South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, President-elect Donald Trump’s reported pick to serve as the next Homeland Security secretary, has had her fair share of controversies, from shooting her dog to a disputed claim regarding a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The Department of Homeland Security oversees the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, making the department one of the most important in Trump’s efforts to deport millions of undocumented immigrants from the US.
Noem was elected governor in 2018 and won re-election in 2022.
Here’s a rundown of her controversies and bizarre moments:
Shooting Cricket
She was seen as one of the top contenders to be Trump’s running mate until excerpts from her book No Going Back were published, in which she wrote about shooting her 14-month-old dog Cricket, arguing that it was “untrainable.”
The excerpts were published in April of this year by The Guardian. She wrote that she decided “put down” the dog after it attacked a family’s chickens before it “whipped around to bite me.”
“I realized I had to put her down,” Noem wrote, adding that she “hated that dog.”
Former Republican House Speaker and presidential candidate Newt Gingrich told Politico that “illing the dog and then writing about it ended any possibility of her being picked” as Trump’s running mate.
Appearing on Fox News after widespread criticism, Noem claimed that she made the decision to kill Cricket as a mother fearing for the safety of her children.
“You know, that story was a choice as a mom. The safety of my children versus a dangerous dog that was killing livestock and attacking people,” she said.
Claiming to have met Kim Jong Un
The press got ahold of an early version of No Going Back which included the claim that Noem met with Kim Jong Un.
“I remember when I met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. I’m sure he underestimated me, having no clue about my experience staring down little tyrants (I’d been a children’s pastor, after all),” she wrote, according to The New York Times. “Dealing with foreign leaders takes resolve, preparation, and determination.”
After the account was questioned, a spokesperson for Noem said that the story shouldn’t have been included and that it would be removed before it was published, according to Newsweek.
In May, Noem was asked by CBS if she had met the authoritarian North Korean leader.
“I’m not going to talk about my specific meetings with world leaders, I’m just not going to do that,” she said at the time. “This anecdote shouldn’t have been in the book and as soon as it was brought to my attention, I made sure that was adjusted.”
She also stated in her book that she had been set to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron but she said she declined to go through with the meeting after he made what she thought was “a very pro-Hamas and anti-Israel comment to the press.”
While Noem was in Paris in November last year for the Worldwide Freedom Initiative conference, her claim of having been set to meet Macron was refuted by the Élysée Palace.
Dancing with Trump at Pennsylvania town hall
Noem hosted a town hall event with Trump in Oaks, Pennsylvania on October 14. However, not long after she began asking the former president softball questions, Trump had had enough.
About 30 minutes had passed of the event when a medical emergency in the audience interrupted proceedings. Another medical emergency soon followed.
Instead of getting back on track, Trump asked his staff to start playing his campaign playlist as he began to sway to the music. After the second medical emergency was resolved, Trump requested some air conditioning at the venue. Noem attempted to make a joke about inflation, saying, “They probably can’t afford it, sir.”
Five questions had been asked when Trump decided enough was enough.
“Let’s not do any more questions. Let’s just listen to music,” he said. “Let’s make it into a music – who the hell wants to hear questions, right?”
For almost 40 minutes, Trump swayed on the stage, with Noem attempting to sway along, looking as if she had no idea what to do amid the bizarre proceedings.
Being banned from Tribal Lands amid cartel claims
After claiming that some of them had been infiltrated by drug cartels, Noem was banned from the lands of all nine of South Dakota’s Native American tribes this year, Newsweek noted.
In January, during a joint session of the state legislature, Noem said: “Make no mistake, the cartels have a presence on several of South Dakota’s tribal reservations ... They have been successful in recruiting tribal members to join their criminal activity.”
“We’ve got some tribal leaders that I believe are personally benefiting from the cartels being there, and that’s why they attack me every day,” she added in March.
Oglala Sioux Tribe President Frank Star Comes Out told the AP that “our people are being used for her political gain.”
In May, Noem told CNN: “I only want to speak truth to the real challenges that are being faced in some areas of Indian Country.”
