Christopher Miller
I had never seen anyone — not even the greenest, pimple-faced 19-year-old Army private — panic like our nation’s elder statesmen did on January 6 and in the months that followed. Christopher Miller from his book: Soldier Secretary
Christopher Miller is the author of the DOD chapter of Project 2025. Trump named Miller Acting Secretary of Defense after his 2020 loss. Miller is partially responsible for the Pentagon’s delay in deploying the National Guard to protect Members of Congress and the Capitol Police after Trump incited a violent insurrection on January 6, 2021. Miller also took actions to impede the peaceful transfer of power by ordering a Pentagon-wide halt to cooperation with the transition of President-elect Biden. Miller could be named to head DOD again: in December 2023, Trump was asked about five potential defense secretaries in a second term and, although he was not listed, Trump brought him up, saying “We had Miller at the end who did a very good job… I thought he was very good.”
As Acting Secretary of Defense, Miller was responsible for the deployment of the National Guard on January 6th. On January 4th, Miller sent a memorandum to Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, ordering that “without the Acting Secretary’s ‘subsequent, personal authorization,’ the [DC National] Guard would not be issued batons, helmets, or body armor; could not interact physically with protestors, except in self-defense; and that the Quick Reaction Force (QRF)—40 servicemembers staged in case of an emergency at Joint Base Andrews in Prince George’s County, Maryland—could be deployed only as a last resort,” according to the official report of the findings made by the United States House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.
On January 6th, during which he allegedly did not talk to Trump at all, Miller waited over two hours from the time the rioters breached the Capitol to approve the deployment of the D.C. National Guard, and then it took two additional hours for them to arrive as he approved a plan for their deployment and for the plan to be implemented. Miller later admitted, under congressional questioning, that he “did not approve an operational plan to deploy the National Guard to the Capitol until 4:32 p.m., more than three hours after he first learned that demonstrators had breached the Capitol perimeter. The National Guard did not arrive at the Capitol for another hour, at nearly 5:30” [news summary, not verbatim]. Miller claimed he was concerned about “another Kent State” if the military shot and killed protestors. On January 3rd Trump had told Miller to “do whatever is necessary to protect demonstrators” and Trump’s command had led to Miller’s January 4 order and his deliberate inaction on January 6.
Miller’s personal approval was also required for the National Guard of bordering states to be deployed. House and Senate leaders repeatedly called for help from federal and state officials as the Capitol police were attacked, the Capitol was violently breached, and the chambers were invaded by Trump supporters seeking to stop the presidential ballots from being counted. For example, former Democratic House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer reached out to former Governor Larry Hogan (R-MD), who frantically sought approval from the Secretary of Defense to deploy the National Guard and who later recounted: “We fought for two and a half hours to get that approval,” Hogan said.
Numerous Members of the Jan. 6 Committee expressed outrage at Miller’s delay, for example: “‘If you were the effing cavalry, you never showed up. You never got there on time, and we were exposed because of this,” Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) told Miller after nearly five hours of questioning… “You lost, and you don’t have the intestinal fortitude to own up to your responsibility.”
Miller also took actions to impede the peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 presidential election, before January 6. Per reporting by Axios, Miller also “ordered a Pentagon-wide halt to cooperation with the transition of President-elect Biden, shocking officials across the DoD.” On December 18, 2020, barely a month after his appointment and as Trump sought to overturn the election results and continued to make debunked claims that the election was stolen, Miller ordered a Pentagon-wide halt on cooperation with the Biden transition team, delaying about 20 interviews with 40 officials until sometime later January. Miller claimed this unusual delay was a “mutually agreed upon holiday pause,” but Yohannes Abraham, Executive Director of the Biden Transition, said there “was no mutually agreed upon holiday break.” Abraham added that while they had received “widespread cooperation on [the] transition,” there were “pockets of recalcitrance, and DOD [was] one of them.”
Miller also worked to execute hasty changes to U.S. defense policy, after Trump lost the election. On November 13, 2020, Miller sent out a department-wide memo about Afghanistan in which he said the U.S. “must avoid our past strategic error in failing to see the fight through to the finish” and added that “ending wars requires compromise and partnerships.” But three days later, he accelerated the planned troop withdrawal at Trump’s command, leaving U.S. allies in the dark, even as Germany and other NATO countries were in the midst of unfinished peace talks. Allies expressed alarm at the sudden change in U.S. position; for example, Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary-General at the time, said “We have been in Afghanistan for almost 20 years, and no NATO ally wants to stay any longer than is necessary. But at the same time, the price for leaving too soon or in an uncoordinated way could be very high.”
Miller’s Project 2025 chapter extends Trump’s goal to advance a MAGA military. He calls for:
– Diminishing the Department of Defense’s (DOD) autonomy and concentrating defense decision making at the White House, under political control.
– Purging and replacing military leadership unwilling to execute the President’s orders.
– Reducing the number of U.S. generals and limit the advancement of “many of the existing cadre,” with specific focus on any individuals the Trump Administration determines to have not earned their promotion.
– Aiming to increase military compliance by ensuring “Military and civilian IC [Intelligence Community] training should include stronger emphasis on […] repercussions for abuse in the execution of duties in all degree programs at the National Intelligence University.”
Before joining the Trump administration, Miller served in the U.S. Military for 31 years, starting in the Army Reserve during college in Washington, DC, when he also served in the District of Columbia National Guard as a Military Policeman. In 1993, he transferred to Special Forces, and he was a Battalion Commander in the first U.S. war in Iraq. He retired with the rank of Colonel in 2014. After his retirement, he worked as a defense contractor. After Trump became the 45th president, Miller briefly took a post as an inspector for the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Oversight, in late 2017, before being tapped to work as a special assistant to Trump within the NSC.
This profile has been updated.