'Dick the Butcher would be proud': MS NOW slams new controversial Trump policy

President Donald Trump’s top immigration adviser is channeling a Shakespearean character, argues a prominent columnist — and this is not a good thing.

Steve Benen of MS NOW compared Trump’s senior adviser Stephen Miller to Dick the Butcher, an evil henchman from William Shakespeare’s 1591 play “Henry VI, Part II.” In a key scene _ when Dick the Butcher schemes to help unprincipled pretenders solidify their seizure of power from the legitimate English royals — Dick the Butcher infamously suggests, “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” The line has since become iconic in Western theater, and Benen compared this antagonist’s notorious advice to a Thursday speech Miller delivered at the Americas Counter Cartel Conference.

“[What] we have learned after decades of effort is that there is not a criminal justice solution to the cartel problem,” Miller said. “There are elements of the problem that require a criminal justice solution, to be sure, but just as we fought al-Qaida and fought ISIS with the tip of a very lethal sphere, the reason why this is a conference with military leadership, and not a conference of lawyers, is because these organizations can only be defeated with military power.

He added, “And I see some heads nodding up front because they understand you’re dealing with a lot of lawyers in your own country, I’m sure. You have my permission not to listen to them.”

Remarking that “Dick the Butcher would be proud,” Benen pointed out that Miller two months earlier told CNN’s Jake Tapper that America could seize Greenland by force from Denmark because “you can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else, but we live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world that have existed since the beginning of time.”

In addition to disregarding international law, Miller also influences Trump to pursue vengeful campaigns against perceived enemies. Earlier this week Miller reportedly reversed the administration’s decision to stop targeting progressive law firms and lawyers, with one source close to the administration saying that “Miller’s fingerprints” were all over the altered decision.

Miller’s actions have aroused their fair share of controversy. After the killing of intensive care nurse Alex Pretti at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 3669 of which Miller was a member said in a statement that “Noem betrayed the public trust by slandering the good name of our union brother and calling him a ‘domestic terrorist.’ Noem was preceded in this false statement by Stephen Miller.”

The statement added, “Our demand is clear: Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who was responsible for carrying out the policy that led to Alex’s needless killing, and Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, the architect of that policy, must resign immediately. If they refuse, President Trump must dismiss them.”

In addition to his controversial policy decisions, Miller is also widely criticized for his personal approach.

"Number one, he has a condescending demeanor to begin with," outgoing Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) told The Hill. "He doesn’t take advice. He sort of dictates. He provides doctrine. And you know these are U.S. senators with an election certificate. He should show them some respect."

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