'That's Stephen': White House Adviser's Controversial Style Dates Back To His Youth

Stephen Miller stood at the lectern in the White House press briefing room wearing his trademark skinny suit and tie and engaged in the kind of verbal combat he has been perfecting since high school.

Miller, 31, a policy adviser and speechwriter in the Trump White House, sparred with a CNN correspondent about legislation that would reduce legal immigration and require those immigrating to the U.S. to speak English. There was even a heated exchange about the meaning of the Statue of Liberty.

For those who knew Miller way back when, the exchange came as no surprise.

"Before he even addressed reporters about the immigration policy ... I was like, that's Stephen all over [President Trump's prepared remarks]. You can hear it. You can just hear it," says Nick Silverman, a writer in Los Angeles and former high school classmate of Miller's.

"You can tell when it's Stephen because he kind of paints this uber-nationalism with this kind of cinematic, almost flowery sparkle ... you can just kind of tell when he has his handprints on a speech or in a statement because he was always into the glorification of 'American culture,' you know, whatever that is."

While the