Noem out as Homeland Security chief

WASHINGTON (CN) — President Donald Trump on Thursday fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem amid reports that he was furious with the former South Dakota governor’s performance before a pair of congressional panels this week.

In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, the president said Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin would take over as head of the Department of Homeland Security at the end of the month. He thanked Noem, who he said “served us well,” and said she would be moving to a position overseeing a new security initiative the White House plans to unveil this weekend.

Noem’s stock with Trump reportedly plummeted this week after she was grilled by House and Senate lawmakers during a pair of contentious hearings on Capitol Hill. She faced particularly sharp questions from some Republican lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee, who pressed her on her agency’s spending and called her oversight of nationwide immigration enforcement operations a “disaster.”

The president was reportedly angry with Noem after she suggested to Louisiana Senator John Kennedy on Tuesday that Trump had approved a roughly $220 million advertising campaign which the Republican lawmaker noted featured Noem “prominently.”

Kennedy claimed one of the contractors hired for the advertising job was run by the husband of Tricia McLaughlin, a former DHS spokesperson. Noem told the lawmaker that she did not oversee the contract procurement process but said Trump knew the agency was making the ads and that they were “effective.”

“Effective for your name recognition,” Kennedy fired back.

McLaughlin has said that her husband was not involved with the company hired by DHS to produce the advertisements the Louisiana senator referenced.

Noem also found herself on the receiving end of a blistering tirade from North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis, who slammed the secretary for referring to a Minnesota man killed by federal immigration agents as a “domestic terrorist” as well as reports that DHS has repeatedly detained U.S. citizens as part of its mass deportation effort.

“I’m giving you a performance evaluation here,” Tillis fumed. “Time after time after time, I’ve been disappointed.”

Democrats, meanwhile, have for months called for Noem to resign or be fired, pointing most recently to the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, two U.S. citizens shot and killed in Minneapolis by federal immigration agents.

In a statement Thursday, Illinois Senator Dick Durbin called Noem “the face of an unpopular, illegal and outright dangerous” immigration enforcement campaign.

“Our country expressed outrage, she repeatedly lied before Congress and even the president finally conceded she was unfit for the job,” said Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. “Will this Oklahoma senator be any better? We will find out as the Senate exercises its authority under the Constitution to provide advice and consent on this appointment.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called for a broader purge of senior administration officials, naming Attorney General Pam Bondi as someone he wanted to see forced out.

“Kristi Noem is gone. Pam Bondi is next,” Jeffries wrote in a post on X. “Keep the pressure on these extremists.”

Mullin must now be confirmed by his Senate colleagues. And Senate Republicans, for their part, welcomed Trump’s decision to tap the Oklahoma lawmaker for the job. Alabama Senator Katie Britt said she looked forward to supporting his nomination.

“I know from working alongside Markwayne for years that he is up to the job and will carry out President Trump’s agenda to safeguard our homeland and oversee critical agencies like ICE, CBP, FEMA, TSA, CISA, Secret Service and more,” she wrote in a statement.

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham said it was “time for a change” at DHS and said the president “could not have chosen a better candidate” for the top job than Mullin. “He is one of the most prepared people President Trump could’ve picked for the role,” he said. “I know he will hit the ground running on day one.”

In his Truth Social post Thursday, Trump said Mullin “truly gets along well with people” and that he had the “wisdom and courage” required to advance his administration’s agenda. “Markwayne will make a spectacular Secretary of Homeland Security,” he wrote.

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