01:34

As Donald Trump’s second attempt at introducing a controversial Muslim travel ban neared its scheduled – and now interrupted – start, few would have been hoping for its success as anxiously as his senior adviser Stephen Miller.

Miller was the policy’s 31-year-old architect and was at the center of the troubled first attempt to introduce a travel ban on seven Muslim-majority countries in late January.

Miller was removed from the process of writing the revised travel ban because of the legal challenges that mired the initial policy, and officials at the agencies tasked with implementing the order had made a more concerted effort to avoid such legal problems this time.

Stephen Miller: ‘Fundamentally, you’re still going to have the same basic policy outcome for the country.’ Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

But an interview Miller gave to Fox News late in January was used by legal opponents to prove that the underpinnings were one and the same, and was even cited in a temporary restraining order (TRO) that a federal judge in Hawaii placed on the revised travel ban on Wednesday night.

“Fundamentally,” Miller said, “you’re still going to have the same basic policy outcome for the country, but you’re going to be responsive to a lot of very technical issues that were brought up by the court, and those will be addressed.

“But, in terms of protecting the country, those basic policies are still going to be in effect.”