Analysis: Stephen Miller's Clout Is Waning

Stephen Miller is still inside Donald Trump's orbit—but increasingly out of the driver's seat. That's the picture painted by Michael Scherer and Nick Miroff in an analysis at the Atlantic. The longtime Trump aide began the second term at the height of his influence as the architect of the president's hardline immigration policies. After intense backlash, Trump has since walked back some of the more aggressive aspects of Miller's strategy on everything from worker visas to arrests, and shifted deportation decisions back to career law-enforcement officials. White House insiders tell the Atlantic reporters that the president still values Miller's advice, but there's a caveat:

• "Trump, who has previously joked that Miller's 'truest feelings' are so extreme that they should not be aired publicly, has also told others in recent weeks that he understands Miller sometimes goes too far, advisers told us. ... The question now is how long Trump will hold Miller and his policy prescriptions at a distance."

Not that Miller has softened his own views. When Trump reversed cuts on H-2B visas, Miller took to social media to criticize any effort toward "importing a foreign labor class," which the authors say is "as close as the staffer would get to criticizing his boss." Read the full analysis.