Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Hamed Aleaziz
The display of a Rolex at a notorious prison in El Salvador. A self-promotional advertising campaign for mass deportations. The lingering story of the killing of her dog.
Kristi Noem never appeared able – or particularly keen – to step out of the spotlight during her time leading the Department of Homeland Security. But even for a White House familiar with political crises, Noem’s streak of controversies, handling of government funding and flair for theatrics might have proved too much for President Donald Trump.
On Thursday, Trump announced on social media that he was firing Noem, and that he had selected Senator Markwayne Mullin, a Republican from Oklahoma, to replace her.
The decision capped an embattled two-year arc for the former governor of South Dakota, in which she went from a contender for vice president to the first Cabinet member to be ousted from Trump’s second stint in the White House.
Under Noem’s leadership, the Department of Homeland Security made progress on some of Trump’s core campaign promises, including his effort to bring illegal crossings at the southern border to historic lows.
“The American people and our posterity are better off today, tomorrow, and for generations to come because of Secretary Noem’s dedication to public service,” the department posted on social media Thursday.
Noem wrote on the social platform X on Thursday that “we have made historic accomplishments at the Department of Homeland Security to make America safe again.”
But a number of episodes over the course of her tenure also prompted frustration among Trump’s allies and some White House officials.
Here are key moments in the rise and fall of Kristi Noem.
Spring 2024: The beginning of Noem’s political evolution
Noem appeared on the cusp of a major transformation.
After Republicans suffered losses in the 2022 midterm elections, she told The New York Times that she did not believe Trump offered “the best chance” for the party in 2024.
But she then worked to gain favour with him, deploying the National Guard to the border and endorsing him before many other Republican governors. She was front and centre in an ad promoting her cosmetic dental work that some saw as a move to catch Trump’s attention, even as it drew legal scrutiny. She was widely seen as a potential pick for vice president.
But she drew criticism from a number of political figures when she defended a story in her autobiography in which she killed a family dog on her farm, to her daughter’s distress.
Noem wrote that she had hoped to train the dog, Cricket, to hunt pheasant, but that she proved “untrainable” and “less than worthless” as a hunting dog. “I hated that dog,” Noem wrote.
The story, which she highlighted to demonstrate her leadership skills and ability to make tough decisions, struck some people as unnecessarily cruel, and shadowed her tenure.
March 2025: A self-promotional approach to running DHS
The Trump administration had just used a wartime law to deport hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to a prison in El Salvador. Noem wanted to see the facility for herself – and wanted to make sure her presence was noticed.
Noem toured the prison, known for its harsh conditions, in a baseball cap emblazoned with an Immigration and Customs Enforcement logo. She also wore a gold Rolex Cosmograph Daytona that sells for about $US50,000. Noem filmed a video during the tour in front of rows of prisoners crowded tightly into bunks behind bars.
It was one of many photo ops that prompted ridicule on social media and among the rank and file of ICE and Border Patrol. Agents objected to her choice to show up to immigration operations in field gear, accusing her of cosplaying, such as an episode in Phoenix in which her bulletproof vest appeared to be improperly secured. Some agents used disparaging names for her, such as “ICE Barbie.”
June 2025: Funding bottleneck at DHS
Noem faced backlash for her handling of the Department of Homeland Security’s non-immigration missions, including delivering grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Trump had already created unease over the future of disaster relief when he mused about shutting FEMA down. But last June, Noem signed off on a rule that required her approval for any expense more than $US100,000.
Noem was slow to sign off on the new spending requests, including projects deemed crucial for national security.
The policy also created a backlog of spending requests from FEMA, including one contract that would provide inspections of an estimated 6 million homes damaged in disasters. And the $US100,000 requirement delayed FEMA’s response to catastrophic floods in central Texas.
June 2025: A senator is handcuffed at a Noem event
Noem was holding a press availability in a federal building in Los Angeles when Senator Alex Padilla, a Democrat from California, interrupted and began questioning mug shots on display behind the secretary.
Padilla, a Mexican immigrant and vocal critic of Trump’s deportation policies, was muscled out of the room by federal agents and handcuffed.
“Sir! Sir! Hands off!” Padilla said as the agents surrounded him.
Padilla later said in an interview that he wanted answers about the administration’s “increasingly extreme” immigration actions, and that he had not been able to get them. Democrats denounced the treatment of Padilla as an escalation in what they said were authoritarian-style actions by Trump and Noem.
Noem later told reporters that she spoke to Padilla after the incident and that they had a “great conversation.”
June 2025: Empowering a fiery new official: Gregory Bovino
After protests raged in Los Angeles following an immigration operation, Noem turned to a little-known border official to take over enforcement in the region.
Gregory Bovino, the head of the El Centro sector of the border dividing California and Mexico, would run immigration operations in Southern California. Soon, images of agents chasing migrants from car washes and parking lots became ubiquitous online. US citizens were getting caught in the dragnet, and allegations of racial profiling were rampant.
The decision to allow Border Patrol to conduct mass immigration operations across the country was unprecedented for an agency primarily charged with handling the country’s borders.
Bovino took his operations to Chicago, New Orleans, Charlotte and Minnesota. In nearly every location, lawsuits and chaotic scenes followed.
Inside DHS, some officials were concerned about the tactics deployed by Bovino, and Noem’s decision to empower him.
Following the shooting of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse, by federal agents in Minneapolis, Bovino left his perch running operations across the United States. He was replaced by Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, who was charged with bringing calm to the region.
January 2026: Labels protesters domestic terrorists
In the hours after agents pinned down and shot Pretti, Noem weighed in with comments that would rapidly accelerate her downfall.
In a news conference, Noem said Pretti had been attempting an act of “domestic terrorism,” and claimed he had brandished a gun. An initial review by US Customs and Border Protection shortly after the shooting found those claims to be untrue, and the episode undermined Noem’s credibility.
Days later, when asked about Noem’s characterisation of Pretti, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, declined to defend it, distancing Trump from the remarks. Days later, Trump himself called Pretti an “agitator and, perhaps, insurrectionist.”
March 2026: Leadership under fire at congressional hearings
Noem’s ouster came after she was grilled by lawmakers on a range of topics during congressional hearings.
She declined to apologise for her description of Pretti and another US citizen killed by federal agents in Minneapolis, Renee Good, as domestic terrorists. She said her statements were informed by “reports from the ground, from agents at the scene.”
Senator John Kennedy, a Republican from Louisiana, grilled Noem about a ProPublica report that her department had spent more than $US200 million on ad contracts, which he said had been steered to her former political consultants. Kennedy described the ads, including one in which she appeared on a horse in front of Mount Rushmore, as wasteful spending meant to boost Noem’s “name recognition.”
Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, who’s retiring at the end of his term, accused Noem of a “failure of leadership.”
And during a House hearing this week, Congressman Sydney Kamlager-Dove, a Democrat from California, alluding to rumours, asked Noem if she had a sexual relationship with her senior adviser, Corey Lewandowski. Noem responded by calling the question “tabloid garbage.”
“This has been something that I have refuted for years, and I continue to do that,” she said at a different point in the hearing. Democrats, she said, attack Republican women by saying “we are either stupid, or we’re sluts.”
She added: “I am neither of those”.
Lewandowski, who ran Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, served at DHS as a special government employee, a role meant to last 130 days a year.