Okristi Noem performed “Sizzling Mama” because the walk-up music for her formal introduction on the Division of Homeland Safety headquarters in January 2025. President Trump had put her accountable for his signature marketing campaign promise—the most important mass-deportation marketing campaign in U.S. historical past—and Noem took a quick, flashy method to the job. She dressed as a Border Patrol agent and an ICE officer, and rode horseback at Mount Rushmore in advertisements. She flew to El Salvador and posed in entrance of a jail cell full of tattooed inmates. She made no apologies for aggressive enforcement techniques on American streets, even people who doubtless broke the regulation, or for the deaths of two U.S. residents who opposed her method.
But it surely wasn’t the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis earlier this 12 months that lastly value Noem her job at this time, making her the primary ousted Cupboard secretary of Trump’s second time period. As an alternative, it was her self-promotion.
Noem’s standing was already shaky when she went to Capitol Hill to testify this week. On Tuesday, Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, a Republican, requested whether or not Trump himself had authorised Noem’s $220 million advert marketing campaign that featured her urging migrants to self-deport. Noem mentioned sure, and defended the advertisements as “efficient.”
The advertisements “have been efficient in your identify recognition,” Kennedy advised Noem, saying that she put Trump “in a very awkward spot.” He was implying the fee of a cardinal sin for a Trump Cupboard member: searching for to outshine the president. Kennedy advised reporters at this time that he had spoken with Trump. “Her model of the reality and the president’s model of the reality are decidedly completely different,” Kennedy mentioned.
Noem had been saying for greater than a 12 months that the concept for the advertisements got here from Trump himself. However with public opinion souring on Trump’s mass deportations, the messaging marketing campaign that Noem touted as a hit—and the no-bid contracts behind it—had come underneath suspicion from lawmakers. An individual conversant in the choice to fireplace Noem advised us that the president was upset about her try to move the blame for the advert marketing campaign onto him, and for her equivocation on the questions on her alleged romantic relationship with Corey Lewandowski, who has been working at DHS as her de facto chief of employees.
“Changing Kristi was primarily based on the end result of her many unlucky management failures together with the fallout in Minnesota, the advert marketing campaign, the allegations of infidelity, the mismanagement of her employees, and her fixed feuding with the heads of different companies, together with CBP and ICE,” one administration official who requested anonymity texted us. “Kristi’s drama sadly overshadowed and distracted from the Administration’s extraordinarily fashionable immigration agenda, which can proceed full drive.”
The White Home declined to remark.
Some Republicans had urged the president to not do away with Noem till subsequent month, after the submitting deadline for candidates in her dwelling state of South Dakota. Allies of Senate Majority Chief John Thune and members of Trump’s political workforce have been nervous that Noem would collect the required signatures to announce a marketing campaign for the U.S. Senate or the U.S. Home later this 12 months—and thus create a messy main contest.
Trump clearly couldn’t wait that lengthy, however he added a provision halfway by the Fact Social put up saying Noem’s departure: Her transition out of the workplace would happen on March 31, 2026—the identical day because the submitting deadline. Trump mentioned Noem will then serve in a newly created special-envoy function for a White Home initiative known as the “Protect of the Americas,” and promised to offer extra particulars at an occasion in Doral, Florida, on Saturday.
Noem has been preventing to maintain her job ever since federal officers shot and killed Pretti on January 24. All of the sudden there have been requires Noem to be faraway from workplace not simply amongst Democrats however amongst some Republicans. Trump eliminated her from overseeing deportation efforts in Minnesota and despatched Tom Homan, his “border czar,” to take over DHS operations there and clear up the mess. Homan and Noem are political rivals.
White Home advisers have been upset that Noem, 9 days after the capturing, introduced that each one federal brokers in Minneapolis would start sporting physique cameras and that the coverage would increase throughout the nation as funding grew to become accessible. This was a central demand of Democrats, who have been then threatening to not fund DHS, however Noem had not tied the concession to the continuing negotiations. Later, White Home aides grew involved when Noem’s workforce signaled that it might be receptive to a unbroken decision to fund her division, despite the fact that the White Home needed a brand new invoice. (On the time, an aide to Noem denied that the secretary supported persevering with funding for the division at beforehand set ranges.)
One Trump adviser mused to us that the sustained Democratic assaults on Noem have been truly one of many few issues serving to her keep in her job, as a result of the president didn’t wish to reward his political enemies along with her dismissal.
