After Kristi Noem’s Senate hearing this week, President Donald Trump called up Republican Sen. John Kennedy in a rage.
“He was mad as a murder hornet,” the Louisiana senator told The Independent and other reporters Thursday. “I remember thinking that the secretary’s pretty much as dead as fried chicken,” he told another gaggle of reporters.
The outgoing Homeland Security Secretary was already hanging by a thread, but the final nail in the coffin came this week during combative congressional testimony, where the Louisiana senator played a leading role.
During two days of blistering criticism from both Democrats and Republicans, Noem said Trump had signed off on a multimillion-dollar ad campaign (a claim that reportedly “incensed” the president and prompted him to deny it publicly), rebuffed attempts to directly address allegations of an improper relationship with her top adviser, and refused to apologize for falsely labeling two American citizens slain by federal agents operating under the DHS umbrella as domestic terrorists.
Noem made history Thursday as the first Cabinet secretary ousted in Trump's second term, but many were left unsurprised; the writing had been on the wall for months.
“Replacing Kristi was based on the culmination of her many unfortunate leadership failures including the fallout in Minnesota, the ad campaign, the allegations of infidelity, the mismanagement of her staff, and her constant feuding with the heads of other agencies, including CBP and ICE,” a Trump administration official told The Atlantic.
Noem will become “special envoy” for a little-known security initiative called “The Shield of the Americas,” while Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin has been tapped to replace her.
It has been quite the fall from grace for Noem, who at one point was being considered by Trump as his running mate in the 2024 presidential election, according to The Atlantic. Her name was crossed off the list of contenders over her admission in a memoir that she shot her own puppy.
Trump actually viewed the outrageous act as “an asset” and it was one of the reasons he tapped Noem to head up Homeland Security instead, according to an excerpt of an upcoming book about the meltdown at the department under her tenure.
She was chastised over the dog killing in the congressional hearings this week, which ultimately proved to be “water boiling over the edge of the pot” for Trump, as one Republican senator put it to NBC News.
Here The Independent looks back at Noem’s chaotic 13-month tenure as the Department of Homeland Security chief.
Minnesota crackdown and branding slain US citizens ‘domestic terrorists’
Minneapolis became the focal point of Trump’s immigration crackdown late last year after Homeland Security deployed thousands of federal agents to the Minnesota city. In January, those operations turned deadly when agents fatally shot two U.S. citizens: mother of three Renee Good on Jan. 7 and Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse, on Jan. 24.
Trump-aligned Kennedy joined Democrats Tuesday in trying to get Noem to answer why she would baselessly accuse Good and Pretti of domestic terrorism after her officers shot them at point-blank range.
Noem refused to back down and apologize for falsely labeling the American citizens as domestic terrorists, a move which saw her sidelined at the time by Trump. He sent his border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota to “clean up the mess,” The Atlantic reported.
“The fact you can’t admit to a mistake — which looks like, under investigation, is going to prove that Ms. Good and Mr. Pretti probably should not have been shot in the face and in the back,” Republican Sen. Thom Tillis also chimed in.
There was no love lost between Noem and Democratic leaders in Minnesota following her ouster, with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey declaring, “Good riddance.”
More broadly, Noem’s handling of Trump’s immigration crackdown has drawn significant scrutiny.
Under her leadership, the proportion of ICE detainees without criminal convictions has skyrocketed, contradicting the administration’s pledge to target the “worst of the worst.” Upwards of 170 American citizens have been taken into custody, and more than 200 Venezuelan migrants were deported to El Salvador's brutal CECOT prison.
Critics have also accused ICE agents of exhibiting reckless behavior, relying on racial discrimination and receiving minimal training — allegations the agency has rebuffed.
In February, as criticism intensified, DHS's independent watchdog said it launched multiple probes into ICE operations, including hiring practices, expedited removals, use-of-force and detention conditions.
During a congressional hearing this week, Tillis cited the investigations as proof of Noem's leadership failures, comparing her missteps to her shocking anecdote about killing her own puppy.
