US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem takes her seat as she arrives for a House Judiciary Committee hearing on oversight of the Department of Homeland Security on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on March 4, 2026. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP via Getty Images)BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
U.S. President Donald Trump has fired Kristi Noem as secretary of homeland security amid mounting public disapproval of his signature mass deportation program and a contretemps over a US$220-million taxpayer-funded advertising campaign in which she starred.
Ms. Noem has been embattled for months, after she sought to justify two deadly shootings of U.S. citizens by immigration agents and faced accusations of needlessly slowing down federal disaster responses, both policy areas under her purview.
She also took flak for the way she managed her department, including using public funds for the television ads – some of which were produced by a company run by the husband of one of her top aides – and to purchase luxury jets.
Mr. Trump announced the move in a Truth Social post Thursday, in which he said Ms. Noem would become special envoy for “The Shield of the Americas,” a Western Hemisphere security plan he is expected to unveil Saturday. He said he would nominate Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin to replace her.
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Ms. Noem is the first cabinet member to be shown the door in Mr. Trump’s second term − a sharp contrast with his first administration, which saw high turnover.
There was no indication that the change would mark any scaling back of the President’s plan to round up and deport millions of immigrants. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is in the process of buying up at least 20 warehouses across the country to use them as detention centres.
But Mr. Trump may be hoping that shaking up the top of the department can reverse the slide in public support for his top domestic policy. A Reuters/Ipsos poll this week found that just 38 per cent of respondents approved of the President’s handling of immigration, down from 50 per cent shortly after he returned to office last year.
Under Ms. Noem, ICE arrests grew nearly fivefold to more than 1,200 per day, according to a tracking project by Syracuse University. Officers have drawn opprobrium for their tactics, including smashing up cars, going door-to-door in Latino communities looking for people to arrest, entering homes without warrants and pepper-spraying both immigrants and protesters attempting to disrupt ICE operations in their communities.
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During their single largest operation, in Minneapolis in January, federal agents gunned down U.S. citizens Renée Nicole Macklin Good and Alex Pretti in separate incidents. In the case of Ms. Macklin Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, Ms. Noem accused her of “domestic terrorism” at the time. Of Mr. Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive-care nurse for the Department of Veterans Affairs, she falsely said he had “attacked” officers, but video of his death showed no such thing.
At a Senate committee hearing this week, Ms. Noem described protesters as “violent terrorists.”
She came under fire from senators for the pricey advertising campaign, which featured her riding a horse around South Dakota, of which she was previously governor, and praising Mr. Trump. Some of the spots were produced by the Strategy Group, a company whose CEO, Benjamin Yoho, is married to Tricia McLaughlin, Ms. Noem’s spokesperson at the time.
“How do you square your concern for waste, which I share, with the fact you spent US$220-million running television advertisements that feature you prominently?” Senator John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, asked. When Ms. Noem replied that the ads were “effective,” Mr. Kennedy shot back that they were “effective in your name recognition.”
Ms. Noem repeatedly said Mr. Trump had approved the spending. But the President denied this Thursday. “I never knew anything about it,” he told the Reuters news agency by phone hours before ousting Ms. Noem.
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It was not the first time Ms. Noem landed in hot water over contracting. Last July, she was accused of contributing to the slow response to Texas floods that killed 135 people by requiring that every Federal Emergency Management Agency contract worth more than US$100,000 be directly signed off on by her.
Contracts Ms. Noem did approve last year include nearly US$172-million to buy two Gulfstream G700 luxury jets for herself and other Department of Homeland Security brass. The department is also leasing a Boeing 737 that it plans to buy.
She also drew both mockery and ire for her frequent photo-ops, in which she donned various law enforcement uniforms.
Ms. Noem speaks during a press conference near the border wall between the US and Mexico in Nogales, Arizona, on Feb. 4.OLIVIER TOURON/AFP/Getty Images
In one video last April, she posed with two ICE agents in Phoenix while appearing to inadvertently point an assault rifle at the face of one of the men. In another, she stood in front of a large group of inmates at a prison in El Salvador that has been accused of torturing detainees.
Ms. Noem faced further scrutiny over her relationship with Corey Lewandowski, Mr. Trump’s initial 2016 campaign manager. Although Mr. Lewandowski was nominally working as a short-term volunteer at the Department of Homeland Security, he effectively functioned as Ms. Noem’s top aide.
A Wall Street Journal story last month reported that she and Mr. Lewandowski had berated subordinates and subjected them to lie-detector tests to stop media leaks. In one incident, the newspaper said, Mr. Lewandowski fired a Coast Guard pilot for forgetting to transfer Ms. Noem’s blanket when she had to switch planes.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem will leave her role in a major staffing move that raises questions about the direction of President Donald Trump's immigration agenda.
Reuters
Ms. Noem is only the second top official to be replaced in Mr. Trump’s second administration. The other, Mike Waltz, was fired last May after inadvertently adding a journalist to a Signal group in which top-secret military plans were discussed. Mr. Waltz is now the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Mr. Mullin, a former mixed martial arts fighter and plumbing company owner, was elected to the Senate in 2022 and previously spent a decade in the House of Representatives.
At a committee hearing in 2023, he challenged Teamsters president Sean O’Brien to a fight over attempts to unionize one of Mr. Mullin’s former businesses.
“We can finish it here,” Mr. Mullin told Mr. O’Brien. “Stand your butt up.”
“I’d love to do it right now,” Mr. O’Brien said.
As Mr. Mullin rose from his chair, Senator Bernie Sanders intervened: “You’re a United States senator. Sit down.”