Trump senior policy advisor Stephen Miller recently gained attention for confirming the White House’s consideration to require social media and phone contact information from foreign visitors. Of course, that report paled in comparison to the weekend controversy over Donald Trump’s immigration ban, which blocked refugees from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the country. Now, Miller (a relatively young whippersnapper at age 31) is receiving credit for being the architect of what is — despite the Trump’s administration claims — a Muslim ban.

Mother Jones has dug into Miller’s past and come up with significant ties to white supremacists and neo-Nazis. He’s apparently pretty tight with notorious white nationalist Richard Spencer, who called Miller “a highly competent and tough individual” that “will do a great job” for Trump. Miller and Spencer attended Duke University together, where Miller wrote several college newspaper columns that denied the existence of systemic racism and railed against multiculturalism (or as he called it, “segregation”).

Miller has also served as chief of communications for the controversial Jeff Sessions (Trump’s attorney general pick), whose reported KKK jokes cost him a federal judge appointment.

This morning, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough noted Miller’s history and tweeted this link to a Daily Beast article, which highlights how Spencer refers to himself as Miller’s “mentor” and says, “I hope I expanded his thinking.” On Morning Joe, Scarborough also ripped into Miller as someone lacking experience, who created a sloppy mess with this executive order:

“People — not to mention his name again — like Stephen Miller better learn very quickly if you’re going to have the President of the United States sign something, maybe you better check it out with the other agencies … And by the time you’re 35, maybe you’ll know how Washington and the White House really works. If you’re still around. I hope you’re not … because this weekend was a disgrace and it’s all on your shoulders.”

Well, Miller appeared on Monday’s episode of CBS This Morning to defend Trump’s executive order as something that’s “hugely successful [and] challenges a failed orthodoxy.” As far as the protests against the ban go, Miller reasons, “If nobody’s disagreeing with what you’re doing, then you’re probably not doing anything that matters in the scheme of things.” He also supports Kellyanne Conway’s assertion that the relatively small number of travelers who were detained presented a mere inconvenience. Miller also insists that rumors of Trump providing no administration guidance to airports are flat-out wrong.

(Via LA Times, Mother Jones, Mediaite & CBS)