# Kristi Noem Former Governor of South Dakota (2019–2025) and **first Cabinet secretary fired in Trump's second term** — removed as Secretary of Homeland Security on March 5, 2026, just under fourteen months into a tenure defined by the most aggressive immigration enforcement campaign in U.S. history and a parallel cascade of personal and operational controversies. Her departure was political triage: Trump cut her loose to limit damage from a $220M taxpayer-funded ad campaign she had publicly testified Trump personally approved, after which Trump told Reuters he "never knew anything about it." Reassigned to a created-for-her role: **Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas** (a Latin America-facing portfolio with no clear deliverables yet). Her replacement at DHS is Sen. **Markwayne Mullin** (R-OK), confirmed March 23 and sworn in March 24, 2026. ## Background - **Born November 30, 1971**, Watertown, South Dakota. Raised on a family ranch. - Took over the family farm operations after her father's death in a 1994 farm accident. - Completed her bachelor's degree at South Dakota State University in 2012, decades after starting it (her 2008 election to Congress interrupted her studies). - **South Dakota House of Representatives, 2007–2010.** - **U.S. House of Representatives, 2011–2019** (at-large seat). Served on Ways and Means, Armed Services, Agriculture committees. - **Governor of South Dakota, 2019–2025.** Defining national-profile moments: refusing to issue a stay-at-home order during COVID; appearing at Trump's Mt. Rushmore fireworks event July 3, 2020; signing aggressive transgender-care restrictions and abortion bans. ## Pre-DHS reputational damage: the "No Going Back" memoir (April 2024) Noem's 2024 campaign memoir blew up her vice-presidential prospects: - **Cricket the dog.** Noem detailed shooting her 14-month-old wirehaired pointer Cricket in a gravel pit because the dog had killed neighbors' chickens, attacked her, and was — in Noem's framing — "untrainable" and "less than worthless." She wrote: "I hated that dog." She also disclosed killing a "nasty and mean" male goat the same day. - **Fabricated Kim Jong Un meeting.** The book claimed a meeting between Noem and the North Korean dictator that did not occur. Noem withdrew the anecdote when challenged. - **Tribal land disputes.** Multiple South Dakota tribes banned her from their reservations after she publicly accused tribal leaders of personally benefiting from cartel activity. Trump skipped over her for the 2024 VP slot (chose [[JD Vance]]), but tapped her for DHS — a posting that put her in front of cameras as the public face of mass deportation, where the same "I make hard decisions, deal with it" persona was now an asset. ## DHS Secretary tenure (Jan 25, 2025 – Mar 24, 2026) ### What she ran DHS under Noem ran the operational center of the second Trump term's signature initiative. Per DHS's own December 19, 2025 statement: - **622,000 removals** during her tenure - **1.9 million claimed self-deportations** - **TPS terminated for 11 countries**: Afghanistan, Burma, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, South Sudan, [[Syria]], Venezuela - **ICE detention population** rose from ~40,000 (Jan 2025) to ~66,000 (early Dec 2025) — a 65% jump in capacity - **ICE detention facility footprint** expanded by 91% in 2025 (104 additional facilities) - **ICE budget** ballooned to roughly $85B in cumulative authorities — making it the **highest-funded U.S. law enforcement agency in history** She was the political face; [[Todd Lyons]] (Acting ICE Director) and [[Tom Homan]] (border czar) were the operational engines. ### The controversies that ended her The cumulative pattern that produced the firing: 1. **The $220M ad campaign.** A taxpayer-funded DHS ad blitz prominently featuring Noem herself. In February 2026 Senate testimony Noem said Trump had personally approved it; Trump told Reuters he "never knew anything about it." This contradiction was the proximate trigger. 2. **Calling slain U.S. citizens "domestic terrorists."** In January 2026, after **Alex Pretti** — a U.S. citizen — was shot and killed by CBP officers during anti-ICE protests in Minneapolis, Noem publicly characterized Pretti as having committed an act of "domestic terrorism." She refused to retract this in subsequent congressional testimony. The framing was read as a dry run for [[NSPM-7]]'s belief-based domestic-terrorism designation logic applied to dead American citizens. (See the named litigation **Hilton v. Noem**, D. Me., 2:26-cv-00092.) 