Trump 'called talk show host to yell at him' for being mean to Stephen Miller

'You’re hurting this poor young kid ... you’re killing him every day,' president is said to have told Joe Scarborough

Donald Trump called a US talk show studio to berate presenters for criticising his adviser Stephen Miller, according to the programme’s hosts.

Joe Scarborough, who fronts MSNBC’s Morning Joe, said the president was “yelling” at him for “not being nice to this poor young kid”.

The clash came in February 2017 after Mr Miller denounced federal judges for blocking Mr Trump’s Muslim travel ban and warned “the whole world will soon see” the president’s executive powers “will not be questioned”.

“I found that to be illiberal, undemocratic and frightening,” said Mr Scarborough. Speaking co-host Mika Brzezinski on Tuesday’s programme, he added: “We raked him over the coals for two days, Stephen Miller, for saying that the president’s authority was not to be questioned.

“It’s the only time I’ve heard Donald Trump call and yell in defence of somebody else.

“He actually said, ‘You’re hurting this poor young kid … you’re not being nice to this poor young kid, you’re killing him every day.’ It was the first time actually I’d ever heard him talk about any staff member that way.”

He suggested Mr Trump’s staunch defence of his adviser showed their “loyalty went back and forth”.

“There is undoubtedly and there has been a bond before Donald Trump and Stephen Miller and that has kept him at the centre of things,” Mr Scarborough added.

Mr Miller has been the driving force behind some of Mr Trump’s most controversial immigration policies, including the travel ban and the separation of migrant children from their parents at the US border.

He is also thought to have been the impetus behind the president’s recent shake-up of senior officials at Department of Homeland Security.

On Tuesday Mr Trump attacked Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar on Twitter after she described Mr Miller as a “white nationalist”.

“The fact that he still has influence on policy and political appointments is an outrage,” the Minnesota representative had added.

Mr Trump posted footage of a Fox News commentator claiming Ms Omar was targeting Mr Miller because he was Jewish.

The Democrat later replied: “In the words of my 6 year-old daughter, ‘Knock it off. You’re the president.’”