President Trump reportedly phoned Republican Rep. Max Miller of Ohio on Monday and told him that “things aren’t looking good” for his reelection campaign amid allegations that he assaulted his ex-wife and child, according to Axios.
Trump’s call came just two days before a key deadline to replace Miller on the midterm ballot. CNN reported that “top House Republicans” have been urging Trump to ask Miller to step aside. According to CNN’s sources, Trump has “privately told some allies that he doesn’t believe Miller can win the race, given the accusations, and that he should drop out.”
The pressure on Miller to withdraw has been ramping up since Sunday, when Miller’s former father-in-law, Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio, broke his silence about a years-long family struggle involving accusations of domestic abuse and said that Miller “should not serve in the House of Representatives” due to his “increasingly erratic and dangerous behavior.”
“If there are any basic standards of character required to hold elected office, Max Miller fails them,” Moreno wrote on social media. “I believe Max Miller needs to seek professional help to end the clear pattern of abuse he has left in his wake. I believe he should not be free to continue endangering others until he does.”
Moreno’s statement followed a defiant 20-minute livestream in which Miller denied all allegations of abuse against his ex-wife Emily Moreno and their 2-year-old daughter — while insisting that he would keep running for reelection.
“Every single one of these allegations were already investigated, and I cooperated fully every single time because I had nothing to hide and I have nothing to hide now,” Miller said on his livestream. “I’m not dropping out of this race and I’ll win in November.”
On Monday, Miller confirmed that Trump called him, telling the Wall Street Journal that the president “kept on reiterating it’s going to be tough” but remained “supportive.” In a statement, Miller again vowed to stay on the ballot.
“I will not validate false claims by removing myself just to please the court of public opinion,” he said. “I am innocent of all of the allegations that have been attributed to me. I have done well representing my constituents’ interests. Why would I drop out?”
On Tuesday, Miller wrote on social media that he would be referring himself to the House Ethics Committee for investigation in an effort to clear his name.
A few hours later, the committee announced that it is “reviewing allegations that Representative Max Miller may have engaged in domestic violence and abuse or illegal drug use.”
The allegations, explained
Moreno filed for divorce in 2024; she and Miller have been locked in a bitter custody battle ever since. According to court documents and police videos, Moreno has accused Miller of holding a gun to her head; scalding her chest and stomach with hot water from a skillet; pushing her against a wall and hitting her head; and fracturing their daughter’s collarbone.
Moreno told police that after staying with Miller, the child said to her, “Daddy kill you.” Police records show prosecutors didn’t file charges after concluding there was “insufficient admissible evidence” to present to a grand jury.
In his livestream, Miller claimed without evidence that Moreno suffers from “significant mental health challenges”; blamed day care workers for his daughter’s injuries; and recited friendly-seeming messages as proof that Moreno had fabricated her accusations of abuse.
“If I had assaulted her, would she have offered to cook me dinner six days later?” Miller asked. He also noted that he has retained joint custody of his daughter after years of legal back and forth. “If these accusations were true, I would be in jail,” Miller argued.
On Monday, Miller’s attorney said that he accidentally posted a “sensitive” photo of Miller and Moreno’s daughter online as part of a large cache of documents meant to corroborate the claims Miller made on his livestream.
Speaking Tuesday to a scrum of reporters trailing him on Capitol Hill, Moreno said that he considers the uploading of such photos to be “a felony” and believes “every single human being [who] touched that photo and transmitted it electronically should go to jail, because it is illegal to do that.”
“This has been brutal beyond belief,” Moreno added. He then recalled that when he recently picked up his granddaughter from Miller at a local police station — “because I don’t know what this guy’s capable of” — Miller refused to “hand over [her] little blue bunny.”
“Literally held it hostage for 48 hours,” Moreno said. “This girl is crying at night because she can’t sleep without her little blue bunny. His answer is, ‘I’m just not going to give it to you.’ … This is the level of total and complete depravity.”
Midterm deadlines approaching
The elder Moreno’s decision to weigh in on Sunday — something he said he had long avoided because he had “hoped to keep this matter private” — is likely to increase pressure on Miller to step aside in the coming days.
With their narrow 218 to 215 majority in the House, Republicans can’t afford to lose more than two seats in November. If Miller withdraws by Wednesday, the GOP can trigger a special election for a new nominee. If he does not, a party committee still has until Aug. 10 to choose and certify a replacement.
After Aug. 10, however, Miller cannot be replaced — even if he ends up dropping out later.
How Trump and other Republicans have responded
In public, national Republicans have mostly sidestepped questions about the situation. Asked on Sunday evening if Miller should resign, Trump told reporters that “so far it’s accusations.” On Monday, he said, “I am going to let the families figure that out.”
“It’s a very sad thing,” Trump added. “He is a good person. I mean, I always thought he was a very good person.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson has maintained a similar position, saying the House Ethics Committee could eventually investigate, if necessary. “The key word there is ‘allegation,'” Johnson said last week. And Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio recently dismissed the Miller-Moreno dispute as a “family matter.”
“I know Max is a good man,” Jordan told CNN. “I hope he wins reelection.”
Potential political fallout
Yet the New York Times reported on Sunday that “Republicans in Mr. Trump’s orbit have said they are alarmed by Mr. Miller’s decision to go on the offensive against Ms. Moreno and are concerned about his re-election campaign.” Citing “a high-ranking Republican” source, the Associated Press reported that several potential replacements were already being discussed behind the scenes, including “State Rep. Mike Dovilla, a U.S. Navy veteran and former presidential appointee to the Office of Personnel Management, and Kevin Coughlin, a former state senator and representative who ran for the U.S. House in 2024 and 2026.” Axios added “former GOP state chair Jane Timken, a state senator with the capacity to self-fund a campaign,” is also being “floated by prominent Republicans as a potential replacement.”
A former Trump campaign staffer and White House appointee, Miller has represented Ohio’s 7th Congressional District, just south of Cleveland, since 2023. Trump enthusiastically endorsed Miller’s reelection bid in May, writing on social media that “HE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN!”
Trump won Miller’s district by 11 percentage points in 2024, 10 points in 2020 and 12 points in 2016. But according to the Times, internal Democratic and Republican polling shows Miller just one point ahead of his Democratic challenger, union ironworker Brian Poindexter — and those polls were conducted before Moreno issued his emotional denunciation on Sunday.
‘The last two years have been pure hell’
On Sunday, Moreno wrote that “the last two years have been pure hell for my wife Bridget, our daughter Emily, me, and our entire family.”
“As he has admitted privately, Max Miller needs serious psychological help,” Moreno continued. “He is a danger to my daughter, and I hold my breath every minute he has custody of my granddaughter.”
In response, Miller accused Moreno of playing politics with the timing of his statement. “If my daughter said the same thing to me, I personally wouldn’t wait two years before holding him accountable,” Miller wrote on X. “This is all political.”
Emily Moreno is not the first woman to accuse Miller of abuse. In her 2021 memoir, former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham wrote that she dated a fellow administration figure who had been abusive. She later acknowledged that she had been referring to Miller. Miller denied Grisham’s claims and sued for defamation before dropping the case as part of a 2023 settlement. Last month, Grisham sued Miller, arguing that his recent public statements had violated the terms of their settlement.
On Sunday, a spokesman for Emily Moreno accused Miller of “desperately try[ing] to save his political career.”
“Miller can lie and spin on X, but he cannot do so under oath in a court of law,” the spokesman wrote on social media. “We are confident that justice will prevail in court.”
For anyone affected by abuse and needing support, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or if you’re unable to speak safely, you can log onto thehotline.org or text LOVEIS to 22522.