One other nagging concern for the White Home was Noem’s private {and professional} relationship with Lewandowski, her alleged paramour. After the 2024 election, Lewandowski had angled to turn into Noem’s chief of employees, solely to face pushback from the president, who nervous concerning the reviews of their romantic involvement. (Each have denied any improper relationship.) He joined the division as an alternative as a particular authorities worker.
The association didn’t stop rumors from spreading, nevertheless, and turning into a significant distraction for the division. Noem’s acquisition of latest DHS plane—and use of a luxurious jet with a bed room—introduced extra scrutiny to their relationship. Through the hearings this week, Democratic lawmakers tried to drive Noem to disclaim underneath oath any sexual relationship with Lewandowski. She refused to reply immediately, dismissing the questions as “tabloid rubbish.” Seated behind Noem was her husband.
Lewandowski is predicted to depart DHS with Noem on the finish of the month, in line with a senior division official who was not licensed to debate the transition. Noem’s spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, left final month amid bipartisan criticism of DHS’s resolution to accuse Good and Pretti of “home terrorism.”
On the identical day that Trump took away Noem’s authority in Minnesota, the secretary spent greater than an hour within the Oval Workplace with the president, hoping to win again his favor. One focus of that assembly was Noem’s continued frustrations with the tempo of the border wall’s building, which she blamed on Customs and Border Safety Commissioner Rodney Scott. The transfer appeared to purchase her a while, and within the week that adopted, Trump privately and publicly praised her management of DHS.
Noem had lengthy described her relationship with the president as an in depth one. She advised the viewers at a Conservative Political Motion Committee dinner in February 2025 that it was Trump’s thought to have her play the lead function in an advert blitz that the division had launched earlier that month. “We had a number of conferences throughout the transition, speaking about it,” Noem mentioned. She had beforehand appeared in advertisements for the group FreedomWorks that had impressed the president, Noem advised the viewers.
“These lovely advertisements you probably did about South Dakota,” Noem mentioned Trump advised her. “That they had Mount Rushmore. I would like you to do these for the border.” In response to Noem, Trump directed her to launch a “advertising marketing campaign” that might “be sure the American individuals know the reality of what you’re doing.”
Trump advised Noem he didn’t wish to seem within the advertisements. “He mentioned: Nope, nope. I would like you within the advertisements. And I would like your face within the advertisements,” Noem advised the viewers, including that Trump instructed her concerning the first advert: “I would like you to thank me. I would like you to thank me for closing the border.”
“They may run all through the world,” Noem mentioned Trump advised her, “letting America and the world realize it has a brand new chief.” On Thursday, Trump advised Reuters that he had nothing to do with the advert marketing campaign: “I by no means knew something about it.”
It’s unclear how Trump’s succession plan at DHS will play out over the subsequent few weeks. The president, in a Fact Social put up at this time, mentioned he would set up Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma as the brand new secretary, however Mullin should be confirmed by his friends. The deputy-secretary place at DHS is vacant, and the official subsequent in line to take over as appearing secretary is Rob Legislation, the undersecretary for technique, coverage, and plans. However DHS might change its order of succession to put in a unique official.
Mullin mustn’t have bother profitable a majority vote; Senate Republicans shortly issued statements supporting his nomination, as did at the very least one Democrat, Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania. Though the bipartisan want to see Noem depart could possibly be an incentive to substantiate Mullin shortly, his nomination listening to will give Democrats a possibility to press him to publicly decide to a number of the modifications to ICE operations that they’re searching for as a part of negotiations over DHS funding.
By selecting Mullin, Trump can be taking one in all his prime congressional loyalists out of the Senate. Mullin performed a outstanding function in shepherding a number of of the president’s Cupboard picks to affirmation in the beginning of his second time period. Whether or not Mullin’s successor within the Senate will again the president as staunchly is unclear: Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt, a Republican whom Trump derided final month as a “RINO,” or “Republican in identify solely,” will appoint a substitute to serve till a particular election is held. Underneath Oklahoma regulation, the interim senator can’t be a candidate in that race.
Noem thanked the president for appointing her to the brand new place and, in an announcement, rattled by her achievements throughout her 13-month stint. “We now have made historic accomplishments on the Division of Homeland Safety to make America protected once more,” she mentioned.
Inside the division, Noem’s ouster was celebrated by some who considered her as a self-promoter who ran the division erratically. One official put it this solution to us: “A number of joyful individuals right here at this time.”
