Teenaged Stephen Miller: #DoYourJob, Janitors

By Nathan Guttman February 13, 2017

Stephen Miller’s high-profile weekend inspired some of his high school classmates to share their memories of him on Twitter. These were not flattering, as one might expect given the liberal nature of his hometown, Santa Monica, and the dogged conservatism that got Miller where he is today — at President Donald Trump’s right hand, with Steve Bannon.

@GideonResnick he was upset about our schools campaign to get us to pick up our trash bc “that’s what the janitors got paid for”

— Nick Silverman (@NickySilv) February 12, 2017

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Silverman spent several hours on Twitter dredging up memories of Miller and flagellating himself for not arguing with his classmate when he still had the chance.

Another former classmate also weighed in.

Wherever your personal politics lie, I went to high school with this clown. He isn’t someone you’d want anywhere near important decisions. pic.twitter.com/kTxa4o69XZ

— Cody Decker (@Decker6) February 12, 2017

And in a letter to a local newspaper, the 16-year-old Miller criticized his school’s treatment of Spanish-speaking students, claiming that it insulted them by softening its standards.

“By providing a crutch now, we are preventing Spanish speakers from standing on their own,” Miller wrote. “As politically correct as this may be, it demeans the immigrant population as incompetent, and makes a mockery of the American ideal of personal accomplishment.”

To be sure, Miller has many defenders and fans. Trump tweeted a special thanks for his stalwart performance on the Sunday shows, and the conservative establishment lined up to defend him when the New York Times called him an inexperienced gadfly.

Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected]

Nathan Guttman, staff writer, was the Forward’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the staff in 2006 after serving for five years as Washington correspondent for the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In Israel, he was the features editor for Ha’aretz and chief editor of Channel 1 TV evening news. He was born in Canada and grew up in Israel. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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