| Max Miller | |
| State: | Ohio |
| Term Start: | January 3, 2023 |
| Predecessor: | Bob Gibbs |
| Birth Date: | 13 November 1988 |
| Birth Place: | Shaker Heights, Ohio, U.S. |
| Party: | Republican |
| Children: | 1 |
| Relatives: | Sam Miller (grandfather) Aaron David Miller (uncle) Bernie Moreno (father-in-law) |
| Education: | University of Arizona Cleveland State University (BA) |
| Branch: | United States Marine Corps |
| Serviceyears: | 2013–2019 |
| Rank: | Corporal |
| Unit: | United States Marine Corps Reserve |
| Birth Name: | Max Leonard Miller |
Max Leonard Miller (born November 13, 1988)[1] is an American Republican politician and former aide to Donald Trump. A member of the U.S. House of Representatives, he has been the U.S. representative for Ohio's 7th congressional district since 2023.[2]
Miller is the grandson of Samuel H. Miller, the former co-chair emeritus of Forest City Realty Trust, and son of Abe and Barb Miller.[3] His grandmother, Ruth Miller, was a candidate for Ohio's 22nd congressional district in 1980. His uncle is Aaron David Miller, a scholar of Middle East studies.[4]
Miller grew up in Northeast Ohio and graduated from Shaker Heights High School in 2007.[5] [6] He attended the University of Arizona before transferring to Cleveland State University, from which he received his bachelor's degree in 2013.
Miller worked at a Lululemon store in Ohio before joining the Marine Reserve in 2013. He was a corporal and made no deployments. In 2019, he was transferred from the Selected Marine Corps Reserve to the Individual Ready Reserve.[7]
After initially working for Marco Rubio's campaign for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, Miller left the campaign in February 2016 and joined Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. After working as a Trump campaign aide, Miller became a political appointee in the Trump administration. He was a confidential assistant in the United States Department of the Treasury in 2017, then a lead advance representative in the White House Office,[8] [9] and then associate director of the Presidential Personnel Office and special assistant to the president. In June 2020, Miller was among the aides who accompanied Trump on his photo op at St. John's Church; a month later, he was appointed "deputy campaign manager for presidential operations" on Trump's reelection campaign. A favorite of Trump, Miller praised him as "the greatest POTUS this country has ever had." He helped organize the 2020 Republican convention, and was a Trump negotiator for the presidential debates.
In 2018, Miller was one of several Trump administration officials scrutinized for their inexperience and lack of qualifications. Miller's LinkedIn page falsely claimed that he was a Marine recruiter and that he had graduated from college in 2011 rather than in 2013. After The Washington Post raised questions about his biography, Miller removed the claims and called them mistakes made by a relative, who he said made the LinkedIn page on his behalf.
Miller was appointed to the Holocaust Memorial Council by President Trump in December 2020.[10]
In 2020 and 2021, Miller promoted Trump's false claim that the 2020 presidential election was "rigged".[11] In June 2021, referring to a pro-Trump mob's attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, Miller told The Washington Times, "What happened on January 6 was not an insurrection." In 2021, Trump appointed Miller to be one of 55 members of the board of trustees for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, an unpaid, part-time position.[12] In mid-December 2021, Miller was one of six people the January 6 committee subpoenaed to produce documents relating to the rally preceding the Capitol attack and deposed in January 2022.[13]
In February 2021, Miller launched a campaign for Congress in the redrawn 7th district. The district overlapped with what had previously been the 16th, represented by two-term Republican Anthony Gonzalez. Miller was initially set to face Gonzalez in the Republican primary, but Gonzalez announced in September 2021 that he would not seek reelection to a third term, denouncing Trump as a "cancer for the country" and citing the likelihood of a "brutally hard primary" against Miller, family considerations, and a wave of threats against him.[14] [15] Miller ran after Gonzalez voted to impeach Trump for incitement of insurrection, arising from the January 6 United States Capitol attack.[16] [17] Miller moved back to Ohio, purchasing a home in Rocky River, in order to challenge Gonzalez.[18]
In June 2021, in his first rally since the January 6 attack, Trump appeared in Wellington, Ohio, with Miller; he praised Miller in a 90-minute rally in which he addressed many topics, including his falsehoods about the 2020 election.[19]
Miller won the May 3 Republican primary for Ohio's 7th congressional district with 71.8% of the vote.[20]
After announcing his candidacy, Miller was endorsed by Trump and the Club for Growth.[21] [22] [23] He also received support from Ohio Right to Life,[24] and Congressman Jim Banks. He defeated Democratic nominee Matthew Diemer in the November 8 general election.[25]
As of 2024, Miller and David Kustoff are the only Jewish members of the Republican Party in Congress.[26] Miller was elected by other incoming Republicans to represent them on the steering committee, which determines what committees members sit on.[27]
On January 31, 2023, Miller introduced a resolution to remove Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee. The resolution passed two days later.[28]
On November 30, 2023, Miller sent a letter to his congressional colleagues supporting the expulsion of George Santos, alleging that Santos defrauded him and his mother by making charges to their personal credit cards without approval "for [campaign] contribution amounts that exceeded FEC limits." Miller said that this situation had cost him "tens of thousands of dollars" in legal fees.[29] Miller brought these accusations directly to Santos in House session, calling him a "crook"; in response Santos accused Miller of hypocrisy and domestic violence.[30]
After the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas in southern Israel, Miller criticized Rashida Tlaib for displaying a Palestinian flag outside her office, saying: "I don't even want to call it the Palestinian flag because they're not a state, they're a territory, that's about to probably get eviscerated and go away here shortly, as we're going to turn that into a parking lot."[31] [32] Miller further stated there should be no "rules of engagement" in the Israeli assault on Gaza.[33]
In January 2024, Miller was appointed to the Commission on Reform and Modernization of the Department of State.[34] [35]
Miller dated Trump White House aide Stephanie Grisham from 2019 to 2020. In October 2021, Grisham said that Miller had "been physically abusive" to her, "cheated" on her, and "lied" to her. Miller filed a defamation lawsuit against her.[38] He voluntarily dismissed the case with prejudice in August 2023.[39]
Miller became engaged in 2021 to Emily Moreno. They married in August 2022 at the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey. The couple has a daughter who was born in November 2023.[40] Emily joined the board of directors of Ohio Right to Life in June 2023.
Miller pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor charges in 2007 after being charged with assault, disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest; the charges were later dismissed as part of a diversion program.
In 2009, he was charged with underage drinking; after he pleaded no contest, that charge was dismissed under a first-time offenders' program.
In 2010, Miller pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct stemming from a late-night physical altercation in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.
In 2011, he was charged with "operating a vehicle without reasonable control" and operating a vehicle impaired (OVI) after crashing his Jeep Grand Cherokee, and told officers that he had had "two to three beers and several shots" the night before and "woke up in urine-soaked pants". Miller pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and failure to control. In 2018 and 2021, he called the events "youthful mistakes".
|-