Miles Taylor

Miles Taylor is an American government official who served in the administrations of George W. Bush and Donald Trump. In the administration of the latter, he was an appointee who served in the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from 2017 to 2019, including as chief of staff of the DHS. He was first recruited into the department by former DHS Secretary and White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, serving as his senior advisor. In 2018, Taylor wrote an op-ed in The New York Times under the pen-name "Anonymous" that was entitled, "I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration", which drew widespread attention for its criticism of Trump. Several months after quitting the administration, again under the pen name "Anonymous," he published a book in November 2019 entitled, A Warning. In October 2020, he revealed that he was "Anonymous" while campaigning against Trump's reelection. He was the first former Trump administration official to endorse Joe Biden and launched a group of ex-officials to oppose Trump's re-election. CNN's Jake Tapper referred to the dissenters as the largest-ever group of "former top U.S. government officials warning about the president for whom they once worked." Taylor is a regular commentator in the news media on national security and public policy, a best-selling author, university lecturer, and founder of several civic groups. Early life and education Taylor grew up in La Porte, Indiana, where he was an Indiana state debate champion, and one of the valedictorians of his class at La Porte High School in 2006. While in high school, he served as a page in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. He received a bachelor of arts degree in international security studies from Indiana University Bloomington, which he attended as a Harry S. Truman Scholar and Herman B. Wells Scholar. As a senior, he received IU's inaugural Presidential Student Internship and was a recipient of the Elvis J. Stahr Award awarded to the university's top few graduating seniors.