CNN’s Jake Tapper was left speechless after a close aide to President Trump seemingly blamed employees voting for Kamala Harris as the reason they lost their job.
Stephen Miller, President Trump’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, appeared on CNN’s The Lead Tuesday to defend Trump recent executive orders – including one that paused all spending on foreign aid.
‘There’s two million employees in the federal government,’ Miller said before making the shock claim.
‘Overwhelmingly the career federal service in this country is far left, left-wing.’
Tapper responded that he didn’t know that to be fact.
Miller continued: ‘We looked at USAID as an example, 98 percent either donated to Kamala Harris or another left-wing candidate.
Tapper interjected, asking him: ‘Now you are demonizing an entire workforce’, before Miller shouted him down by saying: ‘Did you just say that saying someone voted for Kamala Harris is demonizing them?
‘You just said I am demonizing someone by saying they voted for Kamala Harris’, Miller continued – before Tapper asked to get the interview back on track.
Stephen Miller, President Trump’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, had appeared on The Lead alongside Tapper on Tuesday
Miller said that 98 percent of the career federal service backed Kamala or similar left-wing politicans
After a brief calm, Miller continued that it was essential for Trump to ‘get a hold of government’ which included people who review spending on grants.
He added: ‘This might be something like saying, “I want to build a $500-million fountain in the courtyard of the Department of Commerce”.
‘This might be something like saying, “I want to fund gender studies in Afghanistan.” There has to be political control and review.’
Dozens of officials at the U.S. Agency for International Development were placed on leave on Monday.
In an email obtained by The Washington Post, newly installed acting administrator Jason Gray said: ‘We have identified several actions within USAID that appear to be designed to circumvent the President’s Executive orders and the mandate from the American people.
‘As a result, we have placed a number of USAID employees on administrative leave with full pay and benefits until further notice.’
Trump, on January 24th, declared the State Department and the U.S. AID ‘shall not provide foreign assistance’ until a high-level review of the programs is completed, except to Israel and Egypt and in severe cases where emergency food assistance is needed.
The 90-day pause is to ensure all programs conform with Trump’s ‘America First’ policy and the administration threatened ‘disciplinary action’ for any staff ignoring the orders.
Miller appeared on the show after Trump suspended dozens of government officials for trying to circumvent his executive order on freezing all foreign aid
Stephen Miller, deputy White House chief of staff for policy, speaks with reporters outside the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 28 January 2025
Miller’s comments come after a testing few hours in the White House, after the administration’s freeze on federal grants sparked chaos and confusion.
Trump aide’s spent most of the day attempting to clarify its spending freeze over which programs would be impacted.
The Trump announcement sent shockwaves through Washington after the White House budget office late Monday issued the sweeping order.
It would have halted taxpayer money from being doled out for initiatives in education and health care, housing assistance, disaster relief and a host of other areas pending a review.
The administration argued the funding should be put on hold while officials ensured no publicly funded programs are ‘woke,’ and that all are in line with executive orders he signed last week abolishing the government’s DEI agenda.
The memo reiterated that the pause was not meant to target any ‘assistance provided directly to individuals,’ such as Medicare or Social Security.
Miller’s comments come after a testing few hours in the White House, after the administration’s freeze on federal grants sparked chaos and confusion. White House press sec Karoline Leavitt is seen here speaking on Tuesday
But the move faced immediate backlash as it was not clear how the spending freeze would impact programs such as Medicaid, SNAP and other government assistance.
It was estimated the pause would have frozen up to $3 trillion in federal grants and loans.
Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Tuesday blasted the president, calling the effort unconstitutional and an attempt to consolidate power.
But the decision to put staff opposed to the plan on leave is part of Trump’s greater plan to purge the federal government of those who disagree with his agenda.
Already, the president fired the inspectors general from more than a dozen federal agencies in a Friday night purge.
His executive order terminating all federal diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs has sidelined 395 government bureaucrats.
He’s also worked on clearing out Justice Department staff who worked with special counsel Jack Smith, who led two prosecution cases against him.
On Tuesday night, U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan blocked the pause on federal grants, loans and other financial assistance which could have totaled trillions in funding.