3. **Misuse of government funds.** Reporting on private luxury jet travel and personal-expense charges. The DHS [[Inspector General]] opened an investigation into contracts Noem personally handled. 4. **Allegations of a relationship with [[Corey Lewandowski]].** Lewandowski was serving in a senior advisory role inside DHS and reporting to her. Noem appeared before Senate Judiciary on the topic. 5. **Constant feuding with peer agency heads.** Per administration sources to NBC News, Noem was in chronic conflict with the heads of CBP and ICE — including [[Todd Lyons]], who would announce his own resignation six weeks after she was fired. 6. **Minneapolis fallout.** The deaths of two American protesters during ICE/CBP city operations triggered the largest sustained backlash to the deportation campaign. By early March 2026 a YouGov poll found **half of Americans supported abolishing ICE** — an inversion of the political polling that had powered Trump's first-term immigration politics. ### Parting praise for San Francisco's mayor Minutes after her firing on **March 5, 2026**, speaking at a police conference in Nashville, Noem praised San Francisco Mayor [[Daniel Lurie]]: "He probably doesn't want me to talk about it a lot... he has been cooperative and we have great conversations," adding that the city was "seeing some dramatic improvements." *(SF Standard)* See [[San Francisco Federal Surge Reversal]]. ### The post-firing housing controversy As of late April 2026 — **seven weeks after her firing** — Noem is still occupying the **[[U.S. Coast Guard]] Commandant's official residence at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling**, a waterfront home assigned to the active CG Commandant. Maryland Rep. (and Coast Guard advocate) characterized her as "living rent-free." This is the kind of grace-period overstay that previous administrations have handled quietly; Noem is doing it loudly. ## The last-morning jet purchases (reported October 2026) On October 4, 2026 the *New York Times* reported that on Noem's final morning at DHS the department bought five jets for about $304 million from [[Daedalus Aviation]], a company chaired by [[William Walters]], who had given $10,000 to a Noem-connected committee in 2024. The purchases included a Boeing 737 MAX converted to a VIP jet for $108 million that Daedalus had bought months earlier for under $90 million. Daedalus's no-bid contract reached about $464 million for ten aircraft, most of them unused. DHS under [[Markwayne Mullin]] said the deal was approved before he was sworn in. Noem called the story "libelous" and demanded a retraction. Full record: [[DHS Daedalus Jet Purchases]]. ## Pattern relevance Noem fits the **"governor → cable-news cabinet" archetype** of [[Trump 2.0]]: a state executive with [[Fox News]] fluency and limited federal-management experience elevated into the operational chain of a mass-deportation campaign that ran far beyond her competence. Her downfall was not the policy — the deportation numbers were the highest in U.S. history — but the inability to compartmentalize personal-brand controversy from the institutional role. The fact that she's the **first Cabinet exit** matters as a pattern marker. Trump 1.0 churned through Cabinet secretaries; Trump 2.0 was widely reported to have insulated his second-term picks via Project 2025 vetting. Noem's firing is the first crack in that insulation. Whether [[Todd Lyons]] subsequent resignation reflects continued churn under Mullin — or an exit timed to escape the same fallout — is a question to watch. ## Doctor Paradox Blog Content - **[The killing of Renee Good](https://doctorparadox.net/renee-good-murder/)** (January 18, 2026) — First-person analysis of the Renee Good shooting, Noem's smear campaign calling Good a "domestic terrorist," and DHS policy violations by the shooting officer. Argues Noem's "ICE Barbie cosplay" response revealed the administration's dehumanizing posture toward civilian casualties. ## See also - [[San Francisco Federal Surge Reversal]] · [[Daniel Lurie]] - [[Markwayne Mullin]] — successor as DHS Secretary (sworn in Mar 24, 2026) - [[Todd Lyons]] — Acting ICE Director under Noem; resigning May 31, 2026 - [[Tom Homan]] — White House border czar; operational counterpart - [[Stephen Miller]] — administration architect of immigration agenda - [[Donald Trump]] - [[ICE]] - [[NSPM-7]] — domestic terrorism framework Noem helped operationalize - [[ICE Home Entry Memo]] — May 12, 2025 directive signed by Lyons during Noem's DHS tenure - [[Project 2025]] - [[Corey Lewandowski]]