In an exchange shared by the White House’s rapid response team, Fox News host Jesse Watters reminded Miller of Hegseth’s lack of confidence in him as a caregiver.
“Did he just say anybody can watch my kids except Miller?” Watters asked the White House deputy chief of staff.
“I think, in fairness, he’s worried that if I babysat his kids, that he’d come back after a couple hours and they would say, ‘Daddy, why don’t you send the military into Minnesota to help us with the Somali refugees?’” Miller joked.
Miller’s lighthearted reference to the Trump administration’s new targeting of Somali immigrants in Minnesota perhaps didn’t land as expected with many.
After an Afghan national who once aided the CIA was charged in the shooting of two National Guard soldiers, President Donald Trump has ratcheted up hateful rhetoric and threats against nonwhite people from other nations, including Somalis. ICE raids in Minnesota are already in progress, even though 95% of Somalis living there are American citizens, according to Minneapolis city councilman Jamal Osman.
As one of the influencers of Trump 2.0’s immigration crackdown, perhaps the insensitivity of the White House deputy chief of staff should come as no surprise.
The joke began earlier this week when Hegseth and his wife, Jennifer, appeared on the podcast of Miller’s wife, Katie, a former Trump administration spokesperson.
“Who would you trust to babysit your kids? This can only be another member of the Cabinet,” Katie Miller asked Hegseth.
“Not your husband,” Hegseth answered. “Or Marco [Rubio].”
That prompted laughter all around ― but the embattled defense secretary has been in serious hot water of late.
He and the president have been accused of overseeing legally murky deadly strikes on suspected drug smugglers at sea. Recently, Hegseth came under scrutiny for a follow-up attack to kill survivors of one such explosion ― a possible war crime. He said an admiral ordered the second attack.