President Trump’s decision to move forward with rescheduling marijuana followed months of internal debate at the White House, led most prominently by Susie Wiles and Stephen Miller, according to a senior advisor to the president.
According to the advisor, Miller quickly emerged as one of the most prominent opponents of rescheduling, while Wiles strongly pushed the president to embrace the move. The advisor said that Miller was particularly vocal in his opposition to the move, which he called “a terrible mistake”. Wiles argued the move was a clear political winner with strong bipartisan support.
Despite Miller’s opposition, his wife Katie Miller recently had Mike Tyson on her podcast to talk about cannabis rescheduling, with Tyson saying he expects “good news” on the issue. The advisor called this “an acknowledgement that proponents of rescheduling won the debate.”
In the weeks and months leading up to Trump’s August 11 comments that an announcement would come over “the next few weeks”, he met with dozens of lawmakers, high-profile donors, CEOs, and celebrities to gather perspectives on both sides of the issue. The advisor said these meetings, which began in March, were part of a deliberate strategy to weigh competing arguments before making a final call.
The advisor, who asked to remain anonymous, said Trump made his final decision to proceed with rescheduling around June, though “he had been leaning in that direction from the outset.”
That timing matches a private meeting that month where Trump reportedly told two members of the U.S. House of Representatives, both in leadership positions, “We’ll be moving forward soon with rescheduling marijuana.” That exchange, confirmed by a staffer for one of the lawmakers present, was first reported in June.
Further aligning with his timeline, in July, ScottsMiracle-Gro CEO James Hagedorn said he had multiple conversations with President Donald Trump since he took office in January. Speaking on rescheduling, Hagedorn said “There’s one person who could change it, and he’s told me and others that he will, and that’s the president of the United States, Donald Trump”.
Despite reaching a decision in the summer, the advisor said Trump has resisted rushing an announcement. Instead, he wanted to focus on crafting messaging that would align with his tough-on-crime platform while also acknowledging the growing calls to fully deschedule marijuana. The option ultimately landed on to address the latter, the advisor says, is to form a commission to study descheduling and its broader implications.
The advisor said that if not for the Wall Street Journal article on August 8, they don’t believe Trump would have spoken publicly about rescheduling until September or October (with some in his inner circle suggesting a wait until closer to the midterms), at which point he would have made a formal announcement on both the move to reschedule and the creation of a descheduling commission. The article, according to the advisor, made Trump feel the need to address the issue earlier than intended. Given a formal announcement wasn’t ready, Trump decided to tease a forthcoming decision rather than clearly state the administration’s stance.
Still, the advisor noted that the core plan remains unchanged, with an announcement expected imminently.
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