people she didn’t agree with,” said Jordan Ball, a member of the opposition party at the time.
Another former member of the student government described Miller as “tribal,” saying, “She took it all very personally.”
In 2012, on the eve of student elections, Miller and a co-conspirator were reportedly caught dumping over 250 copies of a student paper that ran a front-page piece touting an endorsement for the opposition party.
“Especially after stealing the newspapers, she had a reputation, not just with us, but throughout the whole school, of being unethical,” said Ford Dwyer, a senator for the opposition party.
Interviewees told Slate they were “scared” of Miller in college, perturbed by her vindictive streak. Still, she rose through the ranks of her party before negative headlines forced her out.
Even then, they said, she sowed fear in her departing address. “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,” Dwyer recalled.
Miller has been contacted for comment.
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