Senior White House adviser Stephen Miller thinks the pay gap “has virtually nothing to do with gender discrimination.” Ivanka Trump insists that her father, who has bragged about sexually assaulting women, is “a feminist.” Yet somehow, this duo appears to be working together on women’s issues for the Trump administration.
If it weren’t so dangerous, it would be funny.
A Politico article on Friday first noted that Miller, who was one of the engineers of Trump’s travel ban targeting Muslims, has begun working with Ivanka Trump on a portfolio of issues including family leave and child care policies. Given his enthusiasm for pushing anti-feminist myths, Stephen Miller is pretty much the last person you’d want to be working on these issues. He has:
- Railed against efforts to close the gender pay gap, blaming women’s choices for the ongoing wage disparity. (“Sorry feminists,” he wrote. “Hate to break this good news to you.”)
- Argued against paid leave, writing that these laws “provide powerful incentives for bosses…not to hire women to begin with.”
- Shown an “an intense hatred toward people of color, especially toward Latinos,” according to a former classmate.
- Defended the crackdown on undocumented immigrants—which has callously separated mothers from their families—as vital to “saving many American lives.”
- Said that he is not “comfortable” with women working construction jobs or men working as babysitters.
The policy proposals being floated by the Trump team on women’s issues are already inadequate, like a child care proposal that amounts to a huge tax break for rich families but does next to nothing for the low-income parents who need it most. The fact that Stephen Miller is now plugged into this work should be cause for even more alarm.