US Politics
Trump ‘not happy with’ Kristi Noem and mulling short list of replacements: report
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President Donald Trump is “not happy” with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and is mulling a short list of replacements, according to a report.
The president is said to be “frustrated” over testimony Noem gave this week before the House and Senate committees, which one GOP senator described to NBC News as “water boiling over the edge of the pot.”
A main bone of contention for Trump is reportedly about Noem’s testimony that the president signed off on a $220 million ad campaign spending blitz that encouraged migrants to self-deport.
“I never knew anything about it,” Trump told Reuters in a phone interview Thursday after reports about his frustrations with Noem began to circulate.
Trump has not made a final decision on Noem, according to NBC, but has been speaking with Republicans this week “about his displeasure” as he considers potential replacements.
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Noem was grilled by Democrats and Republicans across two days of congressional hearings this week, where she told Republican Sen. John Kennedy that Trump knew about her decision to approve the ad campaign contracts.
“The president approved ahead of time you spending $220 million running TV ads across the country?” he asked at the hearing.
“Yes, sir,” Noem replied. “We went through the legal processes, did it correctly.”
When pressed again whether the president knew Noem was going ahead, she replied, “Yes.”
Kennedy told reporters that he spoke with Trump after the hearing. “The president of the United States called me, and I’m not going to speak for him, folks, but, I would put it this way: his recollection and her recollection are different,” he said.
“I can assure you, he is not happy with her,” an unnamed lawmaker who spoke with Trump this week about Noem reportedly told NBC. “She did horrible in the hearings and has made a lot of errors.”
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson touted Noem’s leadership in response to reports of the president’s frustrations with her.
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“Secretary Noem serves at the pleasure of the President. She is honored to serve the American people and lead DHS,” the spokesperson told NBC. “Under her leadership, we have the most secure border in American history, 3 million illegal aliens left the United States, and we now have the lowest murder rate in 125 years.”
GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told NBC that “time will tell” whether Noem would be replaced.
Those in the running to replace her include Republican senators Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma and Steve Daines of Montana, according to NBC, citing two people familiar with the White House’s thinking.
Noem was questioned by Republicans and Democrats about her response to the fatal shootings of two Americans in Minnesota, who she suggested were “domestic terrorists” in the aftermath of their killings.
Their deaths prompted public outcry and forced Trump to reverse course in Minnesota, where federal immigration agents were carrying out an aggressive immigration crackdown.
The president initially stood by Noem and said he would not ask for her resignation. But his “frustrations have really escalated” this week following her performance at the hearings, according to NBC.
Noem repeatedly declined to apologize for calling Good and Pretti domestic terrorists and instead offered indifferent condolences to their families.
“The fact you can’t admit to a mistake — which looks like, under investigation, is going to prove that Ms. Good and Mr. Pretti probably should not have been shot in the face and in the back,” said Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina.
Tillis, who is not seeking reelection, spent nearly five minutes laying into Noem and her leadership at the agency.
“What we’ve seen is a disaster,” he said.
Alex Woodward contributed to this report