Rumored affair with top adviser Lewandowski
For months, Noem has been dogged by allegations that she has maintained an inappropriate relationship with Corey Lewandowski, her top adviser and a longtime Trump ally who worked as a special government employee at Homeland Security.
Lewandowski initially wanted to serve as Noem’s chief of staff, but it was struck down by Trump out of concern over rumors of a romantic relationship between the pair, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Both are married to other people, but according to reports the alleged affair was the “worst-kept secret in D.C,” according to New York Magazine. They have both denied the rumors, but Noem refused to directly answer questions about the alleged romance during a House Judiciary Committee hearing this week.
Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, a California Democrat, asked Noem point blank if she ever had a “sexual” relationship with Lewandowski.
Noem, whose husband awkwardly sat behind her during the hearing, leaving just before that line of questioning, refused to answer directly.
“I am shocked we’re peddling tabloid garbage in this committee,” she said.
Noem continued to fend off the questions about Lewandowski, and accused Democrats of attacking conservative women.
“You say that we're either stupid or we're sluts. That's what you do,” she replied to Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz of Florida.
“And I will tell you sir, I will tell you sir, I am neither of those.”
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Scrutiny over spending on DHS ad campaign contracts
Trump said he “wasn’t thrilled” with Noem’s decision to splurge $220 million on a DHS advertising campaign last February, which used public funds and featured video of her riding on horseback in front of Mount Rushmore. “Break our laws, we’ll punish you,” Noem says in the ad.
“I wasn’t thrilled with it. I spent less money than that to become president. I didn’t know about it,” Trump told NBC News just hours after firing Noem.
It was Noem’s claim that Trump signed off on the campaign that left him “incensed.”
During Senate testimony this week, she told Kennedy that Trump knew about her decision to approve the ad campaign contracts.
“The president approved ahead of time you spending $220 million running TV ads across the country?” Kennedy asked Noem at the hearing.
“Yes, sir,” Noem replied. “We went through the legal processes, did it correctly.”
When pressed again whether the president knew Noem was going ahead, she replied, “Yes.”
Shortly before announcing Noem was getting the ax, the president told Reuters that he “never knew anything about it.”
Much of the money for the campaign was paid to a company connected to Noem’s own spokesperson, though Noem has said she was not involved in picking contractors.
And in October, Noem raised eyebrows when the DHS purchased a pair of luxury jets worth about $172 million. Months later, the department made plans to buy a third plane for about $70 million that would be used for deportations and travel for Cabinet officials, a move that horrified top administration officials, according to Axios.
“What kind of deportee justifies being flown out of the country in a luxury jet with a bedroom and accommodations like this?” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, asked Noem this week. She responded that, by purchasing the aircraft, she was in fact saving American taxpayers’ money.
“You’re treating the billions of dollars our GOP colleagues gave your department like a personal slush fund,” added Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, told Noem on Wednesday.
Focus on burnishing public image and dubbed ‘Cosplay Kristi’
The newly ousted secretary also has gained a reputation for self-promotion, frequently appearing on television and at press events in eye-catching attire, including tactical gear and cowboy hats, leading critics to dub her the “ICE Barbie” and “Cosplay Kristi.”
While in office, she closely kept track of how her “national profile compared with other administration officials” and “routinely berated staff if she saw Homan on TV,” according to The Wall Street Journal. A DHS spokesperson refuted this claim.
During one notable photo-op in March, Noem wore a gold Rolex watch while visiting El Salvador’s CECOT prison. She posed in front of prisoners, who stood stone-faced while she recorded a video for social media.
Gutting FEMA
On top of everything else, Noem implemented strict oversight of operations at the FEMA, creating bottlenecks in aid distribution.
In June, she mandated that all agency spending above $100,000 receive her personal approval to curb “waste, fraud, and abuse,” according to The New York Times. The directive, however, caused delays in distributing more than $15 billion in disaster relief funds to states reeling from natural disasters.
The Washington Post also reported in January that Noem planned to slash the number of FEMA disaster responders by half in 2026. An agency spokesperson said it is not implementing a “percentage-based workforce reduction.”
— with reporting from Eric Garcia in Washington, DC
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