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Miller Gaggles with Reporters Outside the White House, Jan. 28, 2025: the Spending Freeze, El Salvador and the Border Numbers

January 28, 2025 · Roll Call Factbase Videos · 0:05:47

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller took reporters’ questions outside the White House on January 28, 2025, in Roll Call Factbase Videos’ recording (uploaded to the channel’s archive on May 12, 2025). On the administration’s federal spending freeze, Miller said the order did not cover benefit spending: “It doesn’t cover any benefit spending,” he said, confirming that programs Americans rely on, including Meals on Wheels, were unaffected, as he stated the order’s scope.

On deportations, Miller said El Salvador’s President Bukele had been gracious on migration cooperation and would be “a great and strong partner,” and that the administration fully expected Venezuela’s Maduro to accept repatriation flights. Asked whether Europe should mirror the administration’s approach, he answered yes: “You have to establish a policy that says anyone who crosses the border will be immediately repatriated.” He also cited ICE’s published daily numbers and contrasted them with the prior administration’s first month, when, as he stated the figure, there were 350,000 apprehensions at the southwest border.

Why it matters

Eight days into the term, this stakeout is Miller explaining the two opening moves of the administration he helps direct — the spending freeze’s limits stated on camera, and the repatriation-first border doctrine — in the informal gaggle format that became his regular channel to the press.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: Miller’s on-record statement that the January 2025 spending freeze covered no benefit programs, and his expectation, stated the same day, that Venezuela would accept repatriation flights — flagged for the scoreboard editors; the entry itself remains review-gated.

Sources: Roll Call Factbase Videos, “Stephen Miller Speaks to Reporters Outside the White House — January 28, 2025” (video M0IdpqY1VYI); transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, never republished verbatim).