ICE, luxury jets, an 'affair' and a dead puppy: the downfall of Kristi Noem - The Times

In President Trump’s first term, the White House experienced the highest turnover of senior-level positions in modern presidential history. He got through four chiefs of staff and multiple cabinet members. Veteran DC journalists recall fondly that in any given week, there would always be someone hacked off that they could find to criticise the administration.

By comparison, the second term has been relatively stable. So the axing of Kristi Noem as homeland security secretary marks the first major departure of the second term. While Trump moved his national security adviser Mike Waltz to the United Nations brief last year following “Signal-gate” (when an Atlantic journalist was accidentally added to a cabinet-level chat about airstrikes on the Houthis), Noem is the first member of the cabinet to go.

For many in Washington, it has been a question of when, not if. The Republican, 54, who earned the nickname “ICE Barbie”, has been the talk of Washington in recent months thanks to allegations of unreasonable work demands, questions about her personal life and problems in her department. While Noem has a new job — special envoy for the Shield of the Americas — this is being read as a clear demotion and one that many of her critics have been hoping for for some time.

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So, how did Noem fall foul of the White House? Trump picks his cabinet in part for their aesthetics, and their ability to perform well on TV and Noem was famed for never missing a photo op as she tried to impress. But her hunger for publicity also contributed to her demotion.

Under Noem’s watch, $220 million of taxpayers’ money was spent on an advertising campaign for border security that prominently featured footage of her on horseback, dressed as a “cowgirl”, in front of Mount Rushmore.

Then there was the question of corruption following claims that firms awarded public money by Noem’s department were connected to the Republican Party. One was run by the husband of her chief spokesperson at the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin (who is also stepping down).

In an appearance on Capitol Hill this month, Noem was asked about the advertising campaign. The Republican senator Thomas Tillis told her: “We’re an exceptional nation, and one of the reasons we’re exceptional is we expect exceptional leadership. And you have demonstrated anything but that.”

A bigger error politically was being out of lockstep with the president. During the testy hearing, Noem told Senator John Kennedy, under oath, that the president had approved the $220 million taxpayer-funded campaign to boost her national profile. The president told Reuters: “I never knew anything about it.”

There’s a reason why Noem may have desired a push for good PR — something she has struggled for throughout her career.

In recent months, she has drawn negative headlines for using border funds for a multi-million-dollar jet fleet. There are rumours she is romantically involved with Corey Lewandowski, who is married and acts as Noem’s de facto chief of staff. When Noem was asked recently whether she had been having an affair with her adviser, she dismissed the claims as tabloid garbage.

Asked if he knew the reasons for Noem’s departure, Lewandowski told The New York Post on Thursday: “You’re asking me to speculate on things that I have no insight into.”

Lewandowski is a long-term acquaintance of the president but is reviled by many White House staff. He joined midway through the 2024 presidential campaign and quickly butted heads with the official campaign chiefs, Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita. At an event when the scale of Trump’s victory was becoming clear, Lewandowski tried to congratulate LaCivita only to be told: “F*** you, f*** you and f*** you. You have fed with the wrong person. I’m going to fing destroy you.”

So Noem’s decision to associate closely with him and bring him into her department put her on a collision course with key Trump allies.

The pair’s reported antics, too, became a source of embarrassment for the administration. The Wall Street Journal reported that Lewandowski tried to fire a pilot for misplacing Noem’s blanket, only to have to renege on his threat when they realised there was no one else to go in the driving seat.

Noem has long been viewed as a potential wild card. She had initially hoped for a more senior role in Trump’s second term: as vice-president. However, her bid backfired when she brought out a book intended to position her for the role.

In an attempt to show that she was the type of politician able to do anything “difficult, messy and ugly” if it needed to be done, the then South Dakota governor shared the story of her puppy, Cricket.

Cricket proved to be hard to train. The wirehair pointer had an “aggressive personality” and needed training to join hunts. It proved hard to do and Noem concluded, however, that Cricket was “untrainable” and decided she “hated that dog” who was “dangerous to anyone she came in contact with” and was “less than worthless … as a hunting dog”. The natural conclusion? To put her down. Noem decided to shoot her: “It was not a pleasant job, but it had to be done.” She also killed a male goat that she deemed “nasty and mean”.

To a nation of pet lovers, Noem’s confessions were seen less as inspiring than concerning. But Noem’s biggest sin in the White House’s eyes may actually come down to competence. While the hearing proved to be the final straw, concerns over the handling of her department have grown in recent months.

The immigration crackdown was initially Trump’s proudest domestic achievement, contrasting the drastic reduction in border crossings with Joe Biden’s record. But the mood has shifted as Republicans have raised concerns over the tone, and a feeling that the crackdown had moved on from targeting thugs the citizens wanted out to target valued members of the community.

This escalated early this year when two Americans were killed in separate incidents in Minnesota while protesting against raids by ICE. Noem found herself in hot water when she claimed one of the deceased, Alex Pretti, wanted to “kill” agents and committed “an act of domestic terrorism”.

This set off a blame game that eventually had Noem and Ledowski hauled in to the White House. It didn’t go unnoticed that Noem’s less showy rival, Tom Homan, was then called in to clear up the mess on the ground in Minnesota.

Noem will be replaced by the less colourful Oklahoma Republican senator Markwayne Mullin. That allows for a reset on an issue that will be central to Republican campaigning in the mid-term elections and beyond.