Katie Miller’s college scandal and the ambitions left behind
Katie Miller, the wife of President Donald Trump’s influential speechwriter and policy adviser Stephen Miller, has spent recent months hosting a podcast that critics have widely dismissed as an uninspired effort to soften her husband’s image and recast figures from the Trump administration in a gentler light. The project leans heavily on Miller’s identity as the spouse of a powerful political figure, a role she appears comfortable embracing.
An extensive new profile in Slate, however, paints a more complicated picture of Miller’s past. According to the report, written by Tess Owen, Miller, née Waldman, once harbored political ambitions of her own and was deeply involved in student government while attending the University of Florida.
That trajectory, the article suggests, was abruptly altered by a strange and consequential campus scandal. At the time, Florida’s student government operated under what Owen described as a highly centralized and exclusionary system. “Back then, Florida’s student government had a reputation of operating a little like an autocracy,” she wrote.
Power was concentrated within the United Party, dominated by well-connected fraternity and sorority members who controlled spending decisions and access to elite networks such as the Florida Blue Key society. Minority student groups, including Black and Hispanic affinity organizations, were often pressured to support the ruling party or risk losing funding, according to Pew research.
Within this environment, Miller quickly rose in influence. She “quickly established herself as a power player in this world and operated like a ‘henchman’ for the ruling party,” one former student told Slate. Her approach stood out for its intensity. Jordan Ball, an opposition party senator, recalled, “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.” The controversy that ultimately derailed her rise came in 2012, during her sophomore year. While serving on the student government’s rules and ethics committee, Miller became entangled in a scandal involving the campus newspaper. “In 2012, her sophomore year, while serving on the rules and ethics committee of the student government, Miller was embroiled in a scandal,” the report stated.
After the Independent Florida Alligator published a front-page story noting that the university’s head football coach had endorsed an opposition candidate, “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.”
The incident triggered widespread backlash and calls for Miller’s removal. Although she aggressively pushed back against the paper, the Unite Party declined to invite her to run for office again. In her farewell address, Owen wrote, “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.” One opposition senator, Ford Dwyer, said, “The sense that everyone got was that they’d better all be careful or else… I think she felt like a victim.”
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