In August 2017, Trump's far-right anti-immigrant policy advisor Stephen Miller took the White House podium. He discussed Trump's support of a bill that would have halved the number of immigrants the United States legally permits into the country, taking English language skills into consideration. (The bill never passed, but Trump has used his executive powers to severely limit the number of immigrants legally permitted to come to the US.)
Acosta quoted "The New Colossus," the poem written on the Statue of Liberty to Miller, and the two argued over what it meant to be an American. Acosta asked whether Miller wanted only people from Great Britain and Australia to be allowed into the US.
"I am shocked at your statement that you think only people from Great Britain and Australia would know English," Miller said. "It reveals your cosmopolitan bias to a shocking degree."
Miller's performance was denounced by Eric Bolling on Fox News, Trump's biggest media ally.
"Don't put that guy in front of the cameras again," Bolling said.