Okristi Title performed “Scorching Mama” because the walk-up track for her formal introduction on the Division of Homeland Safety headquarters in January 2025. President Trump had put her in control of his signature marketing campaign promise—the biggest 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 ways on American streets, even people who seemingly broke the legislation, or for the deaths of two U.S. residents who opposed her method.
However it wasn’t the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis earlier this 12 months that lastly value Noem her job right this moment, 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 accredited 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 informed Noem, saying that she put Trump “in a really awkward spot.” He was implying the fee of a cardinal sin for a Trump Cupboard member: in search of to outshine the president. Kennedy informed reporters right this moment that he had spoken with Trump. “Her model of the reality and the president’s model of the reality are decidedly totally 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 successful—and the no-bid contracts behind it—had come below suspicion from lawmakers. An individual accustomed to the choice to fireplace Noem informed us that the president was upset about her try to cross 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 businesses, 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 standard immigration agenda, which can proceed full pressure.”
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 house state of South Dakota. Allies of Senate Majority Chief John Thune and members of Trump’s political group have been frightened that Noem would collect the mandatory 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 major contest.
Trump clearly couldn’t wait that lengthy, however he added a provision halfway via the Reality Social submit asserting 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 referred to as the “Protect of the Americas,” and promised to provide extra particulars at an occasion in Doral, Florida, on Saturday.
Noem has been combating 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 every one federal brokers in Minneapolis would start carrying physique cameras and that the coverage would broaden throughout the nation as funding turned 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 group signaled that it could 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 need to reward his political enemies together with her dismissal.
One other nagging difficulty for the White Home was Noem’s private {and professional} relationship with Lewandowski, her alleged paramour. After the 2024 election, Lewandowski had angled to develop into Noem’s chief of employees, solely to face pushback from the president, who frightened concerning the stories of their romantic involvement. (Each have denied any improper relationship.) He joined the division as a substitute as a particular authorities worker.
The association didn’t forestall rumors from spreading, nevertheless, and turning into a significant distraction for the division. Noem’s acquisition of recent DHS plane—and use of a luxurious jet with a bed room—introduced further scrutiny to their relationship. In the course of the hearings this week, Democratic lawmakers tried to pressure Noem to disclaim below 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 go away DHS with Noem on the finish of the month, in line with a senior division official who was not approved to debate the transition. Noem’s spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, left final month amid bipartisan criticism of DHS’s choice 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 development, 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 a detailed one. She informed 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 through the transition, speaking about it,” Noem mentioned. She had beforehand appeared in advertisements for the group FreedomWorks that had impressed the president, Noem informed the viewers.
“These lovely advertisements you probably did about South Dakota,” Noem mentioned Trump informed her. “They’d Mount Rushmore. I would like you to do these for the border.” In response to Noem, Trump directed her to launch a “advertising and marketing marketing campaign” that might “make sure that the American individuals know the reality of what you’re doing.”
Trump informed Noem he didn’t need 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 informed 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 are going to run all through the world,” Noem mentioned Trump informed her, “letting America and the world realize it has a brand new chief.” On Thursday, Trump informed 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 Reality Social submit right this moment, 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 performing 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 hassle successful a majority vote; Senate Republicans shortly issued statements supporting his nomination, as did a minimum of one Democrat, Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania. Though the bipartisan want to see Noem go away could possibly be an incentive to verify Mullin shortly, his nomination listening to will give Democrats a possibility to press him to publicly decide to a few of the adjustments to ICE operations that they’re in search of as a part of negotiations over DHS funding.
By selecting Mullin, Trump can also be taking one in all his high congressional loyalists out of the Senate. Mullin performed a outstanding function in shepherding a number of of the president’s Cupboard picks to affirmation initially 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. Beneath Oklahoma legislation, 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 a press release, rattled via her achievements throughout her 13-month stint. “We have now 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 method to us: “A lot of completely satisfied individuals right here right this moment.”
