Everyone has the occasional blip while engaging in public speaking, whether in front of a large group of people or in an interview-style setting. The key to being able to push through those moments is being able to maintain your composure, fix the mistake and move on.
White House Deputy Chief os Staff Stephen Miller lacks such a key, which led to a major crash in his systems on live, national television for saying that Donald Trump has “plenary authority.”
On Monday afternoon, Oct. 6, 2025, Miller made an appearance on CNN’s “News Central” where he spoke with host Boris Sanchez regarding Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops to numerous cities around the country.
In his response to whether or not Trump would follow the second order given by U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut, restricting the ability to send troops to Oregon, Miller said “Under Title 10 of the U.S. Code, the President has plenary authority, has-” and then physically froze while he realized what he had said. Netizens clocked this immediately, saying that Miller “said the quiet part out loud.”
The interview was then cut with a break due to "technical difficulties” before they continued and quickly brushed past the mishap, with Miller saying that they would abide the order in the literal sense. But, “there are also many other options the President has to deploy federal resources and assets under the U.S. military to Portland.”
This overstep in Miller’s response, as well as CNN's removal of that specific talking point, sparked outrage and controversy online, as Miller essentially admits that this current administration and president are operating on the premise that Donald Trump can make decisions and do whatever he wants with no limit to his executive power.
As the Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute (LII) defines it, plenary authority “is power that is wide-ranging, broadly construed, and often limitless for all practical purposes,” and is rather called “plenary power” when speaking about elected public officials like the president.
Title 10 of the U.S. Code discusses the code of the United States Armed Forces; think Navy, Marines and other parts of the military. According to Miller and his malfunction, it is alluded that somewhere in this code Donald Trump is given the ability to assume limitless power over the military and can use them and their resources however he sees fit regardless of the federal government’s checks and balances system.
In reality, Title 10 does not specifically use the verbiage of “plenary authority” or define it.
What Miller may be referring to is Section 252 of Title 10, under the chapter on insurrection, which reads as follows: “Whenever the President considers that unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion against the authority of the United States, make it impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States in any State by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, he may call into Federal service such of the militia of any State, and use such of the armed forces, as he considers necessary to enforce those laws or to suppress the rebellion.”
All the same, this section does not define or give the president limitless and unchecked authority to use and deploy the military. The type of authority Miller is claiming Trump to have is not a function of the executive branch; on the contrary, it is a function of an autocratic, fascist regime, similar to those of monarchies based on “divine right of kings” who used the same sort of assumed power to keep their citizens and subjects in line.
So what makes Trump and his allies believe he can wield the people’s military however he pleases — even when acting in direct violation of the Constitution they all swore to uphold? Why is he permitted to turn the military against American citizens — protesters he and Miller label as “terrorists” or “Antifa” — simply for opposing the unlawful deployment of troops to peaceful cities?
That’s not just reckless rhetoric; it’s revealing. Miller’s slip-up offers a chilling glimpse into an administration seemingly intent on dismantling the very foundations of American democracy — one “plenary authority” claim at a time.