USA Today reports: The White House has posted inaccurate texts of President Trump’s own executive orders on the White House website, raising further questions about how thorough the Trump administration has been in drafting some of his most controversial actions.

A USA TODAY review of presidential documents found at least five cases where the version posted on the White House website doesn’t match the official version sent to the Federal Register. The differences include minor grammatical changes, missing words and paragraph renumbering — but also two cases where the original text referred to inaccurate or non-existent provisions of law.

By law, the Federal Register version is the legally controlling language. But it can often take several days for the order to be published, meaning that the public must often rely on what the White House puts out — and that’s sometimes inaccurate.[Continue reading…]

Stephen Miller, who is reported to be a leading author of many of Trump’s executive orders, expressed a commonly voiced frustration during an interview with George Stephanopoulos on Sunday.

In all walks of life, everyone has heard and many often also used the retort, that’s not what I meant, when challenged on something they said.

Stephanopoulos questioned Miller on the wording of the executive order (widely understood as a Muslim ban), to which Miller responded that the meaning of the order was already clear as though that renders the actual wording of the order of secondary importance.

Miller’s excuse for his own sloppiness probably explains why the White House is posting inaccurate versions of the orders.

STEPHANOPOULOS: I know you hope to prevail. But you haven’t prevailed yet. And a lot of your allies think the best move would be to replace the current executive order with a new one that exempts legal permanent residents and visa holders who’ve already been admitted to the country.

Are you thinking along these lines?

MILLER: Well, the existing order does exempt legal permanent residents. And legal permanent residents were not subject to the travel restrictions.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, that was the guidance put out by the White House counsel. It wasn’t — it wasn’t formally —

MILLER: Well, it was the guidance put out by the White House counsel because that was the meaning of the executive order.

Maybe henceforth Trump can dispense with his ritual of showing off the texts of his executive orders and instead refer all inquiries to Miller who will explain their true meaning. Indeed, if it’s Miller rather than Trump, the texts or judicial interpretations of these texts, who is the arbiter of their meaning, then perhaps they should no longer be referred to as executive orders but instead as Miller’s orders.