White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller went absolutely unhinged during a CNN interview with Jake Tapper on Sunday, launching into a high-pitched tirade about “tin-pot Communist dictators” and the decline of Western civilization when asked a simple question about Venezuela.

“You love doing that smarmy thing, Jake, and I was hoping you’d be better than that this time,” Miller snapped at Tapper during the exchange, which devolved into the two men shouting over each other until the segment mercifully ended.

WHAT’S GOING ON: Tapper asked Miller why President Trump has dismissed Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado—Venezuela’s leading pro-democracy figure—as a potential leader after the U.S. seized President Nicolás Maduro in a raid on Saturday. Instead of installing Machado, Trump backed Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, as the new leader.

“Why does the president think that Machado should not be the next leader? Why does he think she’s weak?” Tapper asked.

Miller’s response? “It’s not even a serious question.” He then demanded “the floor for 30 seconds” and proceeded to go full supervillain, ranting about how “the future of the free world, Jake, depends on America being able to assert ourselves and our interests without apology.”

THE DETAILS: Miller kept spiraling into increasingly unhinged territory, monologuing about “this whole period that happened after World War II, where the West began apologizing and groveling, and begging.” Tapper cut in: “I don’t even know, honestly, what you’re talking about right now.”

When Tapper mentioned the U.S. capturing Maduro, Miller squealed “damn straight we did!” and launched into a high-pitched tangent about dictators. He insisted the administration had achieved “one of the greatest foreign policy and military victories this country has ever had.”

The actual answer to Tapper’s question, according to the Washington Post: Trump is reportedly offended that Machado accepted the Nobel Peace Prize—an award he had openly coveted for months. So the leader of the free world snubbed a pro-democracy hero because she got an award he wanted.

BUT BUT BUT: Miller tried to frame the whole thing as Tapper approaching it from “the wrong frame, this neoliberal frame that the United States’ job is to go around the world and demanding immediate elections be held everywhere.” Translation: democracy is optional when Trump’s ego is bruised.

WHY IT MATTERS: This wasn’t just a cable news meltdown. Miller—the architect of Trump’s most extreme immigration policies—essentially admitted on live television that the administration has no interest in Venezuelan democracy. They removed a dictator only to install his vice president, bypassing the actual opposition leader who won more than two-thirds of the vote in last year’s election.

Machado had been blocked from running by Venezuela’s Supreme Court in 2023. She backed an alternative candidate who crushed Maduro at the polls. Maduro refused to leave. And now? The U.S. seized him, but put his own VP in charge anyway.

Rodriguez, the new U.S.-backed leader, has already pushed back against Trump: “If there is one thing that the Venezuelan people and this country are absolutely clear about, it is that we will never again be slaves.”

BOTTOM LINE: Stephen Miller went on national television, screamed about Western civilization, attacked the host for asking basic questions, and accidentally revealed that Trump’s Venezuela policy is driven by personal pettiness over a Nobel Prize. And Tapper just signed off with a pleasant “thank you so much, appreciate your time” as Miller grinned like he’d won something.