White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller ripped the half-century-long effort of globalization as the “great theft of American prosperity.”
“It is a formal policy of trying to develop foreign nations at the expense of the U.S. working and middle class,” Miller told Laura Ingraham of Fox News. “Trillions of dollars that would be in the pockets of American workers is now in China, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Canada, Mexico, all across Africa, all across Asia.”
“It is the great theft of American prosperity that was won through our victory in multiple wars,” he said.
Deputy Chief of Staff @StephenM on Globalization: “Trillions of dollars that would be in the pockets of American workers is now in China, Cambodia, Vietnam… it is the great theft of American prosperity — prosperity that was won through our victories in multiple wars.”
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— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 3, 2025
So-called elites have given away the nation’s wealth since the United States emerged from the Second World War as the dominant unipolar superpower, according to Miller.
“In the ensuing decades, all of that wealth, all of that manufacturing, all of that industry was ripped apart by our elites, shipped to foreign countries,” he said. “Then they sent us the bill.”
President Trump signs executive order instituting 'Liberation Day' tariffs
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— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) April 2, 2025
“They said, ‘You have to protect Korea. You have to protect Europe. You have to protect Canada. You have to protect Japan, but we won’t take your cars. We won’t take agriculture. We’ll take away your steel industry, your aluminum industry, your copper industry, your electronics industry.’”
Miller’s condemnation of globalization comes after President Donald Trump’s announcement of sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs that the administration declared will set the United States free from relying on foreign nations for trade.
The Trump administration has framed the tariffs as “reciprocal.”
“Reciprocal, that means they do it to us, and we do it to them,” Trump said during Wednesday’s announcement. “Foreign nations will finally be asked to pay for the privilege of access to our market, the biggest market in the world.”
Ten percent baseline tariffs are set to take effect Saturday at 12:01 a.m. while larger tariffs imposed on specific nations will go into effect April 9 at 12:01 a.m.
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT TRUMP’S ‘LIBERATION DAY’ TARIFFS: HOW THEY WORK AND WHO THEY HIT
“This isn’t just about moving around some lines on a ledger,” Miller said. “This is about remedying the systemic injustice that says the streets of America are filled with European cars and Japanese cars, but the streets of Europe and Japan have no American cars.”
“This is about saying that the American steel industry, which once built and sustained the modern world and is now a husk of itself, is coming back now, thanks to Trump’s tariffs, has to be completely revitalized,” he said.
