Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Here’s Why Stephen Miller And His Girlfriend Are A Perfect Match

In one tweet, Katie Waldman was announced as Vice President Mike Pence’s new press secretary and outed as White House senior adviser Stephen Miller’s girlfriend.

Waldman steps into the Pence role October 1 after serving as communications director for Sen. Martha McSally of Arizona, NBC News reported. Before that, the 27-year-old was the deputy press secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, acting as the public defender of the Trump administration’s policy of separating families at the U.S.-Mexico border. “She’s pro-Trump and that checks all the boxes,” a senior administration official who worked with Waldman told NBC.

For Pence, and, presumably for Miller. Here’s why:

Waldman and Miller are both trying to harden the U.S.’s immigration policies — it must be beshert. Just like his girlfriend, Miller, who is Jewish, advocated for the zero-tolerance policies at the U.S.-Mexico border, even admitting it was a “simple decision” to separate families.

Waldman once described people seeking asylum across the border as a “violent mob of migrants.” Her Twitter cover photo is of the border. Miller, for his part, reportedly found joy in photos of detainees. He would be “happy” with no new refugees in the country, he said, and has been a key figure behind President Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Waldman, like her boyfriend, has withstood negative media attention. In 2012, when she was a student politician at the University of Florida, she was reviled for engaging in dirty tricks; she threw away hundreds of copies of the school’s newspaper the night before student government elections. The lead story had been the head football coach’s endorsement of the party she was running against.

But they both have staying power. Miller is one of the chaotic Trump administration’s only survivors, and Waldman emerged triumphant after getting caught throwing those newspapers away. She remained in student government and even won the nomination for a new position.

Alyssa Fisher is a writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.